Tina Carver

Acting

1922-03-24 · Memphis, Tennessee, USA

Smoky-voiced, sultry Tina Carver began her career in the post-war stages of Germany and France. Having married an Indiana academic who served the High Commission for Occupied Germany in a legal capacity, her acting opportunities were confined to entertaining troops under the auspices of the Special Services. Nonetheless, she had both the looks and the talent to secure leads in quality plays like "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Miranda". In 1953, she joined a theatrical ensemble in Bad Godesberg, while her husband ran a drama workshop on the side. However, her marriage subsequently went on the rocks, resulting in an acrimonious divorce and a return to the States. Tina's screen career got off to a start with steady radio and television work in New York. In 1954, she moved to California for guest spots on two fashionable crime shows, The Whistler (1954) and The Lone Wolf (1954). This exposure resulted in several small supporting roles in feature films, and she was eventually signed under contract by Columbia. Her first role saw her third-billed, as partner-in-crime to a racketeer (played by Pat O'Brien) in Inside Detroit (1956), an expose of corruption in the Auto Workers Union. This solitary lead, in what was a relatively decent minor film noir, was unaccountably followed by a return to supporting roles in bottom-of-the-bill second-raters, like Uranium Boom (1956) and The Man Who Turned to Stone (1957). There was also an uncredited bit in the A-grade boxing drama The Harder They Fall (1956), starring Humphrey Bogart. It begs the question, who did Tina upset to drop from starlet to bit player within a year? It got worse: upon leaving Columbia, Tina took another step down the ladder to Allied Artists, where she was cast opposite Tod Andrews in the laughable creature feature From Hell It Came (1957). The monster in this typical 50's 'mutation by radiation' offering, was a walking tree stump, created by Paul Blaisdell, who later breathed life into various other beasts for Roger Corman. While this film has since attained something of a cult following (perhaps, because it is so bad, that it becomes enjoyable on a comedic level), a contemporary reviewer allegedly wrote about 'From Hell, it Came'.. .and to Hell it can go". For the remaining four years of her short tenure in Hollywood, Tina acted exclusively on the small screen, guesting in a handful of popular TV shows like Perry Mason (1957) and Bronco (1958). In January 1958, her five-year-old daughter. Katherine. was struck and killed by a car in the school zone where she was playing. As a result of her ongoing grief over this tragic accident, she lost interest in acting. She passed away in 1982 after a short illness.