
Harry Carey
Born January 16, 1878 · The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA
Henry DeWitt Carey II (January 16, 1878 - September 21, 1947) was an American actor and one of silent film's earliest superstars, usually cast as a Western hero. One of his best known performances is as the president of the United States Senate in the drama film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was the father of Harry Carey Jr., who was also a prominent actor. Born in New York City to a Judge of Special Sessions who was also president of a sewing machine company. Grew up on City Island, New York. Attended Hamilton Military Academy and turned down an appointment to West Point to attend New York University, where his law school classmates included future New York City mayor James J. Walker. After a boating accident which led to pneumonia, Carey wrote a play while recuperating and toured the country in it for three years, earning a great deal of money, all of which evaporated after his next play was a failure. In 1911, his friend Henry B. Walthall introduced him to director D.W. Griffith, for whom Carey was to make many films. Carey married twice, the second time to actress Olive Fuller Golden (aka Olive Carey, who introduced him to future director John Ford. Carey influenced Universal Studios head Carl Laemmle to use Ford as a director, and a partnership was born that lasted until a rift in the friendship in 1921. During this time, Carey grew into one of the most popular Western stars of the early motion picture, occasionally writing and directing films as well. In the '30s he moved slowly into character roles and was nominated for an Oscar for one of them, the President of the Senate in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). He worked once more with Ford, in The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936), and appeared once with his son, Harry Carey Jr., in Howard Hawks' Red River (1948). He died after a protracted bout with emphysema and cancer. Ford dedicated his remake of 3 Godfathers (1948) "To Harry Carey--Bright Star Of The Early Western Sky."
Notable Appearances
More Movies

Directed by John Ford

The Sea of Grass

The Shepherd of the Hills

So Dear to My Heart

The Prisoner of Shark Island

The Spoilers

Legends of the West

Air Force

Bare Fists

Barbary Coast

Hollywood: The Dream Factory

Kid Galahad

You and Me

Man of the Forest

Hearts Up

They Knew What They Wanted

Annapolis Salute

The Trail of '98

Golden Saddles, Silver Spurs

My Son Is Guilty

The Musketeers of Pig Alley

Code of the Streets

Buffalo Stampede

The Law West of Tombstone

Valiant Is the Word for Carrie

In the Aisles of the Wild

Sundown

Sundown Slim

The Last of the Clintons

Souls at Sea

Outside the Three-Mile Limit

Tiger Thompson

The Accusing Finger

So Near, Yet So Far

Hell Bent

Among the Living

Desert Driven

Land of Liberty

The Ace of the Saddle

Street of Missing Men

Trader Horn

Racing Lady

The Great Moment

Cavalier of the West

Parachute Battalion

China's Little Devils

A Woman's Fool

Burn 'Em Up O'Connor

Riders of Vengeance

A Cry for Help

Brutality

The Outcasts of Poker Flat

Gateway

Two Daughters of Eve

The Last of the Mohicans

Roped

Good Men and True

The Man from Red Gulch

Beyond Tomorrow

King of Alcatraz

Happy Land

The Burglar’s Dilemma

A Feud in the Kentucky Hills

If We Only Knew

Little Miss Nobody

Canyon of the Fools

Concentration

The Sheriff's Baby

Sunset Pass

Oil and Water

The Outlaw and the Lady

Straight Shooting

The Committee on Credentials

Her Father's Silent Partner

A Fight For Love

Rider of the Law

Roaring Rails

Bad Company

An Unseen Enemy

McVeagh of the South Seas

The Kickback

A Marked Man

The Almost Good Man

Lest We Forget

Bucking Broadway

The Secret Man

Judith of Bethulia

A Knight of the Range

The Night Rider

The Strong Man's Burden

Law and Order

The Last Outlaw

Powdersmoke Range

The Movie Album

The Film Parade

The Telephone Girl and the Lady

Danger Patrol

Near To Earth

Wild Mustang

Port of Missing Girls

Born Reckless

A 44-Calibre Mystery

Sky Giant

The Vanishing Legion

A Gun Fightin' Gentleman

The Lightning Rider

The Tenderfoot's Money

The Informer

Sutter's Gold

Three Mounted Men

The Scarlet Drop

Border Cafe

The Unwelcome Guest

The Devil Horse

The Heart of a Bandit

The Frontier Trail

Heredity

Inside Information

The Painted Lady

The Freeze-Out

Man to Man

Desperate Trails

Love's Lariat

Soft Shoes

The Phantom Riders

Graft

The Soul Herder

The Three Godfathers

The Wallop

Thieves' Gold

West Is West

Friends

The Fox

Without Honor

Silent Sanderson

Cheyenne's Pal

The Master Cracksman

Slide, Kelly, Slide

The Canceled Mortgage

Bullet Proof

Aces Wild

The Prairie Pirate

The Flaming Forties

Behind the Lines

Marked Men

Border Devils

Ghost Town

Satan Town

'If Only' Jim

Wild Women

Broken Ways

Blue Streak McCoy

Wagon Trail

The Night Riders

The Night Hawk

Brute Force

The Border Patrol

The Golden Bullet

The Seventh Bandit

The Switchtower

Rustler's Paradise

Burning Bridges

The Bad Lands

The Fighting Gringo

The Texas Trail

Crashin' Thru

Overland Red

Olaf—An Atom

Just Jim

A Little Journey

Human Stuff

Beyond the Border

Driftin' Thru




