Timothy Agoglia Carey was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1929, to a close-knit Italian family.

Carey was discharged from the Marine Corps for lying about his age (he was only 15 when he joined).

Carey attended drama school on the GI Bill.

Carey's acting career began in the 1950s with small roles in Hellgate (1952), White Witch Doctor (1953), Crime Wave (1954) and East of Eden (1955) starring James Dean (Carey played the small but memorable role as the bouncer in the brothel where Jo Van Fleet - James Dean's mother in the film - works).

Carey's agent, Walter Kohner, helped him secure a bit role in The Wild One (1953).

Carey also did extra work in films such as Across the Wide Missouri (1951) with Clark Gable and Ace in the Hole (1951) starring Kirk Douglas.

In Across the Wide Missouri, Carey had a small part playing a corpse in the water with two arrows in his back. Apparently the water was so cold that Carey kept moving, and director William Wellman finally called out "Keep that jerk still, he's supposed to be dead."

Carey allegedly dressed up like James Mason's character - Sir Black - in Prince Valiant (1954) and climbed the fence at 20th-Century-Fox in order to attract attention and win a part in the costume drama.

For the famous execution scene in Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory (1957), Carey's character was supposed to be silent but he made the most of the part by screaming and crying out as he was walking to his death. Kubrick liked it so much he asked the sound crew to start recording and it ended up making the final cut.

Carey met his wife in Germany while filming Paths of Glory.

One film critic from New York called Carey, "Kubrick's good luck charm".

Carey would frequently pull stunts to get noticed: he climbed into a trunk of a car to be thrown from the Santa Monica Pier and shot himself with blanks just to get attention.

While filming Paths of Glory in Germany, Carey faked his own kidnapping and wrote a ransom note for himself, causing a huge stir with the Munich media and local police. Carey was found bound and gagged in a ditch not far from the set. Carey eventually confessed that the whole thing was a hoax.

On the topic of his on-set wars with other actors, Carey has stated, "I wasn't trying to upstage anyone; I just wanted to do it for the good of the show."

Carey was well known for his bizarre sense of humor and odd practical jokes. Director John Cassavetes - a longtime friend and supporter of Carey - allegedly went over to Carey's house one day, and the actor convinced him to put on a dog attack suit. He then let three Rottweilers loose on Cassavetes while Carey yelled words of encouragement from the next room saying, "It's not you they hate – it's the suit!"

Martin Scorsese reportedly put up $3,000 in launch money for Carey to produce his play The Insect Trainer. The play revolved around a character named Guasti, "a dishwasher in a Chinese restaurant who befriends a cockroach. He becomes convicted of murder after farting so powerfully that a woman falls from her chair, hits her head on the floor and dies."

Of his play, Carey commented, "I always thought, if you really want to become a really good actor, you've got to be able to fart in public."

Carey briefly appeared as the demented Lord High N' Low in The Monkees movie, Head (1968).

In the Cassavetes film The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976), Seymour Cassel reportedly got so carried away during a scene where he was supposed to grab Carey by the collar to rough him up that he ended up grabbing him by the neck instead. Carey said he would break a bottle over Cassel's head if it happened again. Cassavetes (who was also close friends with Cassel throughout his career) told Carey he should punch Cassel in the nose if he messed with him again.

It was rumored that Quentin Tarantino, a huge fan of Carey, asked the actor to play the role of Joe the gang leader in Reservoir Dogs (1992). Carey was asked to do a rehearsal of a scene but his participation was nixed by Harvey Keitel (an executive producer on the film). Soon after Lawrence Tierney called Carey and said, "I can't believe it, those assholes gave me your part!"

Francis Ford Coppola was said to have wanted Carey for the part of Luca Brasi in The Godfather (1972) but Carey turned down the part to film his TV pilot Tweet's Ladies of Pasadena. The role went to Lenny Montana instead.

Cassavetes held a fundraiser for Carey's Tweet's Ladies of Pasadena. During the production of Tweet's, Cassavetes wrote a part for Carey for his latest film, Minnie & Moskowitz (1971).

Timothy Carey passed away on May 11th, 1994 – the birthday of his hero, Salvador Dali. He suffered from a stroke (his fourth in less than six years).

On his film career, Carey once commented, "The truth is, I never really cared about conventional success. I was probably fired more than any other actor in Hollywood."

by Millie de Chirico

Sources:
www.absolutefilms.net
Film Comment, Jan/Feb 2004
Psychotronic Video #6, 1990
FilmFax, issue #56 May/June 1996
Rolling Stone Magazine
www.imdb.com
www.allmovie.com
www.5minutestolive.com
www.ocweekly.com
www.cinematical.com
www.impossiblefunky.com