Harry Carey, Jr., the character actor who appeared in a number of director John Ford’s classic westerns co-starring alongside John Wayne, has died in a hospice facility on December 27 in Santa Barbara. He was 91.
The son of silent-film Western star Harry Carey Sr. and actress Olive Carey, Carey was featured i such Ford classics as She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, The Searchers, The Long Gray Line and Mister Roberts. For the 1950 western Rio Grande, Carey and co-star Ben Johnson learned a trick known as “Roman Riding,” in which they stood simultaneously on two galloping horses. In 1994, Carey published his memoirs about working with Ford titled Company of Heroes: My Life as an Actor in the John Ford Stock Company.
Carey also made four films with Howard Hawks, Red River, Monkey Business, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Rio Bravo, though his scenes were cut from Rio Bravo.
From 1955 to 1957, Carey appeared in the popular “Spin & Marty” segments on The Mickey Mouse Club.
Late in his career, Carey was remembered by directors who were fans of his earlier work and cast in such films as Gremlins and Back to the Future Part III.
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