Kenneth Carten

Kenneth Carten, Ross Landon, John Gatrell and Hugh French sing "The Stately Homes of England"

Kenneth Hare Bicker-Caarten (29 August 1911 – 1980) was an English actor who worked under the name Kenneth Carten.

Biography Kenneth Hare Bicker-Caarten was born on 29 August 1911 at Blomfield Road, Maida Vale, London, the son of middle-class parents Catherine and Edwin Hare Bicker-Caarten. His sisters were playwrights Waveney Carten and Audrey Carten.

Tallulah Bankhead, a very close friend of his sister, Audrey, became a surrogate mother to Carten, who during the summer break from Eton College, went to live with them.

In the late 1930s, with his sister, Audrey, he frequented the social circle of Elvira Mullens Barney.

Appearances 1930: Charlot's Masquerade with Beatrice Lillie 1930: Wonder Bar with Gwen Farrar and Norah Blaney. 1937: Foodlight written by Beverley Nichols, with Cyril Butcher and Hermione Baddeley. 1939: French without Tears by Terence Rattigan. He worked for the Myron Selznick corporation. He represented also Amelia Hall, who, in her memoirs, wrote: "I returned to my Hampstead digs and phoned Kenneth Carten. "Mr Carten, I cannot take part in the murder of a masterpiece." In his quiet, English way Kenneth Carten reasoned with me. He asked me to realize that not every day did an actress come to England from abroad and within two or three weeks land a role like Amanda. He begged me to put up with the script. I did. Looking back, I marvel that I was allowed to work, for I did not belong to British Equity, nor to any union."

He died in Kensington in 1980.