Who is Robert Carradine?
A producer, director, and actor with over 130 credits to his name, Robert Reed Carradine was born under the zodiac sign of Aries on 24 March 1954, in Hollywood, California USA; he holds American nationality and his ethnicity is of mixed English, Irish, Dutch and Polish-Jewish descent. Robert is perhaps still known best for his roles in “Revenge of the Nerds”, “Escape from L.A.”, and “The Lizzie McGuire Movie”, among others.
Early life, family, and education
He was raised in Hollywood, in the famous Carradine family, his mother was an artist and actress Sonia Sorel, and his father John Carradine was a famous Western movie actor. Robert’s paternal grandfather was the minister Beverly Carradine, and his maternal great-grandfather was biochemist Max Henius, who was married to a sister of historian Johan Ludvig Heiberg.
His brother Keith is also an actor, while his brother Christopher is the Vice President of Walt Disney Imagineering; Robert’s half-brothers Michael Bowen Junior and David Carradine are actors too.
Robert’s parents divorced when he was two years old, and custody over them was given to their father. Their mother remarried to Michael Bowen, and their father to Doris Grimshaw, whom Robert thought she was his mother until he was 14 years old, when his biological mother came to visit him on Christmas Day.
However, Robert spent his high school days growing up alongside his half-brother David. He attended a local high school in Laurel Canyon, near Hollywood, and upon matriculating in 1972, he didn’t enroll at college but pursued his acting career.
Roles in series
Robert made his acting debut in 1971, portraying Phinney McLean in an episode of the series “Bonanza”, followed by his appearance in “Kung Fu”, before he was cast to play Slim in “The Cowboys”, acting alongside Moses Gunn, Jim Davis and Diana Douglas, in 1974.
In the following years, he made appearances in “Run, Joe, Run” and “Police Story”, and after nearly five years, he portrayed Percy Cuthfert III in the 1981 TV mini-series “Tales of the Klondike”, starring Orson Welles, Geoffrey Bowes and Stephen McHattie.
Robert was next cast to play Gardener in “The Fall Guy”, followed by his roles in “The Sun Also Rises”, and in the 1985 horror series “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, “The Twilight Zone” in 1986, and “The Magical World of Disney” in 1987.
In the early ’90s, he was seen in “The Hitchhiker”, “Sirens”, “NYPD Blue”, and “Fast Track”, before he portrayed Doctor Bruce Hartman in “Nash Bridges”, a popular crime drama starring Don Johnson and Cheech Marin.
In the early 2000s, Robert had numerous support roles before he was cast to play Sam McGuire in the Disney series “Lizzie McGuire”, starring alongside Hilary Duff and Adam Lamberg; the series had 22 award nominations, including two for Primetime Emmys, and won eight.
After this role, it seems that he paused his television career, and focused on movies, until after a decade when he made appearances in an episode or two of series such as “Medinah” in 2016, and “Doubt” and “James Blondes” both in 2018.
His most recent role on television was in the 2019 series “Tales of the Wild West”, a documentary drama based on the facts and myths of legendary characters from the Wild West.
Roles in movies
Robert made his first appearance on the big screen in the 1972 movie “The Cowboys”, alongside John Wayne, Bruce Dern and Roscoe Lee Browne, followed by roles in “Go Ask Alice”, “Mean Streets”, and “You and Me”.
In 1975, he was cast to play Bob Hatfield in “The Hatfields and McCoys”, and Moxey in “Aloha Bobby and Rose”, before he portrayed Bobby Ray in “Jackson County Jail”, acting alongside Tommy Lee Jones, Lisa Copeland and Yvette Mimieux.
In the following years, he had support roles in movies such as “Joyride”, “Orca”, “Coming Home”, “The Long Riders”, and “Heartaches” for which his portrayal of Stanley Howard brought him a nomination for Genie Award Best Performance by a Foreign Actor. Then he portrayed Alex Marsh in the 1982 movie “Tag: The Assassination Game”, starring alongside Linda Hamilton and Kristine DeBell.
In 1984, Robert was cast to play Lewis in “Revenge of the Nerds”, followed by roles in “Just the Way You Are”, “As Is” – which brought him a nomination for CableACE Award, Actor in a Theatrical or Dramatic Special – before he reprised his role as Lewis in the 1987 sequel “Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise”.
In the early ‘90s, he had numerous minor roles in low-budget movies for almost a decade, before he made an appearance as Skinhead in the John Carpenter’s science-fiction action adventure “Escape from L. A.”, starring Kurt Russell, Steve Buscemi and Stacy Keach.
In 1999, he starred alongside Martin Sheen and George Nix in the western movie “Gunfighter”, written and directed by Christopher Coppola, followed by his role as John Burnside in “Dangerous Curves” starring alongside his brother David Carradine, and Maxine Bahns.
The early 2000s, saw him in “The Lizzie McGuire Movie”, “Supercross”, “Tooth and Nail”, and “Final Sale”, among others, before he was cast to play Tracker in the 2012 western drama “Django Unchained” starring Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Christoph Waltz.
The movie was written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, and had 158 award nominations, winning 58 including two Oscars for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Christopher Waltz), and Best Writing, Original Screenplay.
In 2017, he portrayed Anthony in “A Fish Tale”, followed by his roles in “Justice”, “The Marshal”, and “Nearly Departed”, while his most recent role was in the 2021 movie “High Holiday”.
Love life and relationships
There have been various rumors concerning Robert’s love life, however, he hasn’t spoken about his previous relationships, before his future wife Edith ‘Edie’ Mani, back in the late ‘80s.
It’s widely known that he has a daughter, Ever Carradine, from his relationship with Susan Snyder, but he hasn’t spoken about this lady.
Their daughter is also an actress, born in 1974, and is married to Coby Brown, an actor, and composer.
Speaking about Robert’s wife Edie, they married on 7 January 1990, and in the same year she gave birth to their daughter Marika Reed, and their son Ian Alexander was born two years later.
Robert prefers to keep his private life away from the media’s attention, so there isn’t much to know about his family, however, in November 2015 he filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences, and some truths were revealed in court.
After his half-brother, David died in 2009, Robert was diagnosed with acute psychosis, so he used bipolar medication, but his wife stopped giving medicaments to him, which according to him, was the reason why he caused the car accident.
In March 2015, Robert and Edie were driving through Colorado when he crossed into oncoming traffic and smashed into a semi-truck, allegedly, according to Edie, confessing that he was trying to kill them both; they were injured, but survived the crash thanks to their seat-belts.
The divorce was a hard process for both of them – at first he was asking for spousal support from Edie, but she stated that she was unemployed, and asked the court to grant her possession of 17 guns and several guitars which Robert had. In the end, Robert kept his guns and guitars and agreed to pay Edie $2,450 per month until she remarries, or dies.
They divorced officially in 2018, so as of January 2022, Robert seems to be single.
Age, height, and net worth
Robert is 67 years old, with light brown hair and hazel eyes; he weighs around 176lbs (80kgs) and is 5ft 11ins (1.82m) tall.
As of early 2022, his net worth has been estimated at $300,000.
