Gene Raymond

Gene Raymond, born Raymond Guion on August 13, 1908, in New York City, was an American actor, singer, composer, screenwriter, director, producer, and military pilot whose career spanned stage, film, and television from the 1920s through the 1990s. He died on May 3, 1998, of pneumonia at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 89.

Raymond's connection to the stage began in childhood, when he attended the Professional Children's School in New York while performing in productions including Rip Van Winkle and Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch. His Broadway debut came at age 17 in The Cradle Snatchers, a production that ran two years and featured Mary Boland, Edna May Oliver, and Humphrey Bogart. His Broadway career extended from 1921 to 1957 and included the musical Say When, the drama A Shadow of My Enemy, and the plays Young Sinners, Jonesy, and The War Song.

His screen debut came in Personal Maid in 1931, after which he adopted the stage name Gene Raymond in place of his birth name. Early film appearances included the multi-director production If I Had a Million, which featured W. C. Fields and Charles Laughton. He went on to appear in Zoo in Budapest (1933) with Loretta Young, Red Dust (1932) with Jean Harlow and Clark Gable, Ex-Lady (1933) with Bette Davis, Flying Down to Rio (1933) alongside Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Sadie McKee (1934) with Joan Crawford, and Alfred Hitchcock's Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941) with Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery. He also appeared in a series of light RKO musicals, many opposite Ann Sothern, for whom he wrote the song "Will You?", performed in Smartest Girl in Town (1936). His wife, Jeanette MacDonald, performed several of his compositions in concert and recorded one titled "Let Me Always Sing." Raymond and MacDonald appeared together on screen in Smilin' Through, released as the United States was approaching entry into World War II. His last major film was The Best Man (1964), with Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson. In 1949 he wrote, directed, and starred in Million Dollar Weekend.

Raymond's television work was concentrated primarily in the 1950s and 1970s. In the 1950s he appeared on Playhouse of Stars, Fireside Theatre, Hollywood Summer Theater, and TV Reader's Digest. Later television credits included Paris 7000, 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.

Following the outbreak of World War II in Europe in 1939, Raymond trained as a pilot in anticipation of American involvement. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the Army Air Forces. He flew as an observer on B-17 anti-submarine missions along the Atlantic coast, attended intelligence school, and shipped out to England in July 1942, where he served with the 97th Bomb Group before becoming assistant operations officer in the VIII Bomber Command. Transferred back to the United States in 1943, he piloted both bombers and fighters in stateside duties. He remained in the United States Air Force Reserve after the war, retiring in 1968 at the rank of colonel. He was awarded the Legion of Merit for his service during the Vietnam War era.

Raymond married Jeanette MacDonald in 1937, having met her two years earlier at a Hollywood party at Roszika Dolly's home. The couple lived in a 21-room Tudor Revival mansion called Twin Gables. MacDonald died in 1965, and the two were married for nearly 28 years. In 1974, Raymond married Nelson Bentley Hees, and the two lived together in Pacific Palisades until Hees's death from Alzheimer's disease in 1995.

Raymond was one of the first actors of his era to work as a freelancer rather than under a studio contract. He was a Republican and a charter member of the Hollywood Republican Committee, supporting Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election. He devoted time in his later years to Jeanette MacDonald's International Fan Club, taking members out to lunch annually and befriending club president Clara Rhoades. His last public appearance was on June 27, 1997, at the fan club's 60th-anniversary banquet at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. His body was interred beside MacDonald's in the Freedom Mausoleum at Forest Lawn in Glendale, California. Raymond holds two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 7001 Hollywood Boulevard for motion pictures and 1708 Vine Street for television.