Carlson was the son of a Danish-born lawyer[1] who lived in Albert Lea, Minnesota.[2] He majored in drama at the University of Minnesota, where he wrote and directed plays and was a member of the society Phi Beta Kappa.[3] He graduated cum laude with a Master of Arts degree, a scholarship prize of $2500, and an invitation to join the faculty. He declined the job offer, fearing it would create a dull future, but used the $2500 to open his own repertory theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He wrote, produced, directed, and acted in three plays—which used up the $2500. When the theater failed, Carlson relocated to California to join the Pasadena Playhouse, and then to New York for the Broadway stage.[4]
Career
In 1935, Carlson made his acting debut on Broadway in the play Three Men on a Horse. A talent scout for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer spotted him, and he was signed to a movie contract. He appeared in only one film, Desert Death (1935), a "Crime Does Not Pay" short subject in which Carlson, uncredited, appeared as the film's announcer, "the MGM crime reporter".
After this assignment, Carlson walked away from his movie contract. MGM required its younger players to take an extensive, time-consuming training course, described by Carlson's fellow MGM rookie Pinky Tomlin as "star school... 25 hours a day, eight days a week";[5] Tomlin declined the regimen and the contract to pursue his musical career, and it is likely that Richard Carlson also dropped out to continue his dramatic career. He returned to the stage, taking a role in a Chicago production of Night of January 16. (Carlson's brief stay at MGM is omitted from the studio biography published in 1944; the story cites Carlson's screen debut as 1938.)
He was featured in Brock Pemberton's play Now You've Done It (1937) and appeared with Ethel Barrymore in Ghost of Yankee Doodle (1937–38). In 1938 he wrote and staged the play Western Waters starring Van Heflin, which played for only seven performances. He then rejoined Ethel Barrymore for Whiteoaks (1938).[6]
He starred in the educational science film The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays, directed by Frank Capra for the acclaimed Bell Telephone Series in 1957.
Throughout the 1950s Richard Carlson pursued both acting in and directing motion pictures: The Last Command (1955), Bengazi (1955). and The Helen Morgan Story (1957). In 1957 and 1958, Carlson played "Mr. Fiction Writer" in three of the nine educational features made for television collectively titled The Bell Laboratory Science Series. He also directed his final movie for the project, The Unchained Goddess.
In 1957 he was cast as two different clergymen, Rabbi Avraham Soltes and Father William Wendt, in the episodes "The Happy Gift" and "Call For Help", respectively, of the syndicated religious anthology series, Crossroads.
Mackenzie's Raiders
In 1959, Carlson was cast as Paul Drake in "The Faithless" of the NBC western television series Riverboat, with Darren McGavin. In the story line, Drake is an escaped prisoner with medical training being transported on the river vessel, the Enterprise, back to jail. Having lost his religious faith, Drake refuses to render medical assistance to a two-year-old girl stricken with a communicable disease which threatens the entire vessel. William Phipps and Jeanne Bates play the parents of the child. Bethel Leslie portrays Cathy Norris.[15]
In the final two seasons of CBS's Perry Mason, Carlson made two guest appearances, both times as the murder victim. In 1964 he played Anthony Fry in "The Case of the Tragic Trophy;" in 1966, he played Clete Hawley in "The Case of the Avenging Angel."
^Edwin Schallert, Los Angeles Times, "Political Subject Next on Capra Slate: 'Career Man' Planned, Sheehan May Sign Janet Woods Back in Films, 'West Point' Cast Set", Sept. 22, 1938, p. 19.
^Thomas M. Pryor, New York Times, "Leo M'carey, Fox in 3-Picture Deal: Director-Producer's First Is 'Marco Polo'--Paramount Signs Miss Bel Geddes, Widmark Will Be Outlaw", Sept, 21, 1957, p. 23.
