| Leo G. Carroll | |
|---|---|
from the trailer for The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) |
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| Born | Leo Gratten Carroll 25 October 1886 Weedon, Northamptonshire, England, U.K. |
| Died | 16 October 1972 (aged 85) Hollywood, California, U.S. |
| Other names | Leo Carroll |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1912–68 |
| Spouse | Edith Nancy de Silva (1926-1972) (his death) 1 child |
Leo Gratten Carroll (25 October 1886–16 October 1972) was an English-born actor.[1] He was best known for his roles in several Hitchcock films, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Topper.
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Carroll was born in Weedon Bec, Northamptonshire, to William and Catherine Carroll. His Roman Catholic parents named him after the reigning pope Leo XIII. In 1897 his family lived in York, where his Irish-born father was a foreman in an ordnance store. In the 1901 Census for West Ham, London, his occupation is listed as "wine trade clerk". In the 1911 census, he is living at the same address and described as a "dramatic agent".
Carroll made his stage debut in 1912. His acting career was on hold during World War I, when he served in the British Army. He then performed in London and on Broadway.
During the 1920s Carroll had the lead in a successful Broadway play, The Green Bay Tree (based on the novel of the same name by Louis Bromfield), and in 1941 starred with Vincent Price and Judith Evelyn in Patrick Hamilton's Angel Street (Gas Light), which ran for three years at the Golden Theatre on 45th Street in New York City. After the production closed, he starred in the title role in J. P. Marquand's The Late George Apley.
Carroll (who had moved to Hollywood) made his film debut in Sadie McKee (1934). He often played doctors or butlers, but he made notable appearances as Marley's ghost in A Christmas Carol (1938) and as Joseph in Wuthering Heights (1939). In Father of the Bride, he played an unctuous wedding caterer. In the 1951 film The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel he played a sympathetic Gerd von Rundstedt, presenting him as a tragic, resigned figure completely disillusioned with Hitler.
Carroll is perhaps best-known for his roles in six Alfred Hitchcock films: Rebecca (1940), Suspicion (1941), Spellbound (1945), The Paradine Case (1947), Strangers on a Train (1951), and North by Northwest (1959). He appeared in more Hitchcock films than anyone other than Clare Greet (1871-1939) (who appeared in seven) and Hitchcock himself, whose cameos were a trademark. As with earlier roles, he was often cast as doctors or other authority figures (such as the spymaster "Professor" in North by Northwest).
Aside with also appearing with actress Hayley Mills in 1961's The Parent Trap as Rev. Mosby, Carroll is also remembered for his role as the frustrated banker haunted by the ghosts of George and Marion Kerby (sometimes erroneously spelled "Kirby") in the 1950s television series Topper (1953–1956), which also starred Anne Jeffreys, Robert Sterling, and Lee Patrick. Carroll later starred as spymaster Alexander Waverly on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964–1968), echoing his earlier work for Hitchcock. Several U.N.C.L.E. films followed, and a spin-off TV series (The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. in 1966). He was one of the first actors to appear in two different television series as the same character.
In 1972, Carroll died in Hollywood of cancer-induced pneumonia. He was interred in the Grand View Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
Carroll is mentioned in the song "Magdalena" from the 1972 Frank Zappa and the Mothers album Just Another Band from LA.
"the stars that say Jon Provost and Leo G. Carroll together"
Carroll is also mentioned in the song "Science Fiction/Double Feature" in Rocky Horror Picture Show with the lines "I knew Leo G. Carroll, was over a barrel, when Tarantula took to the hills."