Alan Carney (born David John Boughal; December 22, 1909 – May 2, 1973) was an American actor and comedian.
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Early life and career
Born David John Boughal in Manhattan on December 22, 1909, Carny was the youngest of four children born to Irish immigrants Ellen "Nellie" (née Kearney) and Edward Francis Boughal. At some point between 1920 and 1929, the family relocated to Brooklyn.
Upon finishing high school, Boughal began working in his father's print shop. Despite this fact, and despite his father's clearly expressed wishes, following in the latter's footsteps was never his intention. Instead, he hoped to become an actor. He began imitating customers of the shop, much to their dismay. He eventually appeared in an amateur night program, which resulted in his being added to a vaudeville act at Proctor's Theater in Yonkers, New York. By this time, the aspiring performer had traded in his potentially problematic birth name for a slightly Americanized version of his mother's maiden name. When the show's headliner, Marion Eddy, went on tour, it was Alan Carney that accompanied her.
After performing in vaudeville for several years, Carney made the transition from stage to screen in 1943, in the RKO Radio Pictures production, Gildersleeve's Bad Day. As to how exactly this came to pass, there are at least two slightly varying published accounts, both involving Carney's discovery by film producer David Hempstead. The first, published in March 1943 by the St. Louis Post Dispatch, maintains that Hempstead, by mere happenstance, had caught Carney's act at the Crystal Terrace Room of St. Louis's Park Plaza Hotel and been sufficiently impressed to leave both his calling card and a standing invitation to come visit him in Hollywood, adding that Carney had eventually taken Hempstead up on the offer, leading to an extended RKO contract, and eventually his breakthrough performance as Cary Grant's bodyguard "Crunk" in the 1943 romantic comedy, Mr. Lucky.
