Armelia Carol Ohmart, born on July 3, 1927, in Salt Lake City, Utah, was the daughter of a dentist father, Thomas Carlyle Ohmart, a former actor, and an abusive Mormon mother, Armelia Merl Ohmart. As an infant, she won a baby contest and was already on stage at the tender age of three, performing in a vaudeville act with her uncle.
Raised in Seattle, Carol's early life was marked by her mother's divorce from her father, after which she moved around with her mother, attending high school at Lewis & Clark High in Spokane. She began her career as a radio singer in Salt Lake City and won the title of "Miss Utah" at the age of 19, coming in fourth runner-up in the 1946 "Miss America" contest.
Carol's subsequent career spanned modeling, commercial work, and magazine covers. In the early 1950s, she found work in television and commercials, as well as on stage on Broadway, where she was part of the ensemble of "Kismet" and served as Joan Diener's understudy. She also worked in summer stock.
Paramount Pictures took notice of Carol after a talent agent spotted her in "Kismet" and signed her in 1955, billing her as the "next Marilyn." However, her first two movies, "The Scarlet Hour" (1956) and "The Wild Party" (1956),failed to impress at the box office, and she was written off in 1957.
Despite this setback, Carol continued to receive occasional film offers, including director William Castle's "House on Haunted Hill" (1959),her most well-known film, as well as "Spider Baby or, The Maddest Story Ever Told" (1967) and "The Spectre of Edgar Allan Poe" (1974).
She had steadier work in television, making guest appearances on popular shows such as "Bat Masterson," "Perry Mason," "Get Smart," "Mannix," and "Barnaby Jones." However, by 1974, she had retired from the screen.
Carol was married three times, first to radio actor Ken Grayson, then to cowboy actor Wayde Preston, and finally to a non-professional, a fireman. After a period of struggling with medication addiction and disability, she found a new path in the 1970s, studying metaphysics, delving into oil painting, gardening, poetry, and writing.
Carol passed away on January 1, 2002, at the age of 74, in Colorado.
