Carey enlisted in the
U.S. Marine Corps during
World War II at age 15, an experience he despised. He made his screen debut with a minor role in
Billy Wilder's 1951 movie
Ace in the Hole (alternately titled
The Big Carnival). One of Carey's most recognized early roles is in the 1956
Stanley Kubrick film
The Killing, The 1957 film
Bayou (later retitled
Poor White Trash) features one of Carey's few leading roles, as a demented Cajun shopkeeper named Ulysses. Carey also has roles in
East of Eden,
The Wild One,
One-Eyed Jacks, The proposed TV show starred Carey as a character named Tweet Twig, who could bring animals back from the dead. He plays a minor role as the
Angel of Death in the comedy film
D.C. Cab, and appears in the
Monkees self-parody musical comedy
Head. His final appearance is in the 1986 movie
Echo Park. Carey also did a select amount of acting on television from the 1950s through the 1980s. According to director
Quentin Tarantino, Carey auditioned for the role of Joe Cabot in Tarantino's
Reservoir Dogs. Although Carey did not get the role, the screenplay is dedicated to him, among others. Carey's face (from the movie
The Killing) is positioned behind
George Harrison on the cover of
the Beatles album ''
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''. Although Carey's image does not appear on the commercially released version of the cover, it can be seen on outtake photos from the
Sgt. Pepper session. Carey first appeared on
Gunsmoke in 1958, playing “Tiller Evans”, a wild, abusive & jealous cowboy in the episode “The Gentleman”, alongside Jack Cassidy (S3E39). He later portrayed the character Charles Buster Rilla, a deranged gunman, in the 1966 episode “Quaker Girl” (S12E12). He has a minor role as Bert in "Ransom for a Dead Man", a
pilot for the series
Columbo, which guest-stars
Lee Grant and originally aired on March 1, 1971. Carey reprised that role in the Columbo episode "Dead Weight", which guest-stars
Eddie Albert and
Suzanne Pleshette and was first broadcast on October 27, 1971.
''The World's Greatest Sinner'' Carey wrote, produced, directed, and starred in the 1962 feature ''
The World's Greatest Sinner'', whose music soundtrack was scored by a young, pre-
Mothers of Invention Frank Zappa. The movie was featured as a midnight show at the
Turner Classic Movies Festival in Hollywood in April 2018. His son, Romeo Carey, a journalism instructor, now retired, for
Beverly Hills High Schools
KBEV Channel 6 TV, introduced the film. ==Personal life==