Carter De Haven

Carter De Haven, born Francis O'Callaghan on October 5, 1886, in Chicago, Illinois, was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter whose career spanned stage, film, and television. He died on July 20, 1977, at the age of 90, and was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

De Haven began his professional career in vaudeville in 1896 and made his Broadway debut in 1903 in the musical Whoop-Dee-Doo, in which he portrayed multiple roles. His Broadway career continued through 1917 and included appearances in Miss Dolly Dollars (1905), The Queen of the Moulin Rouge (1908), Hanky Panky (1912), All Aboard (1913), and His Little Widows (1917). In 1910, he both directed and performed on Broadway, playing the role of Bertie Stewart in The Girl in the Taxi, a play written by Stanislaus Stange.

De Haven transitioned to film acting in 1915 and regularly appeared in comedy short films through 1923. Among his film work during this period, he starred alongside his wife, actress Flora Parker, in The College Orphan (1915) and Twin Beds (1920). He worked with Paramount in 1920, and several of his films were directed by Charley Chase. A 1923 short film, Character Studies, featured De Haven transforming his appearance to resemble prominent film stars of the era, including Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Douglas Fairbanks, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, and Jackie Coogan. The film marked the only screen appearance shared by Keaton and Lloyd, and also represented Keaton's final film appearance alongside Arbuckle.

De Haven later collaborated with Charlie Chaplin, serving as assistant director on Modern Times (1936) and assistant producer on The Great Dictator (1940). He also appeared in The Great Dictator in the role of the Bacterian Ambassador. His daughter, actress Gloria DeHaven, made her first screen appearance in Modern Times. His son, Carter DeHaven Jr., born December 23, 1910, in New York City, also pursued careers as an actor and director; he died March 1, 1979, in Encino, California. Both Carter De Haven and Gloria DeHaven have stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. After his divorce from Flora Parker, De Haven married Evelyn Burd, a union that also ended in divorce.

In the 1959–60 television season, De Haven appeared four times in various roles on the series Johnny Ringo, during which his daughter Gloria also appeared in the episode "Love Affair" as the character Rosemary Blaker. During the same period, he guest-starred on The Donna Reed Show, playing Fred Miller in the episode "It Only Hurts When I Laugh." In 1965, he appeared in the Bewitched episode "Eye of the Beholder" as an elderly man named Henry.