Carleton Young

Carleton Scott Young
Young in Reefer Madness (1936)
Born
Carleton Scott Young

(1905-10-21)October 21, 1905
Fulton, Oswego, New York, U.S.
DiedNovember 7, 1994(1994-11-07) (aged 89)
Other namesGordon Roberts, Carlton S. Young
OccupationActor
Years active1935–1973
Spouse
(m. 1945)

Captain Carleton Scott Young (October 21, 1905 – November 7, 1994) was an American character actor who was known for his deep voice.[1]

Early years

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Born in Fulton, Oswego County, New York, Young was the second and only surviving child of State Highway Civil Engineer Joseph Henry Young and Minna Emma Pauline "Minnie" Adler. His parents were married September 18, 1897, in Marlborough, Essex, Massachusetts. They were divorced by 1920. Neither ever remarried. Young's elder brother; Reginald Adler Young, lived for 26 days in 1902, and died of an acute infection and convulsions. Young grew up in Syracuse, New York, but was living in Ogden, Utah, with his divorced father by 1930.

Military service

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Young enlisted in the U. S. Army when he was age 35 as a Private in the Air Corps. When he left the service his rank was Captain.

Career

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Young appeared in 235 American television and film roles, with his first being The Fighting Marines (1935). He ended his career in the 1973 television series The Magician, which starred Bill Bixby. He was a member of the John Ford Stock Company.

Film

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Other films in which Young was cast include Reefer Madness (1936), Navy Blues (1937), Dick Tracy (1937), Valley of the Sun (1942), Flying Leathernecks (1951), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), From Here to Eternity (1953), Walt Disney's adaptation of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) as John Howard, and The Horse Soldiers (1959). He also played Billy the Kid's sidekick Jeff Travis in the first five entries in the B-movie Billy the Kid film series from 1940 to 1941.[2]

Portraying a newspaper editor in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), he spoke one of the most famous lines in Western film history: "No Sir, this is the West: When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."[3][4][5] The same year, Young appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959).

Radio

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His radio career included a brief star turn as the title role in a short-lived crime drama, The Whisperer (1951),[6] somewhat loosely derived from the longtime crime hit The Whistler. Young played attorney Philip Gault, whose voice was destroyed in an accident, and who developed a sardonic whisper to compensate until his voice was restored, using a whispering persona to infiltrate the underworld, where he steered unsuspecting mobsters into the clutches of the law as represented by his real identity as a lawyer.

Young's other roles in radio programs included:

Program Role
The Count of Monte Cristo Edmond Dantes[7]
The Adventures of Ellery Queen Ellery Queen[7]: 108 
Front Page Farrell David Farrell[7]: 125 
Hollywood Mystery Time Jim Laughton[7]: 153 
Life Begins Winfield Craig[7]: 198 
Second Husband Bill Cummings[7]: 299 
Stella Dallas Dick Grosvenor[7]: 314 

Television

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Other television programs in which Young was cast include: Schlitz Playhouse of Stars (1951), Boston Blackie (1953), ABC Album (1953), Racket Squad (1953), The Whistler (1954), The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1955), Highway Patrol (1955) "Leave It to Beaver" (1959), and The Donna Reed Show (1959), Wagon Train (1960)

Other activities

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Young had a few interests beyond acting, forming the Los Angeles Smog Corp. to manufacture cans of "Genuine Los Angeles Smog", which reportedly were sold in the "Fun Shop" at Farmers Market. Hal Tamblin was listed as a vice president of the corporation, according to a 1962 item in The Times, and Art Ryon, author of The Times' "Ham on Ryon" column, claimed to be an executive of the whimsical outfit. Salesman Stan Goodman of Baldwinsville, NY, a longtime friend of Mr. Young, and his wife Noel, came up with the idea to sell the city's notoriously polluted air so tourists could take an authentic "slice" of Hollywood back home. Goodman's grandson, attorney Robert C. Goodman of San Francisco, still owns one of the few extant cans of vintage LA smog captured in time by Young's Los Angeles Smog Corp.[8]

Personal life

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Young was married three times. His first wife was Helen Virginia Haberbosch. She was born March 14, 1913, in Los Angeles County, California. She died July 27, 1987, in Arcadia, Los Angeles, California. They were married September 31, 1931, in Santa Ana, Orange, California, and they were divorced before 1935. There is no record of any children born of this union. His second wife is unknown but they were divorced before 1945. From 1945 until his death in 1994 he was married to Ngum Yee "Emma" Hom. Her stage name was Noel Toy AKA the "Chinese Sally Rand". She was born December 27, 1918, in San Francisco, California, USA and died December 24, 2003, in Los Angeles, California, USA They were married on December 20, 1945, in New York City. Noel Toy was an exotic dancer and actress whom he met when he caught her dance act at New York's Latin Quarter, and was smitten.[citation needed] They had no children.

Selected filmography

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References

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  1. ^ Cozad, W. Lee. More Magnificent Mountain Movies. Lake Arrowhead, California: Sunstroke Media. p. 168. ISBN 9780972337236. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
  2. ^ Boggs, Johnny D. (2013). Billy the Kid on Film, 1911-2012. McFarland & Co. p. 38. ISBN 978-0786465552. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
  3. ^ Gallo, Phil (March 30, 2006). "Assume the Position with Mr. Wuhl". Variety. Retrieved February 24, 2019.
  4. ^ Ebert, Roger (December 28, 2011). "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance : review". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved February 24, 2019.
  5. ^ Eyman, Scott (March 2015). Print the Legend: The Life and Times of John Ford. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781476797724.
  6. ^ "The Whisperer". The Digital Deli Too. Archived from the original on May 26, 2014. Retrieved June 8, 2014.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Terrace, Vincent (1999). Radio Programs, 1924-1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows. McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-7864-4513-4.
  8. ^ "For Sale on ebay"
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