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CARLSON, RICHARD (1912–1977). American actor.
Directed: Riders to the Stars
(also appeared in) (1954); episodes of Men into Space (1959–1960);
"Choose a Victim" (1961), episode of Thriller.
Co-wrote with Ivan TORS: Island of
the Lost (tv movie) (1968).
Unfortunately, this transcendent
performance came when Carlson was already forty-one years old and, one
suspects, already starting to feel a bit old and tired, content to be selective
in expending his energies on the set. Only looking up to the stars could truly
inspire Carlson, so that his only other memorable roles came in Riders to
the Stars, which he directed and acted in with desperate conviction, as if
genuinely convinced that the film's silly mission to capture meteorites and
study how they survived their passage through the atmosphere had meaning if
viewed as a necessary prelude to humanity's conquest of space, and in an
episode of Bell Science Series, "The Strange Case of the Cosmic Ray,"
still the mostly delightfully dramatized science documentary in the history of
the genre. When his gaze was fixed on the ground, he just didn't seem to care
as much; thus, he was merely competent in The Magnetic Monster and Creature
from the Black Lagoon, and he appeared discomfited amidst the shenanigans of
The Maze and Tormented.
Prior to his successes in the 1950s, Carlson had been acting in Hollywood
for fifteen years, gaining little notice for playing the male ingenue
in Bob Hope and Abbott and Costello haunted-house comedies and other supporting
roles. One might think that, after excelling in his cosmic encounters
of the 1950s, Carlson would specialize in the genre, but a newfound desire
to direct drove him into low-budget westerns and crime dramas, and when
he belatedly return to science fiction for small roles in The Power
and The Valley of Gwangi, he seemed completely drained, a shadow
of his former self. His last decent performance came in Rod SERLING's
The Doomsday Flight, a television film that may never be shown
again due to fears then and now that it would inspire hijackers and terrorists.
Fortunately, his other soaring cinematic flights are still available for
viewing today.
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