Stardust And Spurs: Exploring Santa Clarita’s Walk Of Western Stars – Keith Carradine.

Saddle up for a trip through entertainment history with a weekly highlight from Santa Clarita’s Walk of Western Stars! This week, actor Keith Carradine!

Keith Carradine was born in San Mateo, California on Aug. 8, 1948 and is the son of actress and artist Sonia Sorel and actor John Carradine.

Carradine’s parents divorced in 1957, when he was 8 years old. A bitter custody battle led to his father gaining custody of him and his brothers, Christopher and Robert, after the children had spent three months in a home for abused children as wards of the court.

Carradine’s childhood was troubled, his father drank and his mother suffered from depression and paranoid schizophrenia.

Carradine was primarily raised by his maternal grandmother and he rarely saw his parents. His mother was not allowed to even see him for eight years following the custody settlement.

Carradine attended the Ojai Valley School, where he was active in the schools theatre department performing in productions of “Aria da Capo” and “The Madwoman of Chaillot.”

After high school, Carradine entertained the thought of becoming a forest ranger and enrolled at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, but not long after changed his major to drama.

Not long after enrolling, Carradine dropped out after one semester and returned to California and moved in with his half-brother, David , who encouraged him to pursue an acting career by paying for his acting and vocal lessons as well as helping him get an agent.

As a youth, Carradine had opportunities to appear on stage with his father in the latter’s productions of Shakespeare.

Thus, Carradine had some background in theater when he was cast in the original Broadway run of “ Hair” (1969), which launched his acting career.

In that production the actor started out in the chorus and worked his way up to the lead roles playing Woof and Claude.

On Feb 6, 1982 Carradine married his first wife, Sandra Ann Will Carradine, the couple shared two children before divorcing on May 1, 2000.

Carradine’s stage center is further distinguished by his Tony- nominated performance for the Best Actor (Musical) as the title character in the Tony Award-winning musical, “The Will Rogers Follies” in 1991, for which he also received a Drama Desk Award nomination.

The actor won the Outer Critics Award for Foxfire with Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, and appeared as Lawrence in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Imperial Theatre.

On Nov. 18, 2006, Carradine married his second wife Hayley Dumond where the couple share one child and are still currently married.

In 2008, Carradine as Dr. Farquhar Off-Broadway in Mindgame, a thriller by Antony Horowitz, directed by Ken Russel, who made his New York directorial debut with the production.

In March and April 2013, the actor starred in the Broadway production of “Hands on a Hardbody” and was nominated for the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award for his work.

Carradine’s first notable film appearance was the directors Robert Altman’s “McCabe & Mrs. Miller” in 1971.

That same year, he co-starred with Kirk Douglas and Johnny Cash in “A Gunfight” and right after that his next film “Emperor of the North Pole” (1973) later re-released with the shorter title “Emperor of the North.”

Directed by Robert Aldrich, Carradine played a young aspiring hobo in a commentary drama alongside Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine.

The actor then starred in went on to work in Altman’s film “Thieves Like Us” (1974), and going on to play a principal character, the callow womanizing folk singer Tom Frank, in Altman’s critically acclaimed film “Nashville.”

Carradine had difficulty shaking the image of Tom Frank following the popularity of the film. He felt the role gave him the reputation of being “a cad.”

In 1977, Carradine starred opposite Harvey Keitel in Ridley Scott’s “ The Duelists” and “ Pretty Baby” followed in 1978.

Carradine acted in several offbeat films of Altman’s protege Alan Rudolph, playing a disarmingly candid madman in “Choose Me” (1984), an incompetent petty criminal in “Trouble in Mind” (1985) and an American artist in 1930s “Paris in The Moderns” (1988).

The actor appeared with his brothers David and Robert as the Younger brothers in Walter Hill’s film “ The Long Riders “(1980).

In 1994, he had a cameo role as Will Rogers in Rudolph’s film about Dorothy Parker, “Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle.”

The actor co-starred with Darly Hannahas homicidal sociopath John Netherwood in the thriller “The Tie That Binds” (1995).

In 2011, he starred as the Sheriff in “Cowboys and Aliens,” an American science fiction western film directed by Jon Favreau alongside Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde.

Carradine traveled to Tuscany in 2012 to executive produce and star in John Jopson’s Edgar Allen Poe inspired film “Terroir.”

In 2013, he starred in “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints,” which won the 2013 Sundance Film Festival award for cinematography.

In 2016 Keith played Edward Dickison, father of Emily Dickinson, in “ A Quiet Passion ,” a biographical film directed and written by Terence Davies about the life of the American poet.

In 2016, Carradine returned to star in his fourth Alan Rudolh film “Ray Meets Helen,” which was the final screen appearance of Sondra Locke.

Where is Keith Carradine’s Walk of Western Stars Plaque?

Keith Carradine was honored with a plaque on the Walk of Western Stars in 2004. The plaque sits on the east side of Main Street, south of Market Street in front of El Trocadero.

Click here to view last week’s feature.

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