Volume III: Biographies

CARNAHAN, "Junior" *

Actor (1916?)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: "Junior" Carnahan, a child, acted for Thanhouser for a brief period.

Biographical Notes: Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1904, Thomas Benton Carnahan, Jr., known as "Junior" Carnahan, first appeared on stage at the age of 11 months. He followed a stage career with Poli stock in Connecticut, including in The Making of Madalena. He was also seen in H.M.S. Pinafore and Disraeli. At the age of six he played the lead in his own vaudeville company. In 1914 he was on stage in the title roles in Grumpy and Little Lord Fauntleroy.

Junior Carnahan's screen career included work with Vitagraph (In the Shadows, The Late Mr. Jones), Biograph under the direction of D.W. Griffith, and appearances with Kinemacolor (title role in Jack and the Bean Stalk), Metro, Pathé, Fox, and Thanhouser. The October 1916 edition of the Motion Picture News Studio Directory lists Thanhouser as the most recent among his studio credits, thus it is possible that he worked in New Rochelle around that time. (He was not mentioned in the January 29, 1916 edition of the same work.) In 1917 he was in the Edison picture, Chris and the Wonderful Lamp. The 1917 and 1918 editions of the Motion Picture News Studio Directory gave his mailing address at the time as the Little Players of America, a Los Angeles, California firm which employed children as its principal actors.

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