R.I.P. Robert Carradine, Revenge Of The Nerds star

Born in Los Angeles in 1954, Carradine later reflected that being born into a family of actors didn’t automatically push him into the career. “Not directly,” Carradine said in a later interview with Media Mikes when asked if his dad encouraged him to start acting. “I do remember that he did say if we had an interest in pursuing acting that we needed to get a literary education.” However, roles came fairly quickly; his first film, The Cowboys, debuted in theaters when Carradine was just 17 years old. From there, he had a small part in Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets and in films like Joyride and Coming Home. 

In 1980, Carradine appeared with his brothers in The Long Riders, which brought together three other sets of Hollywood brothers—James and Stacy Keach, Dennis and Randy Quaid, and Christopher and Nicholas Guest—to play the sets of on-screen brothers. Carradine’s perhaps best-known role would begin in 1984 when he portrayed Lewis in Revenge Of The Nerds. He would reprise the role for sequels in 1987, 1992, and 1994. Carradine said he never expected the series to become the success it eventually did. “But I do remember that we had an incredible time making the film. It was a lot of fun,” he said later. “And I think that the camera records how you actually feel and, the fact that we were on fire, for lack of a better phrase, the camera recorded that.  That was one of the things that made that film work on a massive level.” In the 2010s, he would also host the reality competition series King Of The Nerds.

After roles in Escape From L.A. and The Player, Carradine became well-known to a younger generation for portraying Sam McGuire, the father to Hilary Duff’s Lizzie in Lizzie McGuire. Carradine would reprise the role for The Lizzie McGuire movie, and appeared in a couple other Disney Channel staples: Mom’s Got A Date With A Vampire and Max Keeble’s Big Move. 

Carradine lived with bipolar disorder for the final two decades of his life. “We want people to know it, and there is no shame in it,” said his brother Keith when sharing the news of Robert’s death. “It is an illness that got the best of him, and I want to celebrate him for his struggle with it, and celebrate his beautiful soul. He was profoundly gifted, and we will miss him every day. We will take solace in how funny he could be, how wise and utterly accepting and tolerant he was. That’s who my baby brother was.”