On May 26. 1907 Carleton Garrettson Young was born in Westfield, New York as the only son of William T. Young and Carrie S. Young (Floss Carri). William was for many years a harness maker whose shop was located on the east side of Market Street.*

It was his role in the Westfield High School Senior Class Play of 1926 that launched his career in drama. He played the part of William Sylvanus Baxter in Boot Tarkington's Seventeen. The play was presented before a crowded house at the Grand Theatre Thursday and Friday evenings, March 25. and 26. 1926. Leonard Tripp played the part on Thursday and Carleton on Friday. Both men played the part exceedingly well. He had little intention of becoming an actor, but when the principal of his high school - who was also a minister with great love for the theatre- saw him act in the senior class play, he urged him to take up acting.

He attended Carnegie Institute of Technology, where he became "one of the most promising of its group of youthful Thespians". He led a school dance band to help pave his way through Carnegie Tech.  Together with other students (Irene Tedrow, Margaret Werts and Ruth Aston) of the drama school of Carnegie Institute he appeared in campus week plays. Such was the case in May 1928 when they brought Wedding Bells by Salisburg Field in the Gayety theater, Pittsburgh. Marjorie Bartholomew was the producer.

He received his preliminary training as an actor in Pittsburg (George Sharp Stock co.) On April 1. 1929 the George Sharp players third season of summer plays started with This Thing Called Love at the Pitt Theater. Carleton was a new addition to the company.
On April 10. 1929 three of the companies members sang on radio (WJAS at 11 P.M.). Inaugurating a series of "after-the-theater" programs. Mabel Kroman in the role of master of ceremonies introduced the artists all members of the cast of The Big Pond. Carleton Young started off the program by singing She's Funny That Way.

Other plays the company brought to the stage were Pigs (The Pitt, Jun 3. 1929), Avery Hopwood's Fair and Warmer (Jun 1929), Is Zat So (The Pitt, Jun 17. 1929), The Woman in Bronze (The Pitt, Jun 24. 1929), and Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (The Pitt, Jul. 1. 1929).

For two years he played leading roles in stock productions in Buffalo (Charles L. Wagner Players, in Kindling, Oct 7. 1928, ...), Atlanta, and New York before going West.

At the Music Box, Hollywood the Los Angeles Civic Repertory Theater's A Bill of Divorcement opened February 17. 1930 (for 3 weeks) with a cast headed by Ian MacLaren and the regular members of the group, newcomers in the cast being Carleton Young (as Basset the maid!) and Clarice Wynn. Other plays by the company with Carleton Young were Le Malade Imaginaire (Music Box, Apr 21. - May 10. 1930), Goin' Home (Music Box, May 12. 1930), The Infinite Shoeblack (Music Box, Nov 24. 1930, with Sally Franklin) and Peter Pan (Music Box, Dec 15. 1930 - Jan 7. 1931).

Ann Chase (aka Sarah Chase Franklin) and Carleton G. Young were married in Los Angeles on February 7. 1931. Mr. and Mrs. Young, had played together before the footlights, and before that they studied drama together at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, in Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania. Both played in stock, and both were members of the Civic Repertory Company in Los Angeles. They came to San Francisco as the Hollywood Repertory Players with a Peter Pan (1931) production in which Ann was stage manager and Carleton had a major role (Nana, the dog). A contract with NBC for both of them kept them in San Francisco. The Youngs shared the same enthusiasm for such widely various things as Shakespeare, golf and musical compositions.

His further stage experience included a season with Pauline Frederick in Elizabeth the Queen (San Francisco, ca. Jun 1931, cast also included Ann Chase).

He supposedly made his radio debut in one of the Rin Tin Tin (NBC, Blue, 1930 - 31) episodes. In The NBC Drama Hour the NBC Players with Carleton brought half hour long radio plays on Wednesday evenings with titles such as Yang-Tse (Jul 29. 1931), Tim Kelly's Doctor (Sep 9. 1931, as dr. Stanton), Youth for a Crew (Sep 30. 1931), The Shadow of Allah (Oct 1. 1931), ...

He was also heard as Michael Lorn in the detective series The Game Called Murder (NBC, Jul - Aug 1931).

In November 1931 it was reported that Carleton Young, actor of the NBC Pacific Coast network, had been loaned to a San Francisco theatre for a few performances. He took a role in Precedent (Music Box Theatre, L.A., Sep  21. - Oct 3. 1931).


A newspaper (Jan 19. 1932) mentioned the fact that Carleton left NBC for New York, his wife Ann Chase remained "for present" in San Francisco. She was featured in Pigskin Romances on KPO San Francisco (Sep. 1932) and the following year she got the distinction of being chosen the first feminine announcer for the Pacific Division of the NBC (There were 18 male announcers and one girl). She was picked to announce Chiffon Jazz, NBC explained: "A feminine announcer dovetails better with that particular type of program". She continued to work in radio (acting, writing) as Anna Chase later under her own name Sally Franklin.***

Not much is known about Carleton's first year in New York (1932). This is where the sources get confused with that other Carleton (S.) Young**, and most of the plays are wrongly attributed to this actor. However our Carleton G. Young is mentioned in several short bios with 6 confirmed (before 1938) Broadway productions as a result:

• The Man Who Reclaimed His Head (Broadhurst Theatre, Sep 12. 1932 - Oct 1. 1932) with Claude Rains and Jean Arthur,
• Yesterday's Orchids (Fulton Theatre, Oct 5. - 31. 1934),
• Page Pygmalion (Bijou Theatre, Aug 3. -  31. 1932),
• Eight Bells (Hudson Theatre, Oct 28. - Nov 1. 1933),
• Thoroughbred (Vanderbilt Theatre, Nov 6. - 27. 1933),
• Late Wisdom (Mansfield Theatre, Apr 23. - 24. 1934).

Off Broadway the Greenwich Players offered Leslie Howard's delightful comedy, Murray Hill (Greenwich Playhouse CT, Oct 16. 1933). Amongst the cast were Carleton Young, Martha Hodge, Edna May Burroughs, and Maurice Holland. 

Carleton also performed with the New York Players. The play No More Ladies, a comedy by A.E. Thomas was presented during a week late August 1934 in Ivoryton, Connecticut. Carleton Young appeared with Mary Miner, Georgia Harvey, Edith Gresham, Betty Jencks, Kay Linaker and William Balfour.

Carleton's divorce from his first wife was pronounced in Chicago on April 1. 1935 to re-marry Barbara Leonard Davis, daughter of Leonard Henry Davis and Josephine Simpson Davis, in New York on December 31. of that same year.

That year he also got his first radio role on this side of the U.S. in Kellogg's College Prom. "It mixed Big Band music and college sports in a big 'ol cereal bowl."

"Cam" was the radio nickname for Carleton who reportedly averaged 15 programs a week on the radio including recurring parts in Rich Man's Darling (CBS, 1936 - 37); Gang Busters (CBS, 1936 - 37); Just Plain Bill (NBC, 1937); Carol Kennedy's Romance (Heinz Magazine of the Air) (CBS, 1937 - 38, as Dr. Owen Craig); Johnny Presents (1937); On Broadway (NBC Blue, 1937 - 38); Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories (CBS, 1937 - 38); Hilltop House (CBS, Nov 1. 1937 - 40) as Dr. Robbie Clark); Stella Dallas (NBC, Jun 6. 1938 -, as Dick Grosvenor); Society Girl (CBS, 1938 - 40); Second Husband (CBS, 1938 - 42, as Bill Cumming); Myrt and Marge (CBS, 1939 - 1941); Doc Barclay's Daughters (CBS, 1939); One of The Finest (NBC Blue, Oct 9. 1939 - , with Alan Reed); Campbell's Short Short Story (CBS, 1940); What Would You Have Done? (NBC Blue); Life Begins (aka Martha Webster) (CBS, Jan 22. 1940 - Jul 18. 1941, as Winfield Craig); and Portia Faces Life (NBC Red, 1940 - 41, as Kirk Roder).

In Front Page Farrell, Carleton Young, became (Mutual, 1941 - 42) the second actor, after Richard Widmark to play David Farrell.

The playbill program for Parker W. Fennely's play Cuckoos on the Heart lists Carleton Young (aka Two-Story House, Morosco Theatre & Ambassador Theatre, Sep 16. 1941- Jan 3. 1942) as the actor who also played David Farrell on radio and refers to his role in The Man Who Reclaimed His Head. Reportedly this role won him a contract with 20th Century Fox Pictures.

He took over from Hugh Marlowe as Ellery Queen from January 1942 into 1943, he was also heard in the Quiz Uncle Jim's Question Bee (NBC Blue, Jun 18. 1942, announcer), Commandos (aka Chips Davis Commando, CBS, Jul 30. 1942 - Oct 9. 1943), The O'Neills (1943), and The Story of Mary Marlin (1943). According to Variety he left the Ellery Queen series "around August 1943" to take up his contract with 20th Century Fox. As early as June, Ruthrauft & Ryan had begun auditioning for a new Ellery Queen which they found in Sydney Smith.

The films at 20th did not deliver the success hoped for; the following films at MGM did a little better: Ladies of Washington (20th Century Fox, May 25. 1944), Thunderhead: Son of Flicka** (20th Century Fox, Mar 15. 1945), Thrill Of A Romance  (MGM, May 23. 1945); and Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood (MGM, Oct 5. 1945).

He also played the lead role of producer-director Ted Lawton in some thirty-nine episodes of Hollywood Mystery Time (Jul 20. 1944 - Aug 1945). A series he left in order to take up the part of Edmond Dantes, the lead in the radio serial The Count of Monte Cristo (Don Lee Network then Mutual 1944 - Jan 1. 1952).

Strange Wills (1946-1947) was a radio program produced in Hollywood by Charles Michelson and Teleways Syndication. These shows were quite different from other mystery dramas of the era. They would look at the complexities, dramas, and legal entanglements that arise from some wills. Warren William was the host and the star and it had Howard Culver and Carleton G. Young co-starring. 

Carleton appeared in the motion pictures Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman (Universal, Mar 11. 1947) Kissing Bandit (MGM, Nov 18. 1948) opposite Frank Sinatra, Hard, Fast and Beautiful (RKO, May 23. 1951), and His Kind of Woman (RKO, Aug 21. 1951).

This is Your FBI (Apr 6. 1945- Jan 30. 1953) was a CBS anthology crime drama; in in stories allegedly based on FBI cases the characters were followed by key figure, fabricated special agent Jim Taylor (Stacy Harris). Carleton Young played in many of the 409 radio episodes between 1946 and January 30. 1953.

He portrayed Philip Gault (The Whisperer) on NBC Radio's The Whisperer (Jun 30. 1951 - ) Lawyer Philip Galt, due to a college football injury, lost his voice and can only speak in an eerie whisper. Galt infiltrates "the syndicate" in his native Central City to bring down organized crime from within; to the underworld, he becomes known as the Whisperer. Later, his voice is restored through surgery, but he continues to lead a double life as the Whisperer, relaying instructions by telephone from the syndicate bosses in New York (who don't know he's a mole) to their lackeys in Central City, whom Galt is actually setting up...

On August 31. 1952 Carleton played in "Statement In Full" an episode of Hollywood Star Playhouse on CBS, another radio dramatic anthology series. In that episode Marilyn Monroe played a murderess.

Blessed with both the good looks and an 'air' of a gentlemen, which only increased through the years, Carleton made a smooth transition to TV. Starting with roles in The Unexpected (ZIV, May 21. - Nov 19. 1952, min 2x) and his only appearance in The Adventures of Superman as Fairchild in the episode "The Face and the Voice" (Nov 21. 1953). He had at least 1 role in The Loretta Young Show (aka Letter to Loretta, with George Nader in "The Clara Schumann Story", Mar 21. 1954).

In March 1955 Barbara Britton, Jan Merlin and Carleton were in a three-character drama called The Woman with Red Hair, at the Circle Theater in Hollywood. Carleton’s teenaged son, Tony, attended rehearsals before the play was launched, and it was easy to see he’d follow in his father’s footsteps when he grew older, choosing to perform as “Tony Young” for his film and TV appearances.

In "The Sardinian Affair" an episode of the TV adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo, Carleton also appeared this time not as Edmond Dantes but as the tax collector D'Alba (ITC, TPA, Oct 12. 1956).

He was Harry Steeger in The Court of Last Resort (NBC, Oct 4. 1957 - Apr 11. 1958, min. 23x). The TV series focuses on a group of seven lawyers dedicated to representing individuals who have been either wrongly accused or unfairly convicted. Each episode dramatizes different cases that the Court has investigated from its beginning to the current time. The real members frequently make appearances at the end of the show, where one of them reflects on the recently dramatized case.