March 31, 2025

NERD, Robert Carradine, steps into role of Court Ambassador

Robert Carradine, an American actor and musician, will serve as the Court Ambassador at the Coronation of Queen Shenandoah XCVIII on Friday, May 2, at John Handley High School at 1:30 p.m. Jeremy Luttrell, Festival president, announces, additionally, Carradine will make appearances at Festival events and will ride in the Hang10 Firefighters’ and Glo Fiber Grand Feature Parades. Tickets to Festival events are available at www.thebloom.com/events
 
Carradine's biggest film success came when he starred in Revenge of the Nerds as the lead nerd ‘Lewis Skolnick’. To prepare for the comedy, Carradine spent time at The University of Arizona, where the movie was filmed, participating in rush week. "No fraternity picked him, convincing Carradine that he was indeed right for the part of the nerd that nobody wanted to claim as their own." Carradine reprised the role of Skolnick in three sequels, taking over as executive producer in the latter two.
 
Robert is the youngest member of the Carradine family, which includes actors, David and Keith. Robert was instrumental in securing his brothers to perform with him in one of the most unusual casting arrangements in movie history. Together the Carradines played the ‘Younger Brothers’ in The Long Riders along with three other sets of acting brothers: Stacy & James Keach, Dennis & Randy Quaid, and Christopher & Nicholas Guest. 

Carradine considered his "first ambition" to be of car racing. He found that role in acting and won the cross-country road race, beating the favorite, Coy "Cannonball" Buckman’, played by his brother, David. 
 
Robert landed a demanding role in Hal Ashby's Oscar-winning Vietnam War drama, Coming Home, which starred Jane Fonda and Jon Voight. His performance was acclaimed outstanding. 

On television, Robert appeared on his brother David's series, Kung Fu, as ‘Sunny Jim’.  Carradine played ‘Robert Cohn’ in the television mini-series version of Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. He appeared in the HBO mini-series, Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8. Additionally, he was nominated for the CableACE Award in for Showtime’s As Is.....perhaps the most demanding role of his career. 

Robert played father ‘Sam McGuire on the very popular Lizzie McGuire from 2001-2003. The show starred Hilary Duff as ‘Lizzie’.
 
Additional feature film work includes the western, Justice, as well as the holiday comedies, American Christmas and High Holiday. Recently, he completed the features, Cowboy Killer: A Love Story and 3 Killer Pigs. 

While in Winchester, Robert Carradine will appear in-person for multiple movie screenings and live Q&As at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. The first will be a World Premiere Screening of the comedy/thriller The Cowboy Killer at 7:30 pm on Thursday, May 1. The screening and Q&A will also feature Winchester-raised, LA-based filmmakers Ben Solenberger and Jaymes Camery. 
 
Robert will also participate in a rare theatrical screening of the 1980 film The Big Red One: The Reconstruction, which also starred Mark Hamill and Lee Marvin. The screening will take place at 11 am on Sunday, May 4. The 'reconstruction' title refers to is the re-working, re-editing, and re-structuring of Sam Fuller's The Big Red One bringing it closer to the film Fuller had originally envisioned. It includes almost 48 additional minutes of footage which was not utilized in the film's original release.

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