Name
Gene Raymond
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1908-08-13
Deathday
1998-05-02 (90 years old)
Place of Birth
New York City, New York, USA
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.
Known For
5.877
Happily married for three years, Ann and David Smith live in New York. One morning Ann ask...
6.307
An American bandleader woos a Brazilian beauty who is already engaged to his employer. H...
7.291
The other party is in disarray. Five men vie for the party nomination for president. No on...
5
Sailors on leave in San Francisco get mixed up in love and show business....
6.3
A dark personal secret drives a young woman to use every man she encounters....
6.9
Looks at the stereotype-breaking films of the period from 1929, when movies entered the so...
6.989
A spectacular heist starts to unravel as the crooks take it on the lam....
6.54
An elderly business tycoon, believed to be dying, decides to give a million dollars each t...
4.3
A lone gunman hunts the fearsome Apache Satago across the plains of the Wild West. When Sa...
- 1941 Mr. & Mrs. Smith as Jeff
- 1933 Flying Down to Rio as Roger Bond
- 1957 Plunder Road as Eddie Harris
- 1964 The Best Man as Don Cantwell
- 1948 Assigned to Danger as Dan Sullivan
- 1946 The Locket as John Willis
- 1934 Sadie McKee as Tommy
- 1932 Red Dust as Gary Willis
- 1948 Million Dollar Weekend as Nicholas Lawrence
- 1933 The House on 56th Street as Monte Van Tyle
- 1933 Ex-Lady as Don Peterson
- 1964 The Hanged Man as Whitey Devlin
- 1935 The Woman in Red as John 'Johnny' Wyatt
- 1932 If I Had a Million as John Wallace (uncredited)
- 1933 Zoo in Budapest as Zani
- 1936 The Bride Walks Out as Michael Martin
- 1955 Hit the Deck as Wendell Craig
- 1941 Smilin' Through as Kenneth 'Ken' Wayne / Jeremy 'Jerry' Wayne
- 1931 Ladies of the Big House as Standish McNeil
- 1933 I Am Suzanne! as Tony Malatini
- 1934 Behold My Wife! as Michael Carter
- 1964 I'd Rather Be Rich as Martin Wood
- 1938 Stolen Heaven as Carl
- 1936 Love on a Bet as Michael MacCreigh
- 1933 Brief Moment as Rodney Deane
- 1937 She's Got Everything as Fuller Partridge
- 1935 Seven Keys to Baldpate as William Magee
- 1937 The Life of the Party as Barry Saunders
- 1936 That Girl from Paris as Windy McLean
- 1936 Smartest Girl in Town as Richard Stuyvesant Smith
- 1933 Ann Carver's Profession as Bill
- 1934 Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round as Jimmy Brett
- 1940 Cross-Country Romance as Lawrence Smith
- 1937 There Goes My Girl as Jerry Martin
- 1936 Walking on Air as Pete Quinlan / Count Pierre Louis de Marsac
- 1932 The Night of June 13 as Herbert Morrow
- 1935 Hooray for Love as Douglas Tyler
- 1969 Five Bloody Graves as The Voice of Death
- 1935 Transient Lady as Carey Marshall
- 1932 Forgotten Commandments as Paul Ossipoff
- 1931 Personal Maid as Dick Gary
- 1948 Sofia as Steve Roark
- 1959 Woman on the Run
- 2003 Complicated Women as Self (archive footage)
- 1934 Coming Out Party as Chris Hansen
- 1992 Nelson and Jeanette: America's Singing Sweethearts as Self
- 1957 Where's Charley? as Col. Sir Francis Chesney
- 1963 Burke's Law ( 1 episode ) as Arthur Wade
- 1965 The F.B.I. ( 1 episode ) as Harlan Franciscus
- 1967 Mannix ( 1 episode ) as Richmond Greene
- 1948 Studio One ( 1 episode ) as Charles Sterling
- 1948 The Ed Sullivan Show ( 2 episodes ) as Self
- 1967 Ironside ( 1 episode ) as Marcus Weathers
- 1965 Laredo ( 1 episode )
- 1962 Sam Benedict ( 1 episode )
- 1949 Fireside Theater ( 142 episodes ) as Host
- 1950 Lux Video Theatre ( 1 episode ) as John Aldrid
- 1951 Schlitz Playhouse of Stars ( 1 episode ) as US Army Major
- 1954 Climax! ( 1 episode ) as Grady Lederer
- 1967 Judd, for the Defense ( 1 episode )
- 1955 Matinee Theater ( 3 episodes )
- 1967 Hondo ( 1 episode )
- 1951 Tales of Tomorrow ( 2 episodes )
- 1959 Johnny Ringo ( 1 episode ) as Silky Carter
- 1963 The Outer Limits ( 1 episode ) as Sawyer
- 1955 TV Reader's Digest ( 65 episodes )
- 1953 Letter to Loretta ( 1 episode ) as Mark Colby
- 1963 Channing ( 1 episode ) as Matt Bellamy
- 1960 The Barbara Stanwyck Show ( 1 episode ) as Phil
- 1950 Lux Video Theatre ( 1 episode ) as Luke Drake
- 1951 Schlitz Playhouse of Stars ( 1 episode ) as Mark Alexander
- 1968 The Name of the Game ( 1 episode ) as Senator Reeland
- 1958 The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen ( 1 episode ) as John Niles
- 1987 The RKO Story: Tales From Hollywood ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1976 McNaughton's Daughter ( 3 episodes ) as Emory Latimer Johns
- 1953 Kraft Television Theatre ( 1 episode )
- 1947 Kraft Television Theatre ( 1 episode ) as Andy Clements
- 1964 The Man from U.N.C.L.E. ( 1 episode ) as Col. Allan Morgan
- 1972 Emergency! ( 1 episode ) as J.P. Dumont
- 1967 Ironside ( 1 episode ) as Charles Huff
- 1951 The Red Skelton Show ( 1 episode ) as General
- 1975 The Invisible Man ( 1 episode ) as Sen. Albert Hanover
- 1969 The Bold Ones: The New Doctors ( 1 episode ) as Walter Markle
- 1953 Medallion Theatre ( 1 episode )
- 1952 The Ford Television Theatre ( 1 episode ) as Stanley
- 1966 The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. ( 1 episode ) as Charles Vechten
- 1950 Robert Montgomery Presents ( 1 episode )
- 1955 Matinee Theater ( 1 episode ) as Edward Dudley
