Smoky-voiced, sultry Tina Carver began her career on the post-war
stages of Germany and France. Having married an Indiana academic who
served the High Commission for Occupied Germany in a legal capacity,
her acting opportunities were confined to entertaining troops under the
auspices of the Special Services. Nonetheless, she had both the looks
and the talent to secure leads in quality plays like "A Streetcar Named
Desire" and "Miranda". In 1953, she joined a theatrical ensemble in Bad
Godesberg, while her husband ran a drama workshop on the side. However,
her marriage subsequently went on the rocks, resulting in an
acrimonious divorce and a return to the States.
Tina's screen career got off to a start with steady radio and
television work in New York. In 1954, she moved to California for guest
spots on two fashionable crime shows,
The Whistler (1954) and
The Lone Wolf (1954). This
exposure resulted in several small supporting roles in feature films,
and she was eventually signed under contract by Columbia. Her first
role saw her third-billed, as partner-in-crime to a racketeer (played
by Pat O'Brien) in
Inside Detroit (1956), an expose
of corruption in the Auto Workers Union. This solitary lead, in what
was a relatively decent minor film noir, was unaccountably followed by
a return to supporting roles in bottom-of-the-bill second raters, like
Uranium Boom (1956) and
The Man Who Turned to Stone (1957).
There was also an uncredited bit in the A-grade boxing drama
Schmutziger Lorbeer (1956),
starring Humphrey Bogart. It begs the
question, who did Tina upset to drop from starlet to bit player within
a year ? It got worse: upon leaving Columbia, Tina took another step
down the ladder to Allied Artists, where she was cast opposite
Tod Andrews in the laughable
creature feature
From Hell It Came (1957). The
monster in this typical
50's 'mutation by radiation' offering, was a walking tree stump, created by Paul Blaisdell,
who later breathed life into various other beasts for
Roger Corman. While this film has since
attained something of a cult following (perhaps, because it is so bad,
that it becomes enjoyable on a comedic level), a contemporary reviewer
allegedly wrote about 'From Hell it Came'.. .and to Hell it can go".
For the remaining four years of her short tenure in Hollywood, Tina
acted exclusively on the small screen, guesting in a handful of popular
TV shows like Perry Mason (1957)
and Bronco (1958). In January 1958,
her five-year-old daughter. Katherine. was struck and killed by a car
in the school zone where she was playing. As the result of her ongoing
grief over this tragic accident, she lost interest in acting.
She passed away in 1982 after a short illness.
