Frank Sutton

Actor. He is best remembered for his role of 'Gunnery Sergeant Vincent Carter' on the television comedy series "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C." (1964 to 1968). Born in Clarksville, Tennessee, he was the only child of Frank Sims Sutton and Thelma Spencer, who met while both were working at the local newspaper, the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle. About 1930, his father became a linotype operator for another newspaper, the Nashville Tennessean, and the family moved to Nashville, where Frank Jr. would become an active member of his high school drama club. He was also a radio announcer. and. after military service during World War II, he went to Columbia University School of Drama, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. In the 1950s and 1960s, he played many small roles, usually tough guys with a soft heart, in television and the movies, including such shows as "Captain Video" (1949 to 1956), the soap opera "The Secret Storm" (he was a regular during the 1960 to 1961 season), "Naked City," "The Untouchables," "Gunsmoke," "Maverick," "Combat," and "The Twilight Zone." His lasting fame came as the tough 'Sergeant Carter,' the drill instructor for 'Private Gomer Pyle' (played by Jim Nabors) in "Gomer Pyle, USMC." After the show's cancellation, he remained friends with Nabors, and worked on Nabor's next show, "The Jim Nabors Hour" (1969). Following this, he continued to make guest television appearances and performed in dinner theater. He died suddenly of a heart attack, while preparing for an appearance in a dinner theater in Shreveport, Louisiana. Frank was married to Toby Matilda Igler 8-26-1949 in Schuylkill, Pa. They had 2 children, Joseph Allen Sutton and Amanda Lee Sutton.