Ralph Carter

Ralph David Carter, born May 30, 1961, in New York, New York, is an American actor and singer whose career spans Broadway, television, and recording. He is widely recognized for his role as Michael Evans, the youngest son of Florida and James Evans Sr., on the CBS sitcom Good Times, a position he held from 1974 to 1979.

Carter's stage career began when he was nine years old, making his Broadway debut in the musical The Me Nobody Knows. He subsequently appeared in Tough to Get Help, Dude, and Via Galactica before landing the role of Travis Younger in Raisin, a musical adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry's drama A Raisin in the Sun. His performance in Raisin earned him the 1973 Drama Desk Award for Most Promising Performer, the 1974 Theatre World Award, and a nomination for the 1974 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.

The success Carter achieved in Raisin brought him to the attention of producer Norman Lear, who at the time was overseeing several hit television series including All in the Family, Sanford and Son, and Maude. Lear developed Good Times as a spin-off centered on Maude's housekeeper Florida Evans, played by Esther Rolle, and her husband James, played by John Amos. Lear purchased the remainder of Carter's Broadway contract in order to cast him as Michael, James and Florida's youngest child, making the character the first original role created for the series.

In 1975, Carter recorded the album Young and in Love, released by Mercury Records. The album included a cover of the Ruby and the Romantics song "When You're Young and in Love," originally released in 1964, which served as the album's first single. Carter performed the song on the television variety program Soul Train. That single reached number 37 on the US Billboard R&B chart, while the album's second single, "Extra, Extra (Read All About It)," charted at number 59 on the same chart. In 1985, Carter released an additional single titled "Get it Right," which was not accompanied by an album and did not chart.

Carter returned to the stage in 2005, appearing in a production of Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death with the Classical Theatre of Harlem Company.