George Raft

George Raft, born George Ranft on September 26, 1901, in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, was an American actor and dancer who built a career spanning Broadway stages and Hollywood film. He was the son of Eva Glockner, a German immigrant, and Conrad Ranft, whose own father had emigrated from Germany and worked on merry-go-rounds while also prospecting for gold. Conrad Ranft worked in carnivals before the family settled in New York. Raft grew up on 41st Street, left school at twelve, and left home at thirteen. He worked briefly as an apprentice electrician, then spent two years boxing professionally under the name Dutch Rauft, compiling a record that included fourteen bouts with nine victories, three defeats, and two draws. He also played minor-league baseball as a utility outfielder, reportedly with Springfield of the Eastern League, before poor batting ended that pursuit.

Dancing became Raft's primary occupation after his mother first taught him the craft, which he had also practiced at outdoor amusement parks and carnivals. He began working as a taxi dancer in poorer sections of New York, and a Charleston competition win launched him into professional venues. He performed exhibition dances at Healy's, Murray's, Rectors, and Churchills, and a May 1924 Variety review described him as gifted. He went on to perform in New York City nightclubs, sometimes in the same venues where Rudolph Valentino had appeared before Valentino's film career began. Raft also had a notable collaboration with dancer Elsie Pilcer. He toured internationally, helping popularize the tango in Paris, Vienna, Rome, London, and New York, and achieved particular success in London in 1926, where the Duke of Windsor became an ardent supporter. A September 1926 edition of Variety identified him as the best Charleston dancer in New York, an assessment Fred Astaire later echoed in his 1959 autobiography Steps in Time, describing Raft as a lightning-fast dancer who performed the fastest Charleston Astaire had ever seen.

During this period Raft befriended several organized crime figures, including Enoch Johnson and Larry Fay, and occasionally drove for Owney Madden. He was also a boyhood friend of Benjamin Bugsy Siegel and acknowledged having narrowly avoided a life of crime. His associations with the underworld generated controversy that followed him throughout his life and ultimately resulted in a ban from Great Britain in 1967.

Raft became part of the stage act of nightclub hostess Texas Guinan at the 300 Club and also produced some of her shows. That work led him to Broadway, where he appeared between 1925 and 1927. His Broadway credits included The City Chap, which opened in October 1925 and featured music by Jerome Kern, as well as Gay Paree, Madhattan, Palm Beach Nights, and the musical Padlocks of 1927. He was again recognized during this period as the fastest Charleston dancer.

In 1927, Raft relocated to Hollywood at the urging of Owney Madden, who believed he belonged in motion pictures. He initially danced in clubs to support himself before breaking into film. His screen debut came in Queen of the Night Clubs, starring Texas Guinan, though his scenes were cut from the final release. Small roles in Gold Diggers of Broadway and Side Street followed before director Rowland Brown cast him in a substantial supporting role in Quick Millions in 1931, opposite Spencer Tracy. His film career accelerated significantly when he was cast as the second lead in Howard Hawks's Scarface in 1932, playing Guino Rinaldo alongside Paul Muni. The coin-flipping mannerism his character employed became an iconic element of gangster cinema, and writer W.R. Burnett confirmed that Raft himself invented it. The film was a commercial success and established Raft as a star.

Over the following decades Raft appeared in numerous films that cemented his identification with gangster roles, including Each Dawn I Die in 1939 with James Cagney, Invisible Stripes in 1939 with Humphrey Bogart, and Billy Wilder's comedy Some Like It Hot in 1959 with Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon. He also demonstrated his dancing in Bolero in 1934 opposite Carole Lombard and played a truck driver in They Drive by Night in 1940 with Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino, and Bogart. He later starred in the 1942 film Broadway, a fictionalized account of his time working the Paramount-Publix circuit and performing in stage shows presented before movies. George Raft died on November 24, 1980.