What was John Carradine’s net worth at the time of his death?
John Carradine, nicknamed “The Voice,” was one of the American theater’s finest talents who had a net worth of $300,000 at the time of his death. He gained fame for appearing in low-budget horror movies, usually playing diabolical or mad characters. He portrayed Count Dracula three times.
He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6240 Hollywood Blvd.
He was born on February 5, 1906, in New York City, as Richmond Reed Carradine.
He had changed his name to John Carradine in 1935.
His mother was a surgeon, while his dad, William Reed Carradine, was a printer, poet, attorney, and correspondent for the AP, who passed away at the age of 37.
After high school, Carradine worked as an artist for five years.
Acting Debut
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Carradine’s acting debut (credited) was in the 1930 film Tol’able David. In the same year, John appeared in Bright Lights.
In 1931, Carradine portrayed Chicken Sam in the drama Heaven on Earth, while in 1932, he appeared in Forgotten Commandments and The Sign of the Cross.
John Carradine in a scene from the film ‘Mary Of Scotland’, 1936 – @Getty
1933 was a better year for Carradine. He appeared in Morning Glory, The Story of Temple Drake, This Day and Age, To the Last Man, and The Invisible Man.
In 1936, he became a member of John Ford Stock Company.
JOHN CARRADINE in THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF WYATT EARP – “The Fugitive” – Airdate: November 17, 1959 – @Getty
“You had to know how to handle him,” Carradine said about John Ford. Some of his roles for that year were Sgt. Rankin in The Prisoner of Shark Island, Beauty Smith as White Fang, Sand Diviner in The Garden of Allah, and Deputy Sheriff Alec Brady in Laughing at Trouble.
Through the years, Carradine played President Lincoln in Of Human Hearts, Danforth in Mr. Moto’s Last Warning, Ben Carter in Frontier Marshal, Caleb Green in Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake, and Dr. Sigmund Walters in Captive Wild Woman.
Wife
On December 31, 1935, Carradine married his first wife, Ardanelle Abigail McCool.
They divorced in 1944.
In 1945, John married Sonia Sorel. The two divorced on May 6, 1957.
John Carradine & Sonia Sorel – @Getty
On August 30, 1957, John Carradine married his third wife, Doris Rich.
They were together until her death on May 18, 1971, when their home in Oxnard burned. It was a burning cigarette that started the fire.
On July 3, 1975. he married Emily Cisneros. This marriage lasted until his death.
Children
Carradine has five sons – Christopher, Robert, Keith, David, and Bruce Carradine.
John Carradine with children Chris, Keith, Bruce, Mike, Robert and David (1979) – @Getty
His son, David Carradine, was an actor known for playing martial arts roles and especially for Kill Bill films. He passed away on June 3, 2009, at the Swissotel Nai Lert Park Hotel, in Bangkok, Thailand.
Keith, Robert, and Bruce also performed in films. Bruce passed away on November 8, 2016.
Christopher became an architect.
Death
John Carradine arriving at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Los Angeles, November, 1970 – @Getty
John Carradine died on November 27, 1988, at Fatebenefratelli Hospital in Milan, at the age of 82.
His last words were, “Milan. What a beautiful place to die.”
In later life, Carradine suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, which causes joint inflammation and pain.
In 2003, Carradine was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame.
Quotes
“If you play Shakespeare, you can play anything.”
“I was a stage actor and proud of it.”
“Directors never direct me. They just let me loose.”
Trivia
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Carradine was good friends with John Barrymore, the grandfather of Drew Barrymore.
“He had his own senses of the macabre,” Carradine told Vincent Price in an interview in 1974. “He owned a vulture which he bought in Chile or in Peru, I think it was, and he used to sit on a bridge in his home up in Tower Road, and they would sit together nose to nose.”
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Net Worth
So, how much was John Carradine worth at the time of his death?
Carradine earned most of his wealth from appearing in over 450 movies over 58 years.
Some of Carradine’s films are – Greatest Heroes of the Bible, Monster in the Closet, The Mouse and His Child, Terror in the Wax Museum, House of the Long Shadows, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, The Legend of Jesse James, The Lady and the Lynchings, Stowaway to the Moon, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals, Hillbillys in a Haunted House, and The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.
Eight of his films are included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress:
- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance;
- The Ten Commandments;
- The Court Jester;
- Johnny Guitar;
- The Grapes of Wrath;
- Stagecoach;
- The Bride of Frankenstein;
- The Invisible Man.
“I never made a lot of money . . . maybe $5,000 a week in films,” he once said.
In one of his most profitable films, “I Escaped from the Gestapo (1943),” Carradine was paid $25K, about $428K today.
He also appeared in over 160 plays in the US and abroad. John often toured as Hamlet in the 1940s.
Therefore, at the time of his death, John Carradine had an estimated net worth of $300,000, about $750,000 today.
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I am Bulgarea Candin Stefan, and I founded FamousPeopleToday.com in 2018. I’m using my bachelor’s degree in economics and 9 years of experience in blogging to guide millions of people through the incredibly complex world of celebrity net worths.