Raymond Massey

Raymond Hart Massey (August 30, 1896 – July 29, 1983) was a Canadian-born actor whose Broadway career spanned from 1931 to 1958. Born in Toronto, Ontario, he came from one of Canada's most prominent industrial families: his father, Chester Daniel Massey, was co-owner of the Massey-Harris tractor company, and his grandfather Hart Massey and great-grandfather Daniel Massey were foundational figures in that enterprise. The family's North American roots stretched back to English ancestors who had settled in the Massachusetts colony in the 1630s and later relocated to Canada from New England shortly before the War of 1812.

Massey received his secondary education at Upper Canada College in Toronto before transferring to Appleby College in Oakville, Ontario. He also took courses at the University of Toronto, where he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Society. At the outbreak of World War I, he enlisted in the Canadian Army and served on the Western Front with the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery. Wounded at Zillebeke, Belgium, during the Battle of Mont Sorrel in 1916, he returned to Canada and was assigned as an instructor for American officers at Yale University. In 1918 he was recalled to active duty and joined the Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, where, on orders from his commanding general, he organized a minstrel show troupe in Vladivostok to sustain troop morale. After returning home in 1919, he attended Balliol College, Oxford, and subsequently worked in the family farm implements business before persuading his family to allow him to pursue a theatrical career.

His stage debut came in London in 1922 in Eugene O'Neill's In the Zone, and over the following decade he appeared in what The New York Times later described as several dozen plays while also directing numerous others. The Washington Post credited him with performances in more than 80 productions during this period, among them Pygmalion with Gertrude Lawrence and Ethan Frome with Ruth Gordon. In 1929 he directed the London premiere of The Silver Tassie. His Broadway debut came in 1931 in an unorthodox production of Hamlet that received poor reviews.

Among his most celebrated stage achievements was the lead role in Robert E. Sherwood's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Abe Lincoln in Illinois, in which Massey's portrayal of Abraham Lincoln earned widespread acclaim despite initial reservations about a Canadian actor taking on the role. He reprised Lincoln in the 1940 film version, earning a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He returned to the character in two television adaptations of Abe Lincoln in Illinois broadcast in 1950 and 1951, in a 1956 Ford Star Jubilee production titled The Day Lincoln Was Shot, and in a silent appearance in How the West Was Won (1962). His preparation for the role was so thorough that he became, in his own joking words, "the only actor ever typecast as a president." In 1953, Massey participated in a dramatic stage reading of Stephen Vincent Benét's John Brown's Body alongside Tyrone Power and Judith Anderson, narrating while also taking on the roles of both John Brown and Lincoln — a production that is among his listed Broadway credits.

His other Broadway credits include How I Wonder, The Doctor's Dilemma, Lovers and Friends, and Candida. The Doctor's Dilemma and Candida were both works by George Bernard Shaw, and Massey performed in them alongside Katharine Cornell. During World War II, he joined Cornell and other prominent actors in a revival of Candida staged to benefit the Army Emergency Fund and the Navy Relief Society. Massey himself rejoined the Canadian Army in 1942, serving as a major in the adjutant general's branch before being wounded and invalided out in 1943. He became an American citizen in 1944.

His film career was extensive and varied. His first screen appearance was in High Treason (1928), and in 1931 he played Sherlock Holmes in The Speckled Band. Subsequent notable film roles included the villain in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934), the lead in H.G. Wells's Things to Come (1936), and the district attorney in Fritz Lang's film noir The Woman in the Window (1944). He portrayed Jonathan Brewster in the film version of Arsenic and Old Lace — a role originated on stage by Boris Karloff, whose resemblance to the character served as a running gag — though the film was shot in 1941 and released in 1944. Massey and Karloff had previously appeared together in James Whale's The Old Dark House (1932). He played the American Revolutionary War figure Abraham Farlan in A Matter of Life and Death (1946), the abolitionist John Brown in both Santa Fe Trail (1940) and Seven Angry Men (1955), Joan Crawford's husband in Possessed (1947), the publishing tycoon Gail Wynand in The Fountainhead (1949), and Adam Trask, father to James Dean's character, in East of Eden (1955). Despite his Canadian origins, Massey became particularly associated with archetypal American historical figures. He played a Canadian on screen only once, in 49th Parallel (1941).

On television, Massey became widely recognized for his role as Dr. Gillespie in the NBC series Dr. Kildare, which ran from 1961 to 1966 with Richard Chamberlain in the title role. He also appeared in the NBC series Riverboat in 1960, cast as Sir Oliver Garnett in the episode "Trunk Full of Dreams." In 1961, he and his son Daniel Massey were cast as father and son in The Queen's Guards.

Massey was married three times. His first marriage, to Margery Fremantle, lasted from 1921 to 1929 and produced one child, architect Geoffrey Massey. His second marriage, to stage actress Adrianne Allen, lasted from 1929 to 1939; their two children, Anna Massey and Daniel Massey, both pursued acting careers. The dissolution of that marriage, and its legal circumstances, inspired Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin's screenplay for the 1949 film Adam's Rib: Massey married his divorce attorney, Dorothy Whitney, while Allen married the opposing counsel, William Dwight Whitney. Massey and Dorothy Whitney remained married until her death in 1982. His older brother, Vincent Massey, served as the first Canadian-born governor general of Canada. In 1952, Massey's stage play Hanging Judge was produced in the West End, directed by Michael Powell. Raymond Massey died on July 29, 1983.