Keith Carradine
Keith Carradine
Keith Ian Carradineis an American actor, singer and songwriter who has had success on stage, film and television. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Tom Frank in Robert Altman's Nashville, Wild Bill Hickok in the HBO series Deadwood, FBI agent Frank Lundy in Dexter and US President Conrad Dalton in Madam Secretary. In addition, he is a Golden Globe- and Academy Award-winning songwriter. As a member of the Carradine family, he is part of an acting dynasty...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth8 August 1949
CitySan Mateo, CA
CountryUnited States of America
There was something intimidating about a guy who was known to be a killer and at the same time, there was a bit of a showman about him.
I'd met Harrison Ford before, but he was just finishing a meet with Jon Favreau and the other producers on the film, and we said "hello" as he walked out and I walked in and sat down and had this meeting with those guys. They basically described what they were looking for, and they thought that I brought a certain amount of authenticity to the genre, and would I want to take part? And I said, "Absolutely! I'd love to!"
You have to realize that Mel [Gibson], he's a funny guy. He's got a wicked sense of humor.
Lee Marvin was just the best. Just the best. And that was the beginning of a friendship that lasted until he died. And the same with Ernie Borgnine. You know, I went up there and did that movie [Emperor Of The North] with those guys, and I actually was with Ernie the night that he died.
I guess at that moment in time I had a certain... presence? A certain level of presence in the industry. But that was at Madonna's request. There was a concept for the video [Material Girl], and the idea was that it was kind of a Howard Hughes and Marilyn Monroe sort of idea, that there was this guy behind the scenes making it all happen. And she saw me as that guy, so she asked for me.
There's a great argument about how many men he actually killed. People would tell stories and then as we all know as stories get told over and over again, they get embellished, facts get changed, elaborated upon, exaggerated.
Well I mean, I drove out to the set and did my work, and then I drove back. And at the end of each day's work there wasn't time to explore.
Gettysburg and Stories of Valor Public Television Edition
There are people who said he killed over a hundred men. Historical fact doesn't corroborate one hundred men.
When you get all this stuff on and you put on the guns and the hair, it has an effect on the actor. It tends to lend a certain something to the way you feel as you're just walking around looking that way.
I've grown this mustache which saves me from having to glue on one every day in the heat.
One of the wonderful things about the actor's life is that's what we have the opportunity to do; we bring all these aspects of ourselves and of our personal lives into the work that we do.
One can't help but bring one's own personality into what one is doing, and it's certainly true of us actors and it's true of writers.
I mean, it was a rough place ["Wild Bill Hickok"], and you had to wear this kind of cloak that you were a badass, and the most efficient way to do that was with your language. Swearing was just a part of how you got by during the day, and it was quite historically accurate, that depiction.