Gene Raymond
Gene Raymond, born Raymond Guion, was an American film, television, and stage actor of the 1930s and 1940s. In addition to acting, Raymond was also a composer, writer, director, producer, and decorated military pilot.
His screen debut was in Personal Maid (1931). Another early appearance was in the multi-director If I Had a Million with W. C. Fields and Charles Laughton. With his blond good looks, classic profile, and youthful exuberance — plus a name change to the more pronounceable "Gene Raymond" — he scored in films like the classic Zoo in Budapest with Loretta Young, and a series of light RKO musicals, mostly with Ann Sothern. He wrote a number of songs, including the popular "Will You?" which he sang to Sothern in Smartest Girl in Town. His wife, Jeanette MacDonald, sang several of his more classical pieces in her concerts and recorded one entitled "Let Me Always Sing".
His most notable films, mostly as a second lead actor, include Red Dust (1932) with Jean Harlow and Clark Gable, Zoo in Budapest with Loretta Young, Ex-Lady with Bette Davis, Flying Down to Rio with Dolores del Río, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, I Am Suzanne with Lilian Harvey, Sadie McKee with Joan Crawford, Alfred Hitchcock's Mr. and Mrs. Smith with Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery, and The Locket with Laraine Day, Brian Aherne, and Robert Mitchum. MacDonald and Raymond made one film together, Smilin' Through, which came out as the U.S. was on the verge of entering World War II.
After service in the United States Army Air Forces Raymond returned to Hollywood. He wrote, directed and starred in the 1949 film Million Dollar Weekend. In later years he appeared in only a few films. His last major film was The Best Man in 1964 with Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson.
In the 1950s he mostly worked in television, appearing in Playhouse of Stars, Fireside Theatre, Hollywood Summer Theater and TV Reader's Digest. In the 1970s he appeared on ABC Television Network's Paris 7000 and had guest roles in 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.
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Photos
Movies (48)
Complicated Women
2003 · Self (archive footage)
Nelson and Jeanette: America's Singing Sweethearts
1992 · Self
Five Bloody Graves
1969 · The Voice of Death
The Hanged Man
1964 · Whitey Devlin
I'd Rather Be Rich
1964 · Martin Wood
The Best Man
1964 · Don Cantwell
Woman on the Run
1959
Plunder Road
1957 · Eddie Harris
Where's Charley?
1957 · Col. Sir Francis Chesney
Prima Donna
1956 · Writer, Story
Hit the Deck
1955 · Wendell Craig
Million Dollar Weekend
1948 · Nicholas Lawrence, Director, Original Story
Sofia
1948 · Steve Roark
Assigned to Danger
1948 · Dan Sullivan
The Locket
1946 · John Willis
Smilin' Through
1941 · Kenneth 'Ken' Wayne / Jeremy 'Jerry' Wayne
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
1941 · Jeff
Cross-Country Romance
1940 · Lawrence Smith
Stolen Heaven
1938 · Carl
She's Got Everything
1937 · Fuller Partridge
The Life of the Party
1937 · Barry Saunders
There Goes My Girl
1937 · Jerry Martin
That Girl from Paris
1936 · Windy McLean
Smartest Girl in Town
1936 · Richard Stuyvesant Smith
Walking on Air
1936 · Pete Quinlan / Count Pierre Louis de Marsac
The Bride Walks Out
1936 · Michael Martin
Love on a Bet
1936 · Michael MacCreigh
Seven Keys to Baldpate
1935 · William Magee
Hooray for Love
1935 · Douglas Tyler
Transient Lady
1935 · Carey Marshall
The Woman in Red
1935 · John 'Johnny' Wyatt
Behold My Wife!
1934 · Michael Carter
Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round
1934 · Jimmy Brett
Sadie McKee
1934 · Tommy
Coming Out Party
1934 · Chris Hansen
I Am Suzanne!
1933 · Tony Malatini
The House on 56th Street
1933 · Monte Van Tyle
Flying Down to Rio
1933 · Roger Bond
Brief Moment
1933 · Rodney Deane
Ann Carver's Profession
1933 · Bill
Ex-Lady
1933 · Don Peterson
Zoo in Budapest
1933 · Zani
If I Had a Million
1932 · John Wallace (uncredited)
Red Dust
1932 · Gary Willis
The Night of June 13
1932 · Herbert Morrow
Forgotten Commandments
1932 · Paul Ossipoff
Ladies of the Big House
1931 · Standish McNeil
Personal Maid
1931 · Dick Gary
TV shows (38)
The RKO Story: Tales From Hollywood
1987 · Self
McNaughton's Daughter
1976 · Emory Latimer Johns
The Invisible Man
1975 · Sen. Albert Hanover
Emergency!
1972 · J.P. Dumont
The Bold Ones: The New Doctors
1969 · Walter Markle
The Name of the Game
1968 · Senator Reeland
Mannix
1967 · Richmond Greene
Judd, for the Defense
1967
Hondo
1967
Ironside
1967 · Marcus Weathers, Charles Huff
The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.
1966 · Charles Vechten
The F.B.I.
1965 · Harlan Franciscus
Laredo
1965
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
1964 · Col. Allan Morgan
Burke's Law
1963 · Arthur Wade
Channing
1963 · Matt Bellamy
The Outer Limits
1963 · Sawyer
Sam Benedict
1962
The Barbara Stanwyck Show
1960 · Phil
Johnny Ringo
1959 · Silky Carter
The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen
1958 · John Niles
Matinee Theater
1955 · Edward Dudley
Screen Director's Playhouse
1955 · Writer, Story
TV Reader's Digest
1955
Climax!
1954 · Grady Lederer
Kraft Television Theatre
1953
Letter to Loretta
1953 · Mark Colby
Medallion Theatre
1953
The Ford Television Theatre
1952 · Stanley
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
1951 · US Army Major, Mark Alexander
The Red Skelton Show
1951 · General
Tales of Tomorrow
1951
Lux Video Theatre
1950 · John Aldrid, Luke Drake
Robert Montgomery Presents
1950
Fireside Theater
1949 · Host
Studio One
1948 · Charles Sterling
The Ed Sullivan Show
1948 · Self
Kraft Television Theatre
1947 · Andy Clements