--- name: "Richard Carlson" canonical: "https://film.one/person/richard-carlson" roles: ["Actor"] born: "30 April 1912" died: "26 November 1977" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 78 average_as: "actor" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-09-20T02:03:56.576515+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Richard Carlson Actor. Born 30 April 1912 in Albert Lea, Minnesota, USA. Died 26 November 1977. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 30 April 1912, Albert Lea, Minnesota, USA - **Died:** 26 November 1977 - **Active:** 1941–1950 - **Also known as:** Richard Dutoit Carlson - **Average Fi1m score:** 78, as actor, over 2 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1940s 85 (1), 1950s 72 (1) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Carlson_(actor), https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q539982, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0137999/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/67685 ## Streaming the US now - **Amazon Prime Video:** [*The Little Foxes*](https://film.one/film/the-little-foxes.md) (85) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Richard Carlson > A pleasant, unfussy supporting man in the prestige pictures of the 1940s, Richard Carlson found his proper place a decade later: the scientist in the monster film who believes what he has seen. Our two reviews catch him before the turn, and it shows. Richard Carlson's trouble, for most of the 1940s, was that nothing he did on screen was wrong. In William Wyler's *The Little Foxes* (1941) he plays David Hewitt, a newspaperman who is not in Lillian Hellman's play and has been added so that Teresa Wright's Zan has someone to be courted by between scenes. He is perfectly pleasant. She is perfectly pleasant. Every minute they spend together is a minute away from Bette Davis, and we spent those minutes waiting for the door to open again, then felt slightly unfair about it, because he does nothing to deserve the impatience. That is the shape of the early career. He came to films from Broadway, made his debut in *The Young in Heart* (1938), and spent the years up to the war in supporting parts in comedies and dramas, the thinking man who listened well and did not get the girl. Three years in the Navy, from 1943 to 1946, took the momentum out of it, and he came back to more of the same. *King Solomon's Mines* (1950) was the co-starring part that revived him, and our review is candid about what he does with it: as John Goode, the brother, he is decent and forgettable, which is what the part asks. Stewart Granger gets the sour lines about Africa and Hugo Haas gets the menace. Carlson holds the middle and is not remembered. Then the 1950s, and the turn. Science fiction and horror wanted exactly what the prestige pictures had no use for: a man with no vanity who could stand in front of something impossible and take it seriously. He played John Putnam in *It Came from Outer Space* (1953) and Dr David Reed in *Creature from the Black Lagoon* (1954), both for Jack Arnold, and the earnestness that made him easy to look past beside Davis or Granger became the point when he was the one person in the frame who believed his own eyes. We have not reviewed those films and will not judge them at length here, but the reputation they gave him is the right one. On television he was Herbert Philbrick in *I Led 3 Lives* from 1953 to 1956. He directed as well, *Riders to the Stars* (1954) among them, made cheaply and not much helped by its premise. He was clear-eyed about all this. "I was the guy who did not get the girl. I was not going any higher," he said in 1959, and he kept working, in guest television and the occasional film, until 1975. The two films of his we have reviewed are good films that would be no worse without him. Start elsewhere: with a lake, a scientist, and something under the surface that he, alone among the cast, has already decided is real. ## Biography Richard Carlson (29 April 1912 – 25 November 1977) was an American actor, director and screenwriter. Born in Albert Lea, Minnesota, he graduated with a master's degree in English from the University of Minnesota and briefly taught drama there before pursuing a career in theatre and film. Carlson made his screen debut in *The Young in Heart* (1938) and appeared in supporting roles in films including *The Ghost Breakers* (1940), *Hold That Ghost* (1941) and *The Little Foxes* (1941). After serving in the US Navy during the Second World War, he took leading parts in *King Solomon's Mines* (1950), *It Came from Outer Space* (1953) and *Creature from the Black Lagoon* (1954). He also starred in the television series *I Led 3 Lives* (1953–1956) and directed episodes of several series. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) - *King Solomon's Mines* (1950), Fi1m 72, as John Goode — [page](https://film.one/film/king-solomons-mines.md) - *The Little Foxes* (1941), Fi1m 85, as David Hewitt — [page](https://film.one/film/the-little-foxes.md) ## Complete filmography (100) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *3-D Rarities* (2015), as (archive footage) - *The Swiss Family Robinson* (1975), series, Actor - *Freedom 2000* (1974), Actor - *Cannon* (1971), series, Actor - *Change of Habit* (1969), as Bishop Finley - *The Valley of Gwangi* (1969), as Champ Connors - *Lancer* (1968), series, Actor - *The Power* (1968), as N. E. Van Zandt - *It Takes a Thief* (1968), series, as Daniel K. Ryder - *The Doomsday Flight* (1966), as Chief Pilot Bob Shea - *Kid Rodelo* (1966), as Link · Director - *The F.B.I.* (1965), series, as Harold David Dewitt - *Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea* (1964), series, as Mattson - *Della* (1964), as David Stafford - *Burke's Law* (1963), series, as Nels Manning, Dr. Carol Smith - *The Fugitive* (1963), series, as Allan Pruitt — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-fugitive-1963.md) - *Arrest and Trial* (1963), series, as Turner Leigh - *Going My Way* (1962), series, Actor - *The Virginian* (1962), series, as Sheriff Marden, Major Ralph Forrester - *Famous Ghost Stories* (1961), as Tom Stewart (segment 'Tormented') - *Bus Stop* (1961), series, Actor - *Tormented* (1960), as Tom Stewart - *The Aquanauts* (1960), series, as Ross Porter - *Thriller* (1960), series, as Guy Guthrie · Director - *The Detectives* (1959), series, Director - *This Man Dawson* (1959), series, Director - *Men Into Space* (1959), series, Director - *Riverboat* (1959), series, as Paul Drake - *The Man and the Challenge* (1959), series, Director - *Rawhide* (1959), series, as Major Buford - *Johnny Rocco* (1958), Story - *Mackenzie's Raiders* (1958), series, Director - *The Saga of Hemp Brown* (1958), Director - *The Unchained Goddess* (1958), The Writer, Director - *The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays* (1957), as The Fiction Writer - *The Helen Morgan Story* (1957), as Russell Wade - *Perry Mason* (1957), series, as Anthony Fry, Clete Hawley - *Appointment with a Shadow* (1957), Director - *Hemo the Magnificent* (1957), as Mr. Fiction Writer - *Three for Jamie Dawn* (1956), as Martin Random - *Bengazi* (1955), as Insp. Levering - *The Last Command* (1955), as William B. Travis - *An Annapolis Story* (1955), as Introductory Narrator (voice) (uncredited) - *Four Guns to the Border* (1954), Director - *Climax!* (1954), series, as Col. Dobie, Cass Terhgune - *Creature from the Black Lagoon* (1954), as Dr. David Reed - *Riders to the Stars* (1954), as Dr. Jerry Lockwood · Director - *I Led 3 Lives* (1953), series, as Herbert A. Philbrick - *Letter to Loretta* (1953), series, as Larry Carlson, Radio Announcer (voice) · Director - *The Golden Blade* (1953), as Narrator (voice) - *All I Desire* (1953), as Henry Murdoch - *The Maze* (1953), as Gerald MacTeam - *It Came from Outer Space* (1953), as John Putnam - *Seminole* (1953), as Major Degan - *The Magnetic Monster* (1953), as Dr. Jeffrey Stewart - *General Electric Theater* (1953), series, as Archie Hawkins - *I Led Three Lives* (1953), series, as Herbert Philbrick - *Flat Top* (1952), as Lt. (j.g.) Joe Rodgers - *Retreat, Hell!* (1952), as Capt. Paul Hansen - *Whispering Smith vs. Scotland Yard* (1952), as Steve Smith ("Whispering Smith") - *The Blue Veil* (1951), as Gerald Kean - *Schlitz Playhouse of Stars* (1951), series, as Josef Lindquist, Kelly McCall, Lawrence 'Larry' Cameron, Alan Mitchell - *A Millionaire for Christy* (1951), as Dr. Roland Cook - *Valentino* (1951), as William 'Bill' King - *The Sound of Fury* (1950), as Gil Stanton - *King Solomon's Mines* (1950), as John Goode — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/king-solomons-mines.md) - *Lux Video Theatre* (1950), series, as John, Jerry Durrance - *Your Show of Shows* (1950), series, Actor - *Robert Montgomery Presents* (1950), series, Actor - *Studio One* (1948), series, as Harvey Lindfield, Father - *Behind Locked Doors* (1948), as Ross Stewart - *The Amazing Mr. X* (1948), as Martin Abbott - *So Well Remembered* (1947), as Charles Winslow / Charles Winslow Sr. - *Fury in the Pacific* (1945), as Narrator - *The Man from Down Under* (1943), as Nipper Wilson - *Young Ideas* (1943), as Tom Farrell - *For God and Country* (1943), as Tom Manning - *Presenting Lily Mars* (1943), as Owen Vail - *A Stranger in Town* (1943), as Bill Adams - *Sucker Bait* (1943), as Bill - Soldier - *White Cargo* (1942), as Mr. Langford - *My Heart Belongs to Daddy* (1942), as R.I.C. Kay - *Highways by Night* (1942), as Tommy Van Steel - *The Affairs of Martha* (1942), as Jeff Sommerfield - *Fly By Night* (1942), as Dr. Geoffrey Burton - *The Little Foxes* (1941), as David Hewitt — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/film/the-little-foxes.md) - *Hold That Ghost* (1941), as Doctor Jackson - *West Point Widow* (1941), as Dr. Jimmy Krueger - *Back Street* (1941), as Curt Stanton - *No, No, Nanette* (1940), as Tom Gillespie - *Too Many Girls* (1940), as Clint Kelly - *The Howards of Virginia* (1940), as Thomas Jefferson - *The Ghost Breakers* (1940), as Geoff Montgomery - *Beyond Tomorrow* (1940), as James Houston - *Little Accident* (1939), as Perry Allerton - *Dancing Co-Ed* (1939), as 'Pug' Braddock - *These Glamour Girls* (1939), as Joe - *Winter Carnival* (1939), as Professor John Welden - *The Duke of West Point* (1938), as John West - *The Young in Heart* (1938), as Duncan Macrae ## Gallery - ![Richard Carlson](https://film.one/media/person/1232404/gallery-4f0c47d0311d.jpg) Richard Carlson — Barkin, Herman and Associates for Schlitz, the program's sponsor, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Richard_Carlson_1952.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![James Bush and Richard Carlson in Beyond Tomorrow - cropped screenshot (1940)](https://film.one/media/person/1232404/gallery-621d8cab3a0a.jpg) James Bush and Richard Carlson in Beyond Tomorrow - cropped screenshot (1940) — film screenshot (RKO Radio Pictures), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/James_Bush_in_Beyond_Tomorrow_%281940%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Still withy Richard Carlson and Susan Peters in the American comedy film Young Ideas (1943), publicity portrait by Clarence Sinclair Bull.](https://film.one/media/person/1232404/gallery-da5f5ff50a16.jpg) Still withy Richard Carlson and Susan Peters in the American comedy film Young Ideas (1943), publicity portrait by Clarence Sinclair Bull. — Clarence Sinclair Bull, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Richard_Carlson_and_Susan_Peters.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Lobby card for the American romantic comedy film Dancing Co-Ed (1939).](https://film.one/media/person/1232404/gallery-62998fbd3915.jpg) Lobby card for the American romantic comedy film Dancing Co-Ed (1939). — MGM, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/The_Dancing_Co-Ed_lobby_card.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Richard Carlson](https://film.one/media/person/1232404/gallery-683709b14eec.jpg) Richard Carlson — Image via TMDB - ![Richard Carlson](https://film.one/media/person/1232404/gallery-fcd9db332e5d.jpg) Richard Carlson — Image via TMDB - ![James Bush and Richard Carlson in Beyond Tomorrow - cropped screenshot (1940)](https://film.one/media/person/1232404/gallery-5c0cd53799b3.jpg) James Bush and Richard Carlson in Beyond Tomorrow - cropped screenshot (1940) — film screenshot (RKO Radio Pictures), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/James_Bush_and_Richard_Carlson_in_Beyond_Tomorrow_%281940%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/richard-carlson