Born in Herington, Kansas, Crandall served with the U.S. Marine Corps where he was deployed to China in 1947 and stayed for two years.
In civilian life, he worked at radio stations in Texas and Florida under his pseudonym Brad Crandall.
In New York City, Crandall did voice-over commercials for many national clients, including narrating classified films for the army.
After moving his family to Los Angeles in the 1970s, Crandall did on-camera narrations for popular documentaries produced by Sunn Classic Pictures, including In Search of Noah's Ark (1976), The Lincoln Conspiracy (1977), Beyond and Back (1978), In Search of Historic Jesus (1979), Encounter with Disaster (1979) and The Bermuda Triangle (1979).
At the time of his death from kidney failure at 63, Crandall lived on his boat in Redondo Beach, California.