He is best known today for his role in the long-running United States sitcom The Phil Silvers Show, appearing as Private Claude Dillingham.

As a professional middleweight boxer, Cartier fought some of the best fighters of his era, including Gene Hairston, Billy Kilgore, Garth Panther, Randy Sandy, Bobby Dykes, Gene Boland, and Billy Kilroy (all of whom he beat), as well as Pierre Langlois (a ten-round draw), Rocky Castellani, and world champions Kid Gavilán, Joey Giardello, Carl Olson, and Randy Turpin.

Fought on March 17, 1953 at Kensington's Earl's Court Express in England, it ended with Cartier being disqualified for holding in round two.

In January 1949, Stanley Kubrick, then working as a staff photographer for Look magazine, featured Cartier in an eight-page photo essay about boxing, called "Prizefighter".

[1] Kubrick was a boxing enthusiast and two years later, he made his debut 16-minute film, Day of the Fight (1951), featuring Cartier and his twin brother Vincent.