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".
Always ranked his performance in Bluebeard (1944) high among his career favorites.
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 165-167. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.
Changed his name to John Carradine in 1935.
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.
Father of Chris Carradine, David Carradine, Keith Carradine and Robert Carradine. Adoptive father of Bruce Carradine.
Grandfather of Ever Carradine.
Grandfather of Martha Plimpton.
Had the word "HAM" in his License Plates on his Mercedes when he lived in Santa Barbara, California.
In later life he suffered from crippling arthritis, but continued to work.
Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 2003.
The Carradine family traces its ancestry back to an actual saint--St. Pedro Carradegna, patron saint of Barcelona.