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Alan Carney

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Alan Carney
Carney in Mr. Lucky (1943)
Born
David John Boughal

(1909-12-22)December 22, 1909
Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
DiedMay 2, 1973(1973-05-02) (aged 63)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)Actor, comedian
Years active1941–1973
Spouse(s)Elinor D. Miller
m. 1936; div. between 1947 and 1953

Alan Carney (born David John Boughal; December 22, 1909 – May 2, 1973) was an American actor and comedian.

Early life and career

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Born David John Boughal in Manhattan on December 22, 1909,[1][2][a] Carny was the youngest of four children born to Irish immigrants Ellen "Nellie"—née Kearney—and Edward Francis Boughal.[2][4][5][6] At some point between 1920 and 1929, the family relocated to Brooklyn.[7][8][9]

Upon finishing high school, Boughal began working in his father's print shop. Despite this fact, and despite his father's clearly expressed wishes, following in the latter's footsteps was never his intention. Instead, he hoped to become an actor. He began imitating customers of the shop, much to their dismay. He eventually appeared in an amateur night program, which resulted in his being added to a vaudeville act at Proctor's Theater in Yonkers, New York.[10] By this time, the aspiring performer had traded in his potentially problematic birth name for a slightly Americanized version of his mother's maiden name.[11] When the show's headliner, Marion Eddy, went on tour, it was Alan Carney that accompanied her.[10]

After performing in vaudeville for several years, Carney made the transition from stage to screen in 1943,[b] in the RKO Radio Pictures production, Gildersleeve's Bad Day.[17] As to how exactly this came to pass, there are at least two slightly varying published accounts, both involving Carney's discovery by film producer David Hempstead. The first, published in March 1943 by the St. Louis Post Dispatch, maintains that Hempstead, by mere happenstance, had caught Carney's act at the Crystal Terrace Room of St. Louis's Park Plaza Hotel and been sufficiently impressed to leave both his calling card and a standing invitation to come visit him in Hollywood, adding that Carney had eventually taken Hempstead up on the offer, leading to an extended RKO contract, and eventually his breakthrough performance as Cary Grant's bodyguard "Crunk" in the 1943 romantic comedy, Mr. Lucky.[10][c]

1943 also saw the pairing of Carney with comic Wally Brown as RKO's answer to Abbott and Costello.[18] In addition to their inexpensive starring vehicles, Brown and Carney co-starred in Step Lively, a musical remake of the Marx Brothers film Room Service, featuring George Murphy in the "Groucho" role, with Brown & Carney as his assistants.[19] The comedy team was also featured on a live USO tour arranged by the studio.[20]

After 1946's Genius at Work, RKO terminated the team's contracts.[21] Alan Carney continued in films and television as a supporting player, working prolifically for Walt Disney the 1960s and 1970s. One of Carney's best latter-day roles was as Mayor Dawgmeat in the 1959 musical film Li'l Abner. On television he played Harry Nolan in "Have Gun Will Travel" S1 E32 "The Five Books of Owen Deaver" which aired 4/25/1958.

Carney appeared with Wally Brown in Who Was That Lady? (1960) and in Walt Disney's The Absent-Minded Professor (1961), but they never appeared in the same scenes together. The duo was slated to be reunited for It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), but Brown died not long before filming began.

Carney made his last film appearance in Walt Disney Productions' Herbie Rides Again, released in 1974 after his death.[17]

Personal life and death

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In 1936, Carney married Elinor D. Miller.[10][22] They divorced sometime between 1947 and 1953.[23][24]

Carney died in Van Nuys, California, on May 2, 1973, at age 63, from a heart attack brought on by the excitement of winning the daily double at Hollywood Park Racetrack.[25]

Filmography

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Notes

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  1. ^ The actor's own resumé gave his real surname as Bougal and his birthdate as December 22, 1911.)[3]
  2. ^ The issue of exactly when and in which film Carney made his motion picture debut has long been muddied by one critical error made at the time of his death by several of the nation's most widely trusted news sources at the time (namely, United Press International, both the east and west coast papers of record, plus the publication often dubbed the entertainment industry's "trade paper of record"[12]), all of whom, in their respective obits, erroneously—and prominently—credit the late actor with appearances in two wholly British-made, early-forties wartime productions, 1940's Convoy and 1942's famously Noel Coward-penned, David Lean-filmed flag-waver, In Which We Serve,[13] [14][15] both of which in fact feature the like-named British comic character actor, George Carney.[16]
  3. ^ The second account, published just prior to Mr. Lucky's release, maintains that their initial encounter was in fact arranged by RKO talent scout Arthur Willi, and promptly made Carney "the answer to producer David Hempstead's prayer for a hoodlum with a soul."[11]

References

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  1. ^ "New York, New York City, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1940-1947", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:W71Y-QSPZ : Sat Mar 09 04:01:28 UTC 2024), Entry for David John Boughal and Actor.
  2. ^ a b "United States, Census, 1910", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M5WP-8P3 : Thu Jan 16 13:01:02 UTC 2025), Entry for Edward P and Elizabeth Boughal, 1910.
  3. ^ The 1946-47 International Motion Picture Almanac, Terry Ramsaye, ed., Quigley Publications, New York, 1946, p. 40.
  4. ^ "New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1938", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:24MV-8RR : Tue Feb 20 20:46:11 UTC 2024), Entry for Edward Boughal and Nellie Kearney, 4 May 1904.
  5. ^ "New York, County Naturalization Records, 1791-1980", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPRH-5YG2 : Fri Mar 08 12:30:33 UTC 2024), Entry for Edward Boughal and Ellen Kearney, 1915.
  6. ^ "United States, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7XYX-3PMM : Fri Nov 22 20:43:32 UTC 2024), Entry for Edward Francis Boughal and Ellen Boughal, from 1917 to 1918.
  7. ^ "United States, Census, 1920", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MJY1-1B5 : Mon Jan 20 01:54:32 UTC 2025), Entry for Edward Boughil and Nellie Boughil, 1920.
  8. ^ "Social Notes: St. Michael's Play". Brooklyn Times Union. January 29, 1929. p. 9. "A musical comedy, entitled 'True Blue,' a play about college life, will be presented by the members of the Micardian Dramatic Society of St. Michael's R. C. Church, Fourth avenue and Forty-second street. [...] In the dance ensembles will be seen the Misses Mary Cody, Betty O'Neil, Mary Purcell, Rita Bushey, Helen Rogers, Florence Peters, Anna Rooney, Rosemary Gorman and Edward R. Matthews, Stuart F. Moore, William J. Redden, Edward J. Boughal, David J. Boughal"
  9. ^ "United States, Census, 1930", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X4N1-4LQ : Sun Mar 10 06:00:30 UTC 2024), Entry for Edward F Boughal and Ellen K Boughal, 1930.
  10. ^ a b c d Niemeyer, Harry Jr. (March 7, 1943). "Discovered In St. Louis". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Everyday Magazine. p. 2 H. Retrieved April 2, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ a b Wright, Virginia (June 23, 1943). "Entertainment: Virginia Wright". Los Angeles Daily News. p. 1. Retrieved April 3, 2025. "It was this urge to act which forced Carney to run away from home at the surprisingly mature age of 23. But it was the only way he could convince his father, Ed Boughal, that he didn't want to follow in his footsteps and be a printer. He took his mother's name of Carney when he broke away."
  12. ^ Smith, Jacob; Verma, Neil, ed. (2016). Anatomy of Sound: Norman Corwin and Media Authorship. Oakland, CA: University of California Press. p. 57. ISBN 9780520285323. "'No one doubts the educational value of the Corwiniana in the offing,' reported Variety, which could never resist coining a neologism, but the word educational was seldom a compliment in the trade paper of record." See also:
    • Sikov, Ed (2002). Mr. Strangelove : A Biography of Peter Sellers. London : Sidgwick & Jackson. p. 259. ISBN 0283072970. "Variety noted that Gershwin and Kastner vehemently denied the whole thing. No, the producers categorically stated in Hollywood’s trade paper of record; they had made Peter’s deal for The Bobo (1967) directly with Harvey Orkin."
    • Morrison, James (2018). Auteur Theory and My Son John. New York: Bloombury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5013-1174-1. "Tracing the word 'auteur' from the 1960s through the 1990s in Variety, the industry's trade paper of record, is an instructive exercise."
  13. ^ United Press International (May 4, 1973). "Deaths Elsewhere: Alan Carney". The Cincinnati Post. p. 22. Retrieved April 4, 2025. "Carney, 63, made his stage debut in the Broadway production of 'Fanny' and his film credits include 'Li'l Abner,' 'Convoy,' and 'In Which We Serve.'"
  14. ^ "Alan Carney; Film, Stage Comedian". The Los Angeles Times. May 4, 1973. p. 22. Retrieved April 4, 2025. "Other credits included 'Li'l Abner,' in which he took the role of Mayor Daugmeat, 'Convoy,' 'The Pretender' and 'In Which We Serve.'"
  15. ^ UPI (May 9, 1973). "Obituaries: Alan Carney". Variety. p. 255. ProQuest 963271858. Alan Carney, film and stage comedian, died May 2 of a heart attack at the Hollywood Park racetrack, Van Nuys, Calif., after winning a daily double. He started in vaudeville and at one time did an act with Wally Brown, which toured the major circuits in the 1930s and 1940s. Carney shifted to film work afterward and was under contract to RKO and later the Disney Studios. He had film roles in 'Li'l Abner,' 'Convoy,' 'In Which We Serve,' and in his final film assignment, 'It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.'
  16. ^ Parish, James Robert (1990). The Great Combat Pictures : Twentieth-Century Warfare on the Screen. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow. pp. 97, 230. ISBN 0-8108-2315-2.
  17. ^ a b Alan Carney Filmography. AFI Catalog. Retrieved April 3, 2025.
  18. ^ Erickson, Hal (2012). Military Comedy Films: A Critical Survey and Filmography of Hollywood Releases Since 1918. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-7864-6290-2. "The most transparent of all the Abbott & Costello/Buck Privates imitations was perpetrated by RKO Radio Pictures in 1943. [...] As for their Abbott & Costello clones, all RKO had to do was find a pair of seasoned vaudevillians who bore an approximate likeness to Bud and Lou. The men needed were the men found: Wally Brown and Alan Carney."
  19. ^ Trainor, Sebastian (Spring 2008). "'IT SOUNDS TOO MUCH LIKE COMRADE': THE PRESERVATION OF AMERICAN IDEALS IN ROOM SERVICE". The Journal of American Drama and Theatre. pp. 29–48, 142. ProQuest 197723783. In 1938 the farce was filmed with the Marx Brothers as its new stars. Then, in 1944, during the closing phases of World War II, it was adapted into a movie musical—with the new title, Step Lively—featuring a young Frank Sinatra crooning in a leading role, and future Republican U.S. Senator George Murphy as the star. [...] STEP LIVELY, based on the stage play Room Service by John P. Murray and Alien Boretz. Screenplay by Warren Duff and Peter Milne. [...] Released by RKO Studios on Friday, July 28, 1944.
    Shoestring Producer [Gordon Miller] ..... George Murphy
    Asst. to the Producer [Harry] ............. Alan Carney
    Play Director [Binion] ..................... Wally Brown
  20. ^ "HVC Sends Stars To Nearby Projects". The Hollywood Reporter. December 28, 1943. p. 3. ProQuest 2298680416. Adding to the list of Hollywood personalities scattered all over the nation on holiday tours to visit servicemen, more than a score of players were set yesterday by the Hollywood Victory Committee and USO-Camp Shows, Inc., for hospitals and camps in the Southern California area. One group, with Harpo Marx, Frances McCann, Wally Brown, Alan Carney and Lorraine Kruger, is spending the week in the San Diego area, with Cary Grant scheduled to join the troupe Dec. 29 and 30.
  21. ^ Erickson, op. cit., p. 104. "After Genius at Work in 1946, RKO dissolved the team of Brown and Carney; the two comedians went their separate ways."
  22. ^ "Applications for Marriage Licenses". The Philadelphia Inquirer. May 23, 1936. p. 21. Retrieved April 3, 2025. "Elinor D. Miller, 22, 3606 Fairmount Ave., and David J. Boughal, 26, Brooklyn."
  23. ^ "Social and Personal". The Windsor Star. June 20, 1947. p. 29. "Miss Terry Tomolillo of Louis avenue returned by plane from Hollywood, California, she spent the past month as the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Alan Carney of Laurel Canyon drive, North Hollywood."
  24. ^ Obituary: Elinor Carney Wilson. Los Angeles Daily News. September 13, 2003. Retrieved April 3, 2025. "Elinor married Alan Carney, the noted comedian, actor and screenwriter in the early 1940’s after enjoying a career as a dancer with the Rockettes and the Sally Rand Chorus in New York. After a divorce she married Alan Wilson, also a comedian and writer, in 1953."
  25. ^ "Alan Carney Dies. Comedian Was 63". The New York Times. May 5, 1973. Retrieved 2015-02-10. Alan Carney, film and stage comedian who was at one time under contract to both R.K.O. and Disney Studios, died Wednesday of a heart attack after having won the daily double at Hollywood Park.
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