Robert Carradine, who starred in the Eighties cult classic Revenge of the Nerds and found a new generation of fans in the early 2000s with Lizzie McGuire, has died at the age of 71. A rep for the actor’s brother, Keith Carradine, told Rolling Stone that Robert had succumbed to bipolar disorder after fighting it for nearly 20 years.
In a statement to the media, his family confirmed the news. “It is with profound sadness that we must share that our beloved father, grandfather, uncle, and brother Robert Carradine has passed away,” read the statement. “In a world that can feel so dark, Bobby was always a beacon on light to everyone around him. We are bereft at the loss of this beautiful soul and want to acknowledge Bobby’s valiant struggle against his nearly two-decade battle with Bipolar Disorder. We hope his journey can shine a light and encourage addressing the stigma that attaches to mental illness.”
When speaking to Deadline, which first reported the news of his death, Keith said that their family wanted people to be aware of the actor’s struggle with bipolar disorder. “We want people to know it, and there is no shame in it,” said Keith. “It is an illness that got the best of him, and I want to celebrate him for his struggle with it, and celebrate his beautiful soul. He was profoundly gifted, and we will miss him every day. We will take solace in how funny he could be, how wise and utterly accepting and tolerant he was. That’s who my baby brother was.”
Born on March 24, 1954, in Los Angeles, Carradine came from an American family of notable actors. His mother, Sonia Sorel, was an actress and artist, and his father, John Carradine, was a prolific and venerated character actor. He had two older brothers, Keith and Christopher Carradine, as well as half-brothers, David and Bruce Carradine, and Michael Bowen. When asked back in November on the Brett Allan Show podcast what advice Robert gave aspiring actors, he said, “I tell them what my dad told me and my brothers: Try to get a good literary education, and that usually stops them in their tracks.”
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Before Carradine made his film debut on The Cowboys with John Wayne in 1972, he said he had “zero interest” in acting and wanted to be a race car driver at the time. It wasn’t until his brother David told him, “You got everything to gain and nothing to lose,” that Robert auditioned for the role. “I got the part, that was that,” he said.
Carradine would go on to feature in Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets, play road-racing Jim Cantrell in the 1976 comedy Cannonball, and appeared in the Oscar-winning drama Coming Home alongside Jane Fonda and Jon Voight.
In 1980, in an atypical casting, Robert along with David and Keith portrayed the Younger brothers in The Long Riders alongside three other sets of real-life siblings. Randy and Dennis Quaid portrayed the Miller brothers, Stacy and James Keach played Frank and Jesse James, and Christopher and Nicholas Guest took on the Ford brothers.
Following a run of other features in the early Eighties, including a burnt out rockstar in science fiction film Wavelength, Carradine landed his iconic role as the bespectacled Lewis Skolnick in the Revenge of the Nerds franchise. He initially spurned the job, however, and told podcast host Allan, “I did not want to be in a movie with the name nerd in the title.” Eventually, his agent convinced him to audition and Carradine, who had long hair at the time, cut it short, and found a “nerdy shirt” and glasses engineers later “wore in Apollo 13.” When he walked into the audition, the casting associate didn’t recognize him at first. “She said, ‘Oh my God, Robert?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ She said, ‘Come on in,’” he recalled. “So that’s how I got the part.”
Carradine would later gain a new generation of fans in the early aughts with his portrayal of father Sam McGuire on Lizzie McGuire. He called the role a “godsend” during a 2013 interview with Pop Dose. “I didn’t really think that they were going to go for somebody of my style and type as Lizzie’s father. And then I found out after the fact that they’d written this guy to be kind of loose and devil-may-care, which I am,” he said.
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Carradine also launched Party Nerds Pop-Cast with his longtime friend and co-host Richard Gabai last year. The podcast saw the duo invite numerous celebrity guests onto the show to share behind-the-scenes stories. “I lost my best friend today. He was the kindest, sweetest and most loving person one could ever hope to meet,” said Gabai in a tribute shared with Rolling Stone. “I feel very blessed to have had him in my life, and will miss him dearly.”
When asked by Allan about his experience connecting with Revenge of the Nerds fans, Carradine shared how someone once drove eight hours to meet him during an event in Florida. “He said, ‘Your movie saved my life,’” said Carradine. “So when that happens, you know, it’s a whole new animal.”