- According to oldest son David Carradine in "Hollywood and Whine", "... we carted the coffin over to our house and opened it up. I looked down at him, and the undertaker had put a demonic, artificial grin on his face--like nothing I had ever seen him do in real life, except in a horror film. I reached out and, using the sculptural skills I had learned from him, I remodeled his face to be more naturally like him. Then I poured half a bottle of J&B scotch, his favorite, down his throat, and we had a wake".
- He played Count Dracula in four films: House of Frankenstein (1944), House of Dracula (1945), Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966) and Nocturna (1979).
- Officially changed his name from John Peter Richmond to John Carradine in early 1935.
- In later life, he suffered from crippling arthritis, but continued to work.
- Claimed near the end of his life to have appeared in more movies than any other actor, surpassing the record set by Donald Crisp, the Oscar-winning actor and director who had started in silent movies and had appeared in numerous one- and two-reel films, many of them lost. The title for actor who appeared in most films likely is a contest between Carradine (more than 300 films) and Crisp (at least 170 known films). Of the contemporary generation, Christopher Lee, who has acted in more films than his peers (over 200), does not come close to matching Carradine's prolific output.
- He hitchhiked to California, earning his way as a quick-sketch artist.
- Father of Chris Carradine, David Carradine, Keith Carradine and Robert Carradine. Adoptive father of Bruce Carradine.
- He made guest appearances on both The Twilight Zone (1959) and The Twilight Zone (1985).
- He missed out on playing two iconic horror icons - he was considered for the lead role in Dracula (1931) and refused the role of the monster in Frankenstein (1931), claiming the part was beneath him. He later played the former in House of Frankenstein (1944) and House of Dracula (1945).
- Always ranked his performance in Bluebeard (1944) high among his career favorites.
- According to Jim Beaver's career article on Carradine for the October 1979 issue of "Films in Review", writer Tennessee Williams wrote the role of Big Daddy in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" with Carradine in mind, although other commitments kept him out of the Broadway production in favor of Burl Ives. However, Carradine did play the role in a 1977 Los Angeles production.
- His own touring productions of "The Merchant of Venice", "Hamlet" and "Othello" outgrossed Maurice Evans' celebrated 1940 version of "Hamlet". During the San Francisco run, Carradine always had a memorial seat reserved for his close friend, the late John Barrymore.
- His first co-starring role with Boris Karloff came in 1929 during a ten-week run of "Window Panes" in Figueroa, CA. Carradine played a dimwit and Karloff played a Grigory Rasputin-like character.
- Appears in eight Oscar Best Picture nominees: Cleopatra (1934), Les Misérables (1935), Captains Courageous (1937), Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), Stagecoach (1939), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), The Ten Commandments (1956) and Around the World in 80 Days (1956). Only the last of these won.
- Although he played Martha Scott's son in The Ten Commandments (1956), he was six years her senior in real life.
- He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6240 Hollywood Blvd. on February 8, 1960.
- Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 2003.
- He appeared with Lon Chaney Jr. in 11 films: This Is My Affair (1937), Jesse James (1939), Frontier Marshal (1939), House of Frankenstein (1944), The Mummy's Ghost (1944), House of Dracula (1945), Casanova's Big Night (1954), The Black Sleep (1956), House of the Black Death (1971), Gallery of Horror (1967) and Hillbillys in a Haunted House (1967).
- Jailed briefly in 1953 on contempt of court charges for falling behind on his alimony payments.
- He appeared with Vincent Price in seven films: Brigham Young (1940), Casanova's Big Night (1954), The Ten Commandments (1956), The Story of Mankind (1957), The Trouble with Girls (1969), The Monster Club (1981) and House of the Long Shadows (1983).
- He has appeared in eight films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: The Invisible Man (1933), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Stagecoach (1939), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Johnny Guitar (1954), The Court Jester (1955), The Ten Commandments (1956) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).
- He was offered the role of Grandpa in The Lost Boys (1987), but had to pass due to illness.
- After a family dispute, he left home to become an assistant to renowned Philadelphia sculptor Daniel Chester French.
- Had the word "HAM" in his license plates on his Mercedes-Benz when he lived in Santa Barbara, CA.
- Whispering Ghosts (1942) was his last film under his long-term Fox contract.
- Buried or Lost at Sea. Specifically: Naval Sea Burial, between the California coast and Catalina Island.
- John was the son of Genevieve Winifred (Richmond), a reporter and artist, from New York, and William Reed Carradine, a surgeon, from Mississippi. He was of English, with more distant Irish and Dutch, ancestry. He was sometimes said to have Italian or Spanish roots, from the surname "Carradine", but his last traceable patrilineal ancestor, a man named Parker Carradine, was born, c. 1755, in the state of Georgia, and had no evident Spanish or Italian origins.
- He and his granddaughter Martha Plimpton both appeared in Woody Allen films: Carradine played Doctor Bernardo in Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972) while Plimpton played Laura in Another Woman (1988).
- He had two roles in common with his The McMasters (1970) co-star Jack Palance: (1) Carradine played Count Dracula in House of Frankenstein (1944), House of Dracula (1945), Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966) and Nocturna (1979) while Palance played him in Dracula (1974) and (2) Carradine played Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (1947) while Palance played him in Ebenezer (1998).
- He was considered for the role of Judge Whiteside in Giant (1956).
- Profiled in "Character Actors in Horror and Science Fiction Films, 1930-1960" by Laurence Raw (2012).
- Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 165-167. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.
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