Frank Sutton explained why he was a lot like Sgt. Carter in Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.

Sutton called the character "gentle."

CBS Television Distribution

Despite Sgt. Carter's angry tirades and bad temper, Frank Sutton insisted that the character was, against all disbelief, a warm-hearted person. You'd be inclined to believe Sutton; he played the character for many years on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Not only that, but Sutton also claimed responsibility for making Sgt. Carter. He insisted that the character was a good man deep in his heart.

"I created the character," said Sutton during an interview with the Sunday Patriot-News. "He's really very gentle."

At first glance, this might be hard to picture. However, it is true that Carter's personality softened quite a bit as the series went on. He and Gomer became fairly close before the show ended in 1969.

So, when asked whether Sutton felt that his personality was quite similar to Carter's, the actor was inclined to agree.

"Well, in some ways, yes," said Sutton. "I think I'm really a pretty gentle person. I yell around the house, sometimes at my children, but I'm too soft to spank them!... But I've molded that Sgt. Carter character. He has to be a lot like me."

When pressed as to what advice Carter would give to young children, Sutton was honest and found that his advice was the same. "Well, Carter likes children," said Sutton. "He would tell them to obey the rules, love their parents, study hard, work hard...I suppose I'd say the same thing."

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7 Comments

Moviegirl57 14 days ago
Hello I'm leaving a comment because I wish you would take the westerns off of here we already have a channel on the regular digital channels that shows the westerns and in the heat of the night literally the repeating everything is on the western channel and channel 2.4
Please put more of the older comedy shows on here I look on channel 2.4 and then I go over to me TV and it's the same thing on at the same time and usually it's The Westerns it's not fair I want to watch the older comedy shows instead of watching In the heat of the night, or The Westerns.
METV repeats everything to death. Gomer is the latest thing to arrive replacing Green Acres but aside from that the rest of the evening shows have been the same for ages. Some have been on for years. So I doubt they would change the afternoon westerns when they don’t bother to change evening shows.
Brad MrsPhilHarris 12 days ago
Except for the one show that I could've watched over and over, forever... Adam-12. I used to drop anything I was doing right at 5:00 every day in order to watch Adam-12, even though I had seen every episode zillions of times. I liked picking out the places I was familiar with when I lived in L.A., and seeing the "guest stars" pop up in unexpected rolls... like Tony Dow, when he gets his Dodge Challenger convertible stolen by a smokin' hot teenage girl. Oh well, at least it's still on at 6:00 a.m. - when I'm already at work!
MrsPhilHarris Brad 12 days ago
I catch part of the 6:30 episode and like to pick out the guest stars too.
Grunt 14 days ago
I remember watching Gomer Pyle while being stationed in N.C. In U.S.M.C. and got a kick out of it. Frank Sutton did a good job at playing Sgt. Carter. I couldn’t help thinking when Gomer would mess up what my Drill Instructor would have done LOL.
Brad Grunt 12 days ago
Gomer would still be doing push-ups if he had any of my drill instructors!
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