A FELLOW EAST EAGLE - FRANK SUTTON

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 Frank Sutton, who everyone knows as Sgt Carter on Gomer Pyle, was born in Clarksville Tennessee on October 23, 1923. At eight years old his family moved to Nashville where his father worked in the press room of the Nashville Tennessean. His father would die when Frank was fourteen. Frank attended East High School where Debbie and I graduated in 1968. He began acting at the age of nine but decided that he wanted to be an actor while in the Drama Club there. After graduation he became a radio announcer in Clarksville until he joined the Army and was involved in fourteen assault landings in the Pacific. After the war he became an actor and acted on many popular television series such as Route 66, Gunsmoke and Twilight Zone just to name a few. His biggest role was in the Academy Award winning movie Marty starring Ernest Borgnine. Then in 1964 he got his first big break as Sgt Carter on the Andy Griffith Show which soon evolved into the Gomer Pyle Show. The show was cancelled in 1969. Frank Sutton died of a heart attack while preparing to act in a dinner theater in Louisiana on June 28, 1974.

EAST NASHVILLE HIGH SCHOOL

Frank Sutton at East- I believe he is on front row near the center
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Frank Sutton's statue in downtown Clarksville Tn.

Frank Sutton's grave in Clarksville's Greenwood cemetery



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