Tina Carver, a sultry and talented actress, began her career on the post-war stages of Germany and France, entertaining troops under the auspices of the Special Services. Having married an Indiana academic who served the High Commission for Occupied Germany, her acting opportunities were initially limited. However, she had both the looks and 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" and "The Lone Wolf". 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 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 "The Harder They Fall" (1956),starring Humphrey Bogart. It begs the question, who did Tina upset to drop from starlet to bit player with a year?
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.
Tina Carver's life was marked by tragedy and disappointment, but she left behind a legacy of her talent and beauty on the silver screen.
