Saturday, September 7, 2013

MGM contract player CHARLES BRADSTREET

                                                                

Charles Bradstreet appeared in unbilled bits at MGM 1945-1946. Noted horror and science fiction profiler Tom Weaver furnished the IMDb with the following:

 "When Charles Bradstreet accompanied his brother to try-outs for a play, a script was thrust into Charles' hands, he was asked to read the part, and he was ultimately given the lead (a Los Angeles production titled 'Come to My House.'). Later, while managing a bar called Billingsley's (frequented by Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby et al.), he was offered a movie contract at Columbia - then was rejected by studio Harry Cohn, who knew that Bradstreet had once thrown his (Cohn's) nephew out of Billingsley's! Bradstreet did later land an MGM contract, playing a series of small roles there, then freelanced. He played his best-known role in ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948), accepting it (even though he thought it was a step backwards career-wise because he was friendly with its director, Charles T. Barton. According to Bradstreet, he was offered the chance to play Tarzan and the lead in TV's GUNSMOKE  but turned down both offers. When 'the glamour went out of acting' for him, he got into real estate."

Charles Bradstreet played the second lead to Michael O'Shea in PAROLE, INC (1948), a low budget thriller now in public domain and available for free on the Internet. The former actor passed away at the age of 86 in Los Angeles in 2004. 

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