Keith Carradine
Keith Ian Carradine (/ˈkærədiːn/ KARR-ə-deen; born August 8, 1949) is an American actor. In film he is known for his roles as Tom Frank in Robert Altman's Nashville, E. J. Bellocq in Louis Malle's Pretty Baby, and Mickey in Alan Rudolph's Choose Me. On television he is known for his roles as Wild Bill Hickok on the HBO series Deadwood, FBI agent Frank Lundy on the Showtime series Dexter, Lou Solverson in the first season of FX's Fargo, Penny's father Wyatt on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, and U.S. President Conrad Dalton on the CBS political drama Madam Secretary.
Keith Carradine
Actor
1969–present
- [1]
-
Hayley DuMond(m. 2006)
4, including Martha Plimpton and Sorel Carradine
- Robert Carradine (brother)
- David Carradine (half-brother)
- Michael Bowen (half-brother)
- Max Henius (great-grandfather)
- Johan Ludvig Heiberg (great-granduncle)
He is a member of the Carradine family of actors that began with his father, John Carradine.
Early life[edit]
Carradine was born in San Mateo, California. He is a son of actress and artist Sonia Sorel (née Henius), and actor John Carradine.[2] His full brothers are Christopher and Robert Carradine, both of whom are actors. His paternal half-brothers are Bruce and David Carradine. His maternal half-brother is Michael Bowen. His maternal great-grandfather was biochemist Max Henius, and his maternal great-grandmother was the sister of historian Johan Ludvig Heiberg.[3]
Carradine's childhood was troubled; he has said that his father drank and his mother "was a manic depressive paranoid schizophrenic catatonic—she had it all."[4] His parents were divorced in 1957, when he was eight 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. Keith said of the experience, "It was like being in jail. There were bars on the windows, and we were only allowed to see our parents through glass doors. It was very sad. We would stand there on either side of the glass door crying."[5] He was raised in San Mateo primarily by his maternal grandmother,[6] and he rarely saw either of his parents.[7] His mother was not permitted to see him for eight years following the custody settlement.[4]
Carradine attended the Ojai Valley School, where he was active in the school's theater department, performing in productions of Aria da Capo and The Madwoman of Chaillot.[6] After high school, Carradine entertained the thought of becoming a forest ranger, and enrolled at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.[6] "I had this idyllic fantasy of sitting somewhere communing with nature and chatting with the bears," he recalled, "[but] I didn't want to have to learn anything."[6] He changed his major to drama after enrolling, but dropped out after one semester and returned to California,[6] moving in with his older half-brother, David, who encouraged him to pursue an acting career, paid for his acting and vocal lessons, and helped him get an agent.[7]
Career[edit]
Stage[edit]
As a youth, Carradine had opportunities to appear on stage with his father in the latter's productions of Shakespeare.[8] Thus, he 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 he started out in the chorus and worked his way up to the lead roles[9] playing Woof and Claude. He said of his involvement in Hair, "I really didn't plan to audition. I just went along with my brother, David, and his girlfriend at the time, Barbara Hershey, and two of their friends. I was simply going to play the piano for them while they sang, but I'm the one the staff wound up getting interested in."[10]
His stage career is further distinguished by his Tony-nominated performance for 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. He won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Foxfire with Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, and appeared as Lawrence in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Imperial Theater. In 2008, he appeared as Dr. Farquhar Off-Broadway in Mindgame, a thriller by Antony Horowitz, directed by Ken Russell, who made his New York directorial debut with the production.[11] In March and April 2013, he starred in the Broadway production of Hands on a Hardbody. He was nominated for the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award for his work.
Personal life[edit]
In 1968, Carradine met actress Shelley Plimpton when they starred in the Broadway musical Hair. She was married to actor Steve Curry, although they were separated; she and Carradine became romantically involved. After Carradine left the show and was in California he learned that Shelley was pregnant and had reunited with Curry. He met his daughter, Martha Plimpton, when she was four years old, after Shelley and Steve Curry had divorced. He said of Shelley, "She did a hell of a job raising Martha. I was not there. I was a very young man, absolutely terrified. She just took that in, and then she welcomed me into Martha's life when I was ready."[4]
Carradine married Sandra Will on February 6, 1982. They were separated in 1993,[19] before Will filed for divorce in 1999.[20] The couple had two children: Cade Richmond Carradine (born July 19, 1982) and Sorel Johannah Carradine (born June 18, 1985).[7] In 2006, Will pleaded guilty to two counts of perjury for lying to a grand jury about her involvement in the Anthony Pellicano wire tap scandal. She hired and then became romantically involved with Pellicano after her divorce from Carradine. According to FBI documents, Pellicano tapped Carradine's telephone and recorded calls between him and girlfriend Hayley Leslie DuMond at Will's request, along with DuMond's parents.[4] Carradine filed a civil lawsuit against Will and Pellicano which was settled in 2013 before it went to trial.[21]
On November 18, 2006, Carradine married actress Hayley DuMond, in Turin, Italy.[22] They met in 1997 when they co-starred in the Burt Reynolds film The Hunter's Moon.[23]