Born in New York City to a Judge of Special Sessions who was also president of a sewing machine company. Grew up on City Island, New York. Attended Hamilton Military Academy and turned down an appointment to West Point to attend New York University where his law school classmates included future New York City mayor James J. Walker. After a boating accident which led to pneumonia, Carey wrote a play while recuperating and toured the country in it for three years, earning a great deal of money, all of which evaporated after his next play was a failure. In 1911, his friend Henry B. Walthall introduced him to director D.W. Griffith, for whom Carey was to make many films. Carey married twice, the second time to actress Olive Fuller Golden (aka Olive Carey, who introduced him to future director John Ford. Carey influenced Universal Studios head Carl Laemmle to use Ford as a director, and a partnership was born that lasted until a rift in the friendship in 1921. During this time, Carey grew into one of the most popular Western stars of the early motion picture, occasionally writing and directing films as well. In the Thirties he moved slowly into character roles and was nominated for an Oscar for one of them, the President of the Senate in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). He worked once more with Ford, in The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936), and appeared once with his son, Harry Carey Jr., in Howard Hawks Red River. He died after a protracted bout with emphysema and cancer. Ford dedicated his remake 3 Godfathers (1948) "To Harry Carey - Bright Star Of The Early Western Sky."
The Devil Horse (1932): $10,000
The Last of the Mohicans (1932): $10,000

Father of Harry Carey Jr. and Ellen The film 3 Godfathers by John Ford is dedicated to him. Appeared with his son 'Harry Carey Jr. in Red River. Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1976. Both Harry and his son Harry Carey Jr. were honored with stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Golden Boot Award from the Motion Picture & Television Fund Foundation. Harry Carey Jr.'s wife posted the circumstances of Harry Sr.'s demise on the Internet: "Though reported as such in books, Harry Sr. was never bitten by a black widow spider. He died from a combination of lung cancer and long ongoing emphysema from cigarettes, and pneumonia as a young man. At the Woodlawn Cemetery [Bronx, New York] are Dobe's grandfather [who had the building built] his grandmother, a few other relatives, the stable boy, and Old Joe Harris. Joe Harris was an actor who was in the early plays that Harry did. He and Harry were working on a movie in the late twenties, and Joe said he wanted to get some exercise. Harry had just gotten the Saugus ranch so he told Joe to come up and help pull out tree stumps. Joe came and, like the 'man who came to dinner', stayed for 35 years. He died in our home in Brentwood in the fifties. He sits on the windowsill in an urn next to Harry."