J. Carrol Naish

Joseph Patrick Carrol Naish (January 21, 1896 – January 24, 1973) was an American actor. He appeared in over 200 films during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

He became a dialect specialist, and was called upon to play character roles of many nationalities, including Southern European (especially Italian), Eastern European, Latin American, Native American, Middle Eastern, South Asian, East Asian, Pacific Islander—even African American, which earned him the moniker "Hollywood's one-man U.N." His own heritage was Irish but he rarely played Irish characters, explaining, "When the part of an Irishman comes along, nobody ever thinks of me."

Naish received two Oscar nominations for his supporting roles in the films Sahara (1943) and A Medal for Benny (1945), the latter of which also earned him a Golden Globe. He was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.

Early life

Naish was born in New York City on January 21, 1896. According to the actor's 1945 resumé, he was educated at St. Cecilia's Academy in New York City, and appeared on stage in Paris and New York before beginning his screen career.

Career

Although he played an uncredited bit role in the silent film What Price Glory? (1926), Naish said his screen career didn't actually begin until 1930, when stage actors were being recruited for the new talking pictures. He became a prolific supporting actor, appearing in more than 200 films. He was twice nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the first for his role as Giuseppe in the movie Sahara (1943), in which he delivers the propaganda speech:

Mussolini is not so clever like Hitler, he can dress up his Italians only to look like thieves, cheats, murderers, he cannot like Hitler make them feel like that. He cannot like Hitler scrape from their conscience the knowledge right is right and wrong is wrong, or dig holes in their heads to plant his own Ten Commandments- Steal from thy neighbor, Cheat thy neighbor, Kill thy neighbor! But are my eyes blind that I must fall to my knees to worship a maniac who has made of my country a concentration camp, who has made of my people slaves? Must I kiss the hand that beats me, lick the boot that kicks me? NO!

The second was for his performance as the title character's Hispanic father in the movie A Medal for Benny (1945). For the latter film, he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture.

He often played villains, from gangsters in numerous Paramount pictures to mad scientists, such as Dr. Daka in Columbia's Batman serial. In this screen adaptation of the comic book, Naish was originally cast as The Joker, but was recast as a Japanese supervillain suitable to the patriotic wartime plotline.

In the 1940s Naish was a supporting character in a number of horror films. He played Boris Karloff's assistant in House of Frankenstein (1944).

On radio, Naish starred as Luigi Basco on the popular CBS program Life with Luigi (1948–1953). Luigi's popularity resulted in a CBS television series of the same name, with Naish reprising his role.

In 1955, Naish originated the role of Alfieri in the one-act, verse version of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge on Broadway, also starring Van Heflin and Eileen Heckart.

In 1957–1958, Naish played the lead role in the television series The New Adventures of Charlie Chan. Speaking in 2023, co-star James Hong said Naish held "a deep prejudice" and in a racist outburst had him fired from the series just because Hong had missed a single line.

Naish worked mostly in guest roles on television through the 1960s; his most recent motion picture credit was from 1964. In 1971, the 75-year-old actor was coaxed out of retirement by producer and horror-film enthusiast Samuel M. Sherman to replace the recently deceased Paul Lukas in a new big-screen thriller, Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971). Naish played a descendant of the original Dr. Frankenstein, who takes to murdering young women for experimentation in hopes of reviving his ancestor's creation. His mute assistant was played by Lon Chaney Jr.. Dracula vs. Frankenstein was the last film of both Naish and Chaney.

Personal life

Naish was married (from 1929 until his death) to actress Gladys Heaney; they had one daughter, Elaine.

Death

Naish retired to San Diego and died of emphysema on January 24, 1973, at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, California, three days after his 77th birthday. He is interred at Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California. For his contributions to television, he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6145 Hollywood Boulevard.

Filmography

Radio broadcasts

References

External links

• J. Carrol Naish at IMDb
• J. Carrol Naish at the Internet Broadway Database