Gene Raymond
Acting
Biography
Gene Raymond, born Raymond Guion, was an American film, television, and stage actor of the 1930s and 1940s. In addition to acting, Raymond was also a composer, writer, director, producer, and decorated military pilot. His screen debut was in Personal Maid (1931). Another early appearance was in the multi-director If I Had a Million with W. C. Fields and Charles Laughton. With his blond good looks, classic profile, and youthful exuberance — plus a name change to the more pronounceable "Gene Raymond" — he scored in films like the classic Zoo in Budapest with Loretta Young, and a series of light RKO musicals, mostly with Ann Sothern. He wrote a number of songs, including the popular "Will You?" which he sang to Sothern in Smartest Girl in Town. His wife, Jeanette MacDonald, sang several of his more classical pieces in her concerts and recorded one entitled "Let Me Always Sing". His most notable films, mostly as a second lead actor, include Red Dust (1932) with Jean Harlow and Clark Gable, Zoo in Budapest with Loretta Young, Ex-Lady with Bette Davis, Flying Down to Rio with Dolores del Río, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, I Am Suzanne with Lilian Harvey, Sadie McKee with Joan Crawford, Alfred Hitchcock's Mr. and Mrs. Smith with Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery, and The Locket with Laraine Day, Brian Aherne, and Robert Mitchum. MacDonald and Raymond made one film together, Smilin' Through, which came out as the U.S. was on the verge of entering World War II. After service in the United States Army Air Forces Raymond returned to Hollywood. He wrote, directed and starred in the 1949 film Million Dollar Weekend. In later years he appeared in only a few films. His last major film was The Best Man in 1964 with Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson. In the 1950s he mostly worked in television, appearing in Playhouse of Stars, Fireside Theatre, Hollywood Summer Theater and TV Reader's Digest. In the 1970s he appeared on ABC Television Network's Paris 7000 and had guest roles in The Outer Limits, Robert Montgomery Presents, Playhouse 90, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Ironside, The Defenders, Mannix, The Name of the Game, Lux Video Theatre, Kraft Television Theatre and U.S. Steel Hour. Description above from the Wikipedia article Gene Raymond, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Born: August 13, 1908
Place of Birth: New York City, New York, USA
Known For
Filmography
as Self (archive footage)
as Emory Latimer Johns
as Sen. Albert Hanover
as J.P. Dumont
as The Voice of Death
as Walter Markle
as Senator Reeland
as Richmond Greene
as Marcus Weathers
as Charles Huff
as Charles Vechten
as Harlan Franciscus
as Whitey Devlin
as Col. Allan Morgan
as Martin Wood
as Don Cantwell
as Arthur Wade
as Matt Bellamy
as Sawyer
as Phil
as Silky Carter
as John Niles
as Eddie Harris
as Col. Sir Francis Chesney
as Wendell Craig
as Grady Lederer
as Mark Colby
as Stanley
as US Army Major
as Mark Alexander
as General
as Charles Sterling
as Nicholas Lawrence
as Steve Roark
as Self
as Dan Sullivan
as Andy Clements
as John Willis
as Kenneth 'Ken' Wayne / Jeremy 'Jerry' Wayne
as Jeff
as Lawrence Smith
as Carl
as Fuller Partridge
as Barry Saunders
as Jerry Martin
as Windy McLean
as Richard Stuyvesant Smith
as Pete Quinlan / Count Pierre Louis de Marsac
as Michael Martin
as Michael MacCreigh
as William Magee
as Douglas Tyler
as Carey Marshall
as John 'Johnny' Wyatt
as Michael Carter
as Jimmy Brett
as Tommy
as Chris Hansen
as Tony Malatini
as Monte Van Tyle
as Roger Bond
as Rodney Deane
as Bill
as Don Peterson
as Zani
as John Wallace (uncredited)
as Gary Willis
as Herbert Morrow
as Paul Ossipoff
as Standish McNeil
as Dick Gary