Conlan Carter

Chester Conlan Carter (born October 3, 1934) is a former film and television actor best known for the role of "Doc," featured in sixty-six episodes of the Rick Jason and Vic Morrow ABC World War II television series Combat! (1962–1967). He is the younger brother of American actor John Carter (1927-2015).

Carter was born on October 3, 1934, in Center Ridge, an unincorporated community in Conway County in Arkansas. He was raised on a farm near Matthews in New Madrid County in the far southeastern "Bootheel" of Missouri. 

He graduated from Matthews High School and was the state champion in the pole vault in 1951-1952. He was also named to the all-state track team. From 1952-1954, he attended Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau on an athletic scholarship. He then served in the United States Air Force from 1954–1956 and acquired an interest in flying.

In 1956, he relocated to San Francisco, California, to study with Mara Alexander Gilbert of the Bay City Actor's Lab. For three years, he concentrated on musical comedy and appeared in more than ten productions before he relocated to North Hollywood. 

Carter arrived in Hollywood in 1959 to pursue a career in acting. His first television appearances were in 1959-1960 on the Four Star westerns: Johnny Ringo with Don Durant, The Westerner with Brian Keith, and the parent program, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater. At the age of twenty-six, Carter acquired the secondary role on Four Star's legal drama The Law and Mr. Jones, in which he appeared as C.E. Carruthers, the assistant to the attorney Abraham Lincoln Jones, portrayed by James Whitmore. Janet De Gore played the character of Marsha Spear.

In 1963, he got his big break when he landed the role of "Doc" on ABC-TV's hit series, Combat!. He joined the series at the start of its second season. Earlier, he had also appeared as a guest star in the first season of the program as a corporal in the episode "Hill 256." 

In 1964, Carter obtained his first movie role in the comedy, Quick, Before It Melts (1964). In the movie, he played a hillbilly radio operator in Antarctica. Carter's post-Combat! career included appearances in a few TV series and the feature film, White Lightning (1973) with Burt Reynolds.

He guest-starred in 1961 on NBC's Outlaws as Perry Brathwaite in the segment "The Brathwaite Brothers". He also appeared in Clint Eastwood's Rawhide, in Don Durant's Johnny Ringo, and on five occasions on James Arness's Gunsmoke, all on CBS. He was featured three times on ABC's The Big Valley with Barbara Stanwyck and twice on the network's The Rifleman with Chuck Connors. He also guest-starred twice on NBC's Bonanza and The Virginian with James Drury and on CBS's crime dramas Barnaby Jones with Buddy Ebsen and Mannix with Mike Connors. He also appeared in the role of "Ensign Marmer" in the 1963 episode The Thirty-Fathom Grave of CBS's The Twilight Zone.

One of Carter's more unusual roles was in 1970 as L. Frank Baum, the creator of The Wizard of Oz, on the episode "The Wizard of Aberdeen" on the syndicated TV series Death Valley Days. Other appearances were on ABC's Alias Smith and Jones, NBC's The Wide Country with Earl Holliman and Dr. Kildare with Richard Chamberlain, and CBS's The Dukes of Hazzard. He also appeared in an uncredited role in The Hellstrom Chronicle. His last television appearance was as Police Chief Ed Train in a 1986 episode of ABC's MacGyver adventure series starring Richard Dean Anderson.

After acquiring his commercial pilot's license, he abandoned his acting career. He lives in the resort community of Branson in southwestern Missouri. He formerly resided in Naples, Florida, where he piloted business executives around the United States in their own private aircraft. He had also been a corporate pilot.

In 1964, Carter was nominated for an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role by an Actor" on the Combat! episode "The Hostages." 

Carter married twice. He first married Patricia Ann Musser on 21 December 1958. The marriage ended in divorce in 1971. The couple had four children. In 1989, he married Betty Carol Murphy.