Harry Carey Jr.

Henry G. Carey was born on May 16, 1921, in Saugus, the California ranch of his parents, Harry Carey , an early silent movie star, known for his westerns, and as a senator in Knight Without a Sword , and Olive Fuller Golden, also a prolific actress. He grew up there, among horses, and since his parents hired a group of Native Americans, he learned to speak Navajo almost before he did English. As a child he had mud-colored hair, like adobe, so he was nicknamed ‘Dobe’ throughout his life.

In the hard years of World War II, Carey enlisted in the army, and was first assigned to the Pacific front. Although he wanted to stay there throughout the war, his father pulled the strings to have him returned to the United States, under the orders of one of the family’s great friends, a certain John Ford , who had him under his command to shoot movies of propaganda and training for the army.

While in the military, he married his longtime girlfriend, Marilyn Francis Fix, daughter of actor Paul Fix ( Giant , Johnny Guitar ), in 1944. They are approaching 70 years of marriage, and have had four children.

When the war ended, Carey was clear about her true calling: opera. But she failed miserably in her efforts to succeed (although she took classes in New York), so she decided to follow in the footsteps of her parents in the acting world. He debuted with small roles in Rolling Home and Haunted , by Raoul Walsh , but his presence in both was very small, so Harry Sr. interceded with him again, and managed to get Howard Hawks to hire him in a film they were both shooting, nothing less than Red River , where the boy fit as one of the cowboys, who died in the stampede sequence, one of the best. He did not coincide on the screen with his father, who died shortly after the last clapperboard.

Shattered by the shock of this death, John Ford decided to dedicate The Three Godfathers to the memory of whoever was the “luminous star of the early westerns”, and to give his heir one of the three leading roles, the young outlaw William Kearney. “El Chico de Abilene”, along with John Wayne and Pedro Armendáriz .

Since then he became a full member of Ford’s so-called ‘Stock Company’, which recruited him again for titles such as The Invincible Legion , Caravan of Peace , Two Ride Together , Río Grande , Cradle of Heroes , Escala in Hawaii , The Great Combat and above all to play the brother of Vera Miles , in the unforgettable Centaurs of the Desert , where his mother, Mrs. Jorgensen, was the real one, Olive Fuller (in the aforementioned Two Ride Togetheralso came out). Carey wrote a book, “Company of Heroes”, about his experience with John (Wayne and Ford).

With other directors, Carey shot various westerns, such as Caravan to the West or From Hell to Texas , although his reception was much more discreet. She came to repeat ‘río’ with Hawks, in the great Río Bravo , but his sequences remained on the editing table.

After the pleasant experience of playing a rancher in the Spin and Marty series , he specialized in roles for the small screen, especially throughout the 1960s, where he went through some famous titles, such as Perry Mason , Bonanza , El Virginian , and much later he was even seen by The House on the Prairie , Dallas and even by The fantastic car .

From time to time he showed up at the movies, especially when he was recruited by another friend of the ‘Fordian’ circle, Andrew V. McLaglen , who called him for A Lady in Cowboys , Valley of Violence , Oregon Trail , The Brigade of the Devil , The Last Train Robbery , The Expendables , and The Gallows Noose . It would seem that McLaglen was unable to move a finger without ‘Dobe’ walking around.

With other filmmakers he took part in films such as Álvarez Kelly , The Great Jack , Legendary Outlaws , This is how Hollywood began , Mask , and in a multitude of spaghetti-westerns, such as The Gold Race , They Called Him Trinidad and its two sequels, The First Machine Gun from the west etc. In his extensive filmography, the indescribable Billy the Kid vs. Dracula , with John Carradine playing the famous vampire in search of victims in the Far West.

It was active for a long time. From his last stage, his work stands out along with other old glories ( Bette Davis , Lillian Gish , Vincent Price ) in The Whales of August , his veteran sheriff in Tombstone. The legend of Wyatt Earp , his priest in the unfortunate The Exorcist III , his Gremlins grandfather, and especially his cameo, sitting at a table in the saloon, along with other old cowboys, Dub Taylor and Pat Buttram , in Back to the Future III , a true tribute to the old days, of which ‘Dobe’ is an illustrious representative.