Carleton Carpenter (born Carleton Upham Carpenter, Jr.; July 10, 1926) is an American film, television and stage actor, magician, author and songwriter.

Biography

Carpenter was born in Bennington, Vermont, and attended Bennington High School. Before signing with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was a magician and an actor on Broadway, beginning with David Merrick's first production Bright Boy in 1944, followed by co-starring appearances in Three to Make Ready with Ray Bolger, John Murray Anderson's Almanac and Hotel Paradiso with Bert Lahr and Angela Lansbury. Other stage appearances include Hello, Dolly! (musical) opposite Mary Martin (which toured Vietnam during the war and was filmed as a one-hour NBC-TV special), The Boys in the Band (play), Dylan with Rue McClanahan, Crazy For You, and the City Center revival of Kander and Ebb's 70, Girls, 70.

Carpenter was featured in Lost Boundaries, then signed with MGM, where he had roles in Summer Stock with Judy Garland and Gene Kelly, Father of the Bride with Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor, Vengeance Valley with Burt Lancaster, The Whistle at Eaton Falls with Lloyd Bridges, and the war dramas Take The High Ground and Up Periscope.

He was teamed with Debbie Reynolds in Three Little Words and Two Weeks With Love. He wrote material for Debbie Reynolds, Kaye Ballard, Marlene Dietrich and Hermione Gingold, and also scripts for films and television. He guest-starred on numerous radio and TV shows. Along with Eva Marie Saint, he was one of the featured players on the very early television program Campus Hoopla, which was produced by NBC, via WNBT in New York City, and which aired from 1946 to 1947.

Among his television appearances, Carpenter played Gilbert Burton, the recipient of $1,000,000 in a 1959 episode of The Millionaire. In 1963 he played defendant Peter Brent in the Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Lover's Leap." Coincidentally, Marvin Miller, who starred in The Millionaire, also appeared in that Perry Mason episode, as attorney F.J. Weatherby.

Carpenter composed the songs "Christmas Eve," recorded by Billy Eckstine, "Cabin in the Woods" and "Ev'ry Other Day", which he recorded for MGM Records. In 1943 he wrote the words and melody of the song "Can We Forget." His other song compositions include "I Wouldn't Mind", "A Little Love" and "Come Away".

Carpenter is remembered in the 1970s and 1980s as a best-selling mystery novelist. One of his books, Deadhead, was turned into a Broadway musical production. Other books included Games Murderers Play, Cat Got Your Tongue? Only Her Hairdresser Knew, Sleight of Deadly Hand, The Peabody Experience and Stumped. He also had short stories published in the Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen mystery magazines.