Harry Carey

American actor and cowboy Harry Carey (1878-1947) was one of the silent film's earliest superstars. Carey often played in films by D.W. Griffith and starred in John Ford's feature debut, Straight Shooting (1918). It was the first of their 27 films together. He was the father of Harry Carey Jr., who was a prominent character actor.


Spanish collectors card by La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, no. 26. 'Cayena' refers to Carey's character Cheyenne Harry.


French postcard by A.N., Paris, in the series Les Vedettes de Cinéma, no. 6. Photo: Universal Film / Roman Freulich, no. 203.


Belgian postcard by Edition de la Chocolaterie Lecocq, Brussels, no. 66. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Harry Carey and Mutia Omoolu in Trader Horn (W.S. Van Dyke, 1931). Caption: Aloysius Horn and his loyal Renckero in a scene from the film Trader Horn.

Carey's rugged frame and weather-beaten face

Harry Carey was born Henry DeWitt Carey II in the Bronx, New York, in 1878. He was a son of Henry DeWitt Carey, a prominent lawyer and judge of the New York Supreme Court, and his wife Ella J. (Ludlum). He grew up on City Island, Bronx. Carey's love of horses was instilled in him at a young age as he watched New York City's mounted policemen go through their paces in the 1880s.

Carey attended Hamilton Military Academy and then studied law at New York University. At 21, he had a boating accident that led to pneumonia. While recuperating he wrote a play,' Montana', about the Western frontier. He decided to star in his own creation and the play was very successful. Audiences were thrilled when Carey brought his horse onto the stage. He toured the country performing in it for three years and earned a lot of money, but his fortune evaporated after his next play, 'Heart of Alaska' (1909) closed after only 16 performances.

His friend Henry B. Walthall introduced him to legendary director D.W. Griffith, with whom Carey would make many films. His first credited picture is Bill Sharkey's Last Game (D.W. Griffith, 1909). Memorable is The Musketeers of Pig Alley (D.W. Griffith, 1912), in which Carey played a hood in the 'hoods of New York. Carey followed Griffith to Hollywood and appeared in his The Battle at Elderbush Gulch (D.W. Griffith, 1913) with Lillian Gish, and Judith of Bethulia (D.W. Griffith, 1914).

Carey's rugged frame and weather-beaten face were well suited to Westerns. One of his most popular roles was as the good-hearted outlaw Cheyenne Harry. In most of the films, his co-stars included the teen-aged Olive Golden (from 1920: Olive Carey) as the love interest and Hoot Gibson as his young sidekick. The Cheyenne Harry franchise spanned two decades, from A Knight of the Range (Jacques Jaccard, 1916) to Aces Wild (Harry L. Fraser, 1936).

Olive Golden introduced him to future director John Ford. Carey influenced Universal Studios head, Carl Laemmle, to use Ford as a director. Jon C. Hopwood at IMDb: "The first Carey-Ford collaboration was Straight Shooting (John Ford, 1917), an entertaining if crude (by today's standards) western, most notable for Carey's performance." The partnership lasted until a rift in the friendship in 1921.


Spanish collectors card by Escenas selectas de cinematografia, series A, no. 12. 'Cayena' refers to Carey's regular character 'Cheyenne Harry'. There is no Carey film with Loyalty (Lealtad) in the title.


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 90. Photo: Paul Grenbeaux, L.A.

True portrayals of the West

When sound films arrived, Harry Carey displayed an assured, gritty baritone voice that suited his rough-hewn screen personality. He was the logical choice for the title role in MGM's outdoor jungle epic Trader Horn (W.S. Van Dyke, 1931). By this time Carey, already in his fifties, was too mature for most leading roles, and the only starring roles that he was offered were in low-budget Westerns and serials.

He soon settled into a comfortable career as a solid, memorable character actor. He reunited with John Ford for The Prisoner of Shark Island (John Ford, 1936). It was the last of their 27 pictures together.

Carey received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the President of the Senate in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra, 1939). Among his other notable later roles were that of Sgt. Robert White, crew chief of the bomber Mary Ann in Air Force (Howard Hawks, 1943) and Mr. Melville, the cattle buyer, in Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948).

Carey made his Broadway stage debut in 1940 in 'Heavenly Express' with John Garfield. Harry Carey married at least twice and perhaps a third time (census records for 1910 indicate he had a wife named Clare E. Carey, and some references state that he was also married to actress Fern Foster). His last marriage was to actress Olive Fuller Golden in 1920. They were together until his death. They purchased a large ranch in Saugus, California, north of Los Angeles.

Their son, Harry Carey, Jr., would become a character actor too, most famous for his roles in Westerns. Father and son both appear (albeit in different scenes) in Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948), and mother and son are both featured in The Searchers (John Ford, 1956). Harry Carey died in 1947 from a combination of lung cancer, emphysema, and coronary thrombosis, at the age of 69. Ford dedicated his remake of 3 Godfathers (John Ford, 1948) "To Harry Carey--Bright Star Of The Early Western Sky."

Jon Hopwood at IMDb: "Carey did not dress as flashily as Ken Maynard or the great Tom Mix, and his films were often true portrayals of the West instead of Mix's flashy hoss operas. Good with a physical business, particularly involving his hands, Carey developed signature gestures such as the way he sat on a horse, a semi-slouch with his elbows resting on the saddle horn. Another signature was his holding his left forearm with his right, a physical gesture that in the elocutionary style of stage melodrama and the early silents signalled thoughtfulness, but which Carey made uniquely his own." John Wayne paid homage to Carey when he held his right elbow with his left hand in the closing shot of The Searchers (John Ford, 1956).


Dutch postcard, no. 169. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Harry Carey, Edwina Booth and Duncan Renaldo in Trader Horn (W.S. Van Dyke, 1931).


Dutch postcard, no. 171. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Harry Carey in Trader Horn (W.S. Van Dyke, 1931). 'Carey' is mistakenly written on the card as 'Carry'.


Dutch postcard, no. 178. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Duncan Renaldo in Trader Horn (W.S. Van Dyke, 1931).

Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Jim Beaver (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.