With one notable exception, he never received star billing throughout his career, playing countless patriarchal roles, often politicians, doctors, judges and generals. It gave McCarthy a decent part as a heavy, characteristically playing an important supporting role – this time to Mickey Rooney. His next film, Drive a Crooked Road (1954), scripted by Blake Edwards and directed by Richard Quine, was the kind of tough, low-budget movie that died out during that decade. Despite his success in the film version of Death of a Salesman, a few years passed before he returned to the screen. He first appeared on screen in an uncredited role in George Cukor's patriotic Winged Victory (1944). McCarthy married the actor Augusta Dabney in 1941. He made his Broadway debut in 1938 in the play Abe Lincoln in Illinois, and then served with the military police during the second world war. (Mary McCarthy later became a celebrated critic and author of novels including The Group.) His enthusiasm for the theatre was sparked while studying at the University of Minnesota. He and his siblings, Mary, Preston and Sheridan, were raised by relatives after their parents died from influenza in 1918. All three actors received Oscar nominations. Resuming the role of Biff, he held his own against the awe-inspiring performances of Fredric March as Willy and Mildred Dunnock as Willy's devoted wife, Linda. By the time of the movie, he was a youthful-looking 37, with considerable stage experience. McCarthy had previously played Biff, one of Willy Loman's disillusioned sons, in the London production of Arthur Miller's play, in 1949.
He received his first screen credit in Laslo Benedek's version of Death of a Salesman (1951). As it happened, he preferred to play politicians rather than be one. However mundane the material, it was usually enhanced by his lazy charm and natural elegance, his intriguing baritone voice and unconventional good looks – all attributes that might well have led him down the political path of his cousin, senator Eugene McCarthy. Kevin McCarthy, who has died aged 96, notched up more than 70 years as a working actor on stage and screen, with more than 200 film and TV credits.
0 kommentar(er)
