J. Carrol

J. Carrol Naish, born Joseph Patrick Carrol Naish on January 21, 1896, in New York City, was an American actor whose career spanned stage, radio, television, and film. He died on January 24, 1973, at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, California, three days after his 77th birthday, and is interred at Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California.

Naish received his education at St. Cecilia's Academy in New York City. His stage work began early, with appearances in both Paris and New York. His Broadway career included a 1907 appearance in The Battle of Port Arthur. In 1955, he originated the role of Alfieri in the one-act, verse version of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge on Broadway, a production that also starred Van Heflin and Eileen Heckart.

Although Naish appeared in an uncredited bit role in the silent film What Price Glory? in 1926, he considered his screen career to have begun in 1930, when stage actors were being recruited for talking pictures. Over the course of his Hollywood career, he appeared in more than 200 films. He became known as a dialect specialist, taking on character roles of numerous nationalities, including Southern European, Eastern European, Latin American, American Indian, Middle Eastern, South Asian, East Asian, and Pacific Islander, earning him the nickname "Hollywood's one-man U.N." Despite his Irish heritage, Naish rarely played Irish characters, noting that casting directors did not think of him for such roles.

He received two Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor, the first for his portrayal of Giuseppe in Sahara (1943), and the second for his performance as the Hispanic father of the title character in A Medal for Benny (1945). The latter film also earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture. Naish frequently played villains, ranging from gangsters in Paramount pictures to the mad scientist Dr. Daka in Columbia's Batman serial, a role for which he was originally cast as The Joker before being recast as a Japanese supervillain to align with the wartime setting. In the 1940s he appeared in several horror films, including House of Frankenstein (1944), in which he played Boris Karloff's assistant. His final film, Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971), was produced by Samuel M. Sherman and featured Naish as a descendant of Dr. Frankenstein; it was also the final film of co-star Lon Chaney Jr.

On radio, Naish starred as Luigi Basco on the CBS program Life with Luigi from 1948 to 1953, a role he later reprised in a CBS television series of the same name. From 1957 to 1958, he played the lead role in the television series The New Adventures of Charlie Chan. Through the 1960s he continued working in guest roles on television, with his most recent motion picture credit dating to 1964. Naish was married to actress Gladys Heaney from 1929 until his death; they had one daughter, Elaine. He was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6145 Hollywood Boulevard for his contributions to television in 1960.