Ray Vitte

Raymond Vitte was born on November 20, 1949, and worked as an American actor whose career spanned comedy and drama film and television productions throughout the 1970s and into the early 1980s.

Vitte made his Broadway debut in 1974, appearing in What the Wine-Sellers Buy. His screen work during the same decade included numerous guest appearances on television programs, and in 1976 he joined the cast of the television series Doc as a series regular.

Vitte died on February 20, 1983, in Los Angeles at the age of 33. In the days preceding his death, he had been running a fever and had been behaving erratically at his home in Studio City. Neighbors contacted the Los Angeles Police Department after Vitte had been making loud religious statements for more than twelve hours. When officers arrived, Vitte allegedly lunged at one of them, who responded by striking him with a baton. Vitte attempted to flee but was struck again, and officers also deployed tear gas, which had no effect. He fell near a swimming pool, where officers handcuffed him and placed him in a squad car for transport to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. The officers noticed during the journey that Vitte had stopped breathing, and he was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.

A coroner's spokesman stated that preliminary autopsy results indicated superficial injuries consistent with a struggle but that those injuries were not the cause of death. The coroner's report attributed Vitte's death to complications from sickle cell disease. His death prompted a public response that included a news conference organized by a group that included singer Donna Summer and the president of the Beverly Hills-Hollywood chapter of the NAACP.