Did Sargent Carter (Frank Sutton) make "Gomer Pyle" A Hit

[cochrane]

@Sigmagirl

I think Gomer Pyle came quite late in his career and was by far his biggest role. He died soon after the series ended; I think he was only 50. I hear people saying R. Lee Ermey, but I see him as too heavyhanded. Sutton had that talent for being so exasperated he just couldn’t see straight, but wasn’t mean enough to do anything about it. He wanted to be R. Lee Ermey.

It might have ended badly for R. Lee Ermey. I can picture Jim Nabors in the head, field-stripping his rifle. Private Hummel encounters him.

Private Hummel: Are those… live rounds?

Private Gomer Pyle: Seven-six-two millimeter. Full. Metal. Jacket.

[Kent_Clark]

@KRSOradio

Perhaps I feel Frank Sutton didn’t get enough credit for the success of that show

I’ll go along with you there. Ditto for Ed Platt in Get Smart and Werner Klemperer in Hogan’s Heroes.

[Walloon]

@Sampiro

He has lengthy credits on imdb, but I don’t recall ever having seen Frank Sutton on anything. Has anybody else?

I remember him as one of Ernest Borgnine’s dead-end friends in Marty (1955), and in some '70s disaster TV-movie about a hurricane, in which Sutton played a goodtime Charlie who ignores warnings to evacuate, and throws a party instead. Well, the hurricane smashes through his apartment in the midst of the frivolity.

[ShermanAter]

@Sigmagirl

I think Gomer Pyle came quite late in his career and was by far his biggest role. He died soon after the series ended; I think he was only 50.(snip)

Gomer Pyle is dead?

I still have a Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. lunch box from the first grade (circa 1965) around here somewhere. The Thermos is long gone but I still treasure it because it has my name inside the lid in Moms handwriting.

Thanks for the memory.

[Icerigger]

Ditto for Ed Platt in Get Smart and Werner Klemperer in Hogan’s Heroes.

Werner did win an Emmy for his role as Col. Klink.

[Cicero]

A lot of those sitcoms were built around a smart arse- such as Hogan in Hogans Heroes and a dumbo - you could add F Troop to that.

And just hijacking- so may military movies are made around the premise of a senior officer getting up a more junior officer who had a different view. Such as The Battle of The Bulge. (The movie, not the battle)

[Johnny_L.A]

@ShermanAter

Gomer Pyle is dead?

Jim Nabors is still alive.

Frank Sutton died in 1974.