Date of Birth : Apr 29th 1912
Like many actors, Carlson served in World War II, interrupting his acting career. After returning he found it difficult to win new roles, and his future in Hollywood remained in doubt until 1948. In that year, Carlson was cast in two low-budget film noir releases, Behind Locked Doors and The Amazing Mr. X. Despite this, real success in Hollywood eluded him until 1950, when he co-starred with Deborah Kerr and Stewart Granger in the highly successful jungle adventure film King Solomon’s Mines, shot on location in Africa.
Carlson slowly began to rebuild his career, finding work in the newly emergent science fiction and horror B films of the 1950s. He appeared in a number of horror and science fiction films, including three 3-D films: The Maze (1953) and the classics It Came from Outer Space (1953) with Barbara Rush, The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) with Julia Adams, and The Magnetic Monster. His success in the genre led him to the director’s chair for the 1954 sci-fi film Riders to the Stars, in which he also starred.
In addition to writing and directing various film and television projects, Carlson was also was the star of the television series I Led Three Lives from 1953 to 1956. He was featured in The Helen Morgan Story (1957). His last film was the Elvis Presley/Mary Tyler Moore film, Change of Habit (1969). In the 1958-1959 television season, Carlson portrayed Colonel Ranald Mackenzie in the syndicated western series Mackenzie’s Raiders. His last acting role was in a 1973 episode of CBS’s Cannon detective series starring William Conrad.
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