Blonde, blue-eyed, early talkie leading man Gene Raymond had been on the New York stage from near infancy, making his Broadway bow at age 12. Though never an upper-echelon star, Raymond developed a following in a variety of good film roles. Some of his best screen assignments include the anguished death row inmate in If I Had a Million (1932), the renegade groundskeeper in Zoo in Budapest (1933), the guy who won Dolores Del Rio in Flying Down to Rio (1933), the stuffy "other man" in Hitchcock's Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941), and a glad-handing politico in The Best Man (1964). In 1948, Raymond produced, directed, cowrote, and starred in Eagle Lion's Million Dollar Weekend. Gene Raymond was married to singing star Jeanette MacDonald from 1937 until her death in 1965; curiously, he acted with MacDonald only once, in 1941's Smilin' Through. Raymond died of pneumonia on May 3, 1998.
by Hal Erickson
biography
