ABOUT CARRIE HAMILTON
Actor, playwright, screenwriter, singer/songwriter and musician Carrie Louise Hamilton was the daughter of actor Carol Burnett and the late producer, Joe Hamilton. She was born in New York City and raised in Los Angeles. As her many friends will attest, Carrie was a force of nature, a shooting star who lived with a joyous appetite for life and a deep concern for humanity.
Carrie was a magnetic young woman with a stunning smile, an
infectious laugh, a throaty voice, and the soul of a poet. She was someone
who cared deeply for others, particularly for those who were much less
fortunate. It is commonly known that when a homeless person approached
Carrie, she would always offer him or her a deal: five dollars if they told her their
story. Of course it worked, and she got the story. She also got
their hearts, right in the palm of her hand. Carrie used those stories, and the
personal narratives, shared with her by everyone she met, as muses in her
screenwriting, her poetry, her lyrics and her acting.
The role for which she first began to receive national attention was in the television series, Fame. Guest starring roles on other series soon followed including: Murder She Wrote; Equal Justice; Beverly Hills 90210; Thirtysomething; Walker, Texas Ranger; Touched By An Angel; Brooklyn South; and The X Files. She also starred in numerous movies for television, such as Love Lives On; Hostage; Single Women, Married Men; and A Mother's Justice.
Her feature film credits include: Ralph Bakshi's Cool World; Tokyo Pop; Shag; Just Desserts; and PI. Over the last several years she became involved in the co-op/profit sharing film company NAMETHKUF for which she wrote and/or directed her first short films, Defying the Stars and Lunchtime Thomas. For the latter she won the Women in Film award at the 2001 Latino Film Festival.
Carrie's theatre career included acclaimed starring roles as Maureen in the first national touring company of Rent and Lucy in the Los Angeles Reprise production of Three Penny Opera. She conceived the idea of writing a play based on her mother's best-selling memoir, One More Time. Together they wrote, Hollywood Arms, directed by Hal Prince, which premiered at Chicago's Goodman Theatre and went to Broadway shortly after Carrie died of cancer on January 20th, 2002 at the young age of 38.