Personnel Changes: Conlan Carter
To replace Steve Rogers, Conlan Carter was hired to play the new medic. "It
helped that my agent was a good friend of Selly Seligman," says Conlan.
Conlan Carter was born in Center Ridge Arkansas on October 3, 1934. A son of
sharecroppers, he was raised on a farm near Matthews, Missouri. In 1951 and
1952, while at Matthews High School, he was Missouri State Champion in the pole
vault and was elected to Missouri's All-State Track Team.
He attended Missouri State College at Cape Girardeau for two years on an
athletic scholarship. In college, he became conference champion in pole vaulting for
Missouri Interstate Athletic Association and competed in high jump, low
hurdles, and broad jump. Carter was invited to the 1954 Olympic trials, but could not
attend because of finances.
He began his life-long love affair with flight when he joined the US Air Force
in 1954. In August of 1956, after two years in the Air Force, Carter
hitchhiked to San Francisco, where he found work with the Southern Pacific railroad.
There, Conlan joined a musical theater group, studied voice, and won an acting
scholarship to the Bay City Actors Lab. He concentrated on musical comedy and
appeared in many productions. While studying, he also worked as a field auditor for
an insurance company to support himself and his new wife.
Carter moved to Hollywood in 1959. Within two months, he was signed as a
regular on the television show "The Law and Mr. Jones." Carter also made guest
appearances on several hit television shows, including "Twilight Zone," "Beverly
Hillbillies," "Dr. Kildare," "Rawhide," and "Gunsmoke." He even guested on an
episode of Combat! (as the M.P. in "Hill 256" ) before joining the show's cast in the role of Doc. "I didn't come in with a
contract in the beginning," recalls Conlan Carter. "They signed me to do two
or three shows. They kind of weren't sure what to do with the character. So they
wrote this stuff and then just kind of waited to see what would happen with
it. After the third or fourth episode they said, well, looks like it's gonna
work, so they signed me."
He received an Emmy nomination as best supporting actor for his outstanding
work in the second-season episode "The Hostages." During the show's 1964 summer hiatus, Conlan garnered his first movie role
in the comedy Quick Before it Melts. Between acting gigs, he also enjoyed flying. Both he and his wife had their
private pilot's license and spent much of their off time above the clouds.
Conlan Carter's post-Combat! career included frequent appearances on television and several feature films.
During this period, he acquired his commercial pilot's license, splitting his
time between acting and the wild blue yonder. Conlan was divorced in 1970 and
remained a bachelor for nineteen years.
In 1976 he traveled to Kano, Nigeria in West Africa to do a geological survey
for oil exploration. He worked for Beech Aerospace Service in 1985, doing
secret airborne electronic surveillance. This was a particularly interesting time
for him, since the hush-hush work required high-level security clearance and a
national security briefing. His last showbiz appearance was in a "MacGyver"
episode in 1986. Later that year, he took a job in Florida, as a private pilot
flying for a client and his family. Conlan lives with his second wife, Betty, in a
home adjoining the airport. He now flies a Dassault Falcon Jet for the family,
flying them within the continental United States, Canada, the Caribbean, and
Europe.
In 1989, Conlan wed his high school sweetheart, Betty Murphy. Carter has four
children: Christopher Conlan, Tracy Lynn, Heather Dawn, and Jonathan Patrick.
About his character on Combat!, Conlan says, "He never had a name. It was just always 'Doc.' It was always
assumed that he was from the mid-West, but that was because of the way I talked."
He researched medics for his role. "I figured out how to bandage a little bit
and things like that. I just practiced so it wouldn't look like I was a total
nerd. Mostly, you didn't see me doin' it, anyway. And the only people I ever was
able to save were the squad. But anybody that carried the radio, you knew he
was going to get killed. That was a given. I never could save those guys. [...]
On the balance, they didn't do a lot with the stuff that I did. Mostly I just
stood around, I'd say, 'Sarge. I don't think he's gonna make it, Sarge.' And, of
course, the look. You don't say anything, just shake your head. Everybody knows what you mean."