Raymond McKee

Eldon Raymond McKee, born December 7, 1892, in Keokuk, Iowa, to Albert N. McKee and Alice Yetter McKee, was an American stage and screen actor who built a career spanning more than two decades across Broadway, silent film, and early sound-era productions. He died on October 3, 1984, in Long Beach, California, at the age of 91, from pneumonia.

McKee entered films in 1912 with The Lovers' Signal and went on to appear in at least 172 additional productions over the following 23 years. Early in his screen career he worked for the Edison and Lubin studios in the eastern United States, where he was billed under the name Roy McKee. During World War I he served as an Army lieutenant in France, and he reportedly appeared in four war-themed films while still wearing his military uniform.

His Broadway career included the 1919 play The Phantom Legion, in which he portrayed the character Jack Weaver. He also performed on stage in A Fool There Was, The Fortune Teller, and Madame X.

From 1926 to 1928, McKee was associated with producer Mack Sennett, taking on the central role of Jimmy Smith in a series of 29 silent comedy short films built around the Smith Family. The supporting cast featured Ruth Hiatt as Mabel Smith, Mary Ann Jackson as Bubbles Smith, Andy Clyde as Uncle Dan, Leo Sulky as Jimmy's friend, Sunshine Hart as Jimmy's mother-in-law, and Carole Lombard as Lillian. Regular Sennett players including Tiny Ward, Vernon Dent, Irving Bacon, William McCall, Louise Carver, Barney Hellum, Billy Gilbert, and Louise Carver also appeared throughout the series. Released at roughly one film per month as one-reel fillers, the shorts ran from Smith's Baby in 1926 through Smith's Catalina Rowboat Race in 1928. After Sennett discontinued new filming in 1928, several stockpiled entries were released into 1929 under revised titles, among them Baby's Birthday, Uncle Tom, The Rodeo, and The New Aunt.

McKee met actress Marguerite Courtot during the 1918 production of The Unbeliever, and the two worked together again in the 1922 film Down to the Sea in Ships. They married on April 14 of the following year and remained married for nearly 60 years, until McKee's death. After retiring from acting, McKee operated The Zulu Hut, a restaurant he had originally opened in Los Angeles in the 1920s, located at 11100 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. A United States Army veteran, McKee was interred at Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California, where his wife Marguerite was buried alongside him two years after his death.