58 Facts About Aldo Ray

Aldo Ray began his career as a contract player for Columbia Pictures before achieving stardom through his roles in The Marrying Kind, Pat and Mike, Let's Do It Again, and Battle Cry.

Aldo Ray's athletic build and gruff, raspy voice saw him frequently typecast in "tough guy" roles throughout his career, which lasted well into the late 1980s.

In 1980, Ray was awarded Best Actor for his role in Sweet Savage from the Adult Film Association's third Erotica Awards.

Aldo Ray's family moved to the small town of Crockett, California, when Aldo was four years old.

Aldo Ray attended John Swett High School, where he made the football team; he coached swimming.

At age 18, during World War II in 1944, Aldo Ray entered the United States Navy, serving as a frogman until 1946; he saw action at Okinawa with UDT-17.

Aldo Ray studied and played football at Vallejo Junior College and then entered the University of California at Berkeley to study political science.

Aldo Ray signed a contract and was sent to Los Angeles for a screen test.

Aldo Ray was cast in the small role of a cynical college football player opposite John Derek and Donna Reed.

Aldo Ray worked on the film between the primary and general elections.

Aldo Ray went to Hollywood and did a screen test with the director, George Cukor.

The first test went badly, but head of Columbia Harry Cohn liked Aldo Ray and asked for another test.

The second one was done opposite Jeff Donnell, whom Aldo Ray later married; it was more successful and Aldo Ray ended up being cast in the lead.

Aldo Ray divorced his wife and resigned as constable in September 1951.

Cukor famously suggested that Aldo Ray go to ballet school because he walked too much like a football player.

Aldo Ray has a great advantage: the way his eyes are made.

Aldo Ray did this silent scene very well lying there on the bed in the same room with Judy.

Aldo Ray explains everything and he knows exactly what he wants.

Burton won the award that year, but Aldo Ray's career was launched.

Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn liked Aldo Ray and wanted him for the role of Private Robert Prewitt in From Here to Eternity, but Fred Zinnemann insisted Montgomery Clift be cast.

Aldo Ray appeared in a production of Stalag 17 at La Jolla Playhouse.

Aldo Ray was loaned to Warner Bros to appear in Battle Cry, which was directed by Raoul Walsh, who would become one of Aldo Ray's favorite directors.

Aldo Ray's technical advance in the four years since The Marrying Kind enables him now to work in subtler, more economical degree; there is an authoritative reserve and, still remarkably intact, the original rare lack of ostentation.

Aldo Ray was meant to appear in Jubal but refused because Columbia had made a profit on his loan-outs for Battle Cry and We're No Angels but not paid Aldo Ray a bonus; Rod Steiger took the role instead.

Aldo Ray then refused to appear in Beyond Mombasa because he did not want to go on location.

In 1956, in between appearances in Three Stripes In The Sun and Men in War, Aldo Ray worked in radio as a personality and announcer at hit music station WNDR in Syracuse, New York.

On January 31,1957, Aldo Ray appeared on NBC's The Ford Show Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford.

Aldo Ray was reunited with Security Pictures, Ryan, and Mann to star in God's Little Acre, an adaptation of Erskine Caldwell's controversial novel directed by Mann starring Robert Ryan and Tina Louise.

Aldo Ray later said for the first ten years of his career he made less than $100,000.

Aldo Ray expressed interest in producing his own vehicle, The Magic Mesa, from a script by Burt Kennedy, but it was not made.

You take someone like Aldo Ray who was just picked up and catapulted into stardom, and then he was just a sponge for booze.

Aldo Ray killed himself drinking, not living up to his moral contract.

Aldo Ray later admitted that producers were scared of casting him in projects because of his drinking.

Aldo Ray starred in 1959 in Four Desperate Men, filmed in Australia; it was the last movie produced by Ealing Studios and a box office disappointment.

In 1959, Aldo Ray was cast as Hunk Farber in the episode "Payment in Full" of the NBC western series Riverboat.

Aldo Ray made The Day They Robbed the Bank of England, directed by John Guillermin, in the UK and Johnny Nobody in Ireland.

Aldo Ray later described his British sojourn as a "big mistake" because none of his British films were widely seen in America.

Aldo Ray hired a press agent, started taking better care of himself physically, and changed agents.

Aldo Ray had a small role in Sylvia and made a pilot for a TV series financed by producer Joseph E Levine, Steptoe and Son.

Aldo Ray was interested in returning to politics but not until he had made "at least" four more movies.

In 1966 Aldo Ray played "Jake", a deaf mute, in an episode of The Virginian entitled "Jacob was a plain man".

Aldo Ray formed his own company, Crockett Productions, and bought two original scripts for films that were not made: Soldares, by Edwin Gottlieb, about the search for Pancho Villa, and Frogman, South Pacific, by William Zeck.

Aldo Ray starred in Kill a Dragon, shot in Hong Kong in 1966, and Suicide Commando, shot in Rome and Spain in 1968.

Aldo Ray made two television pilots in the 1960s; neither was picked up.

Aldo Ray blamed this on his ex-wives and red tape that meant he could not develop his real estate properties.

In 1979, Aldo Ray appeared in a pornographic movie, Sweet Savage, in a nonsexual role.

Aldo Ray provided voice-over work as Sullivan for the 1982 animated film The Secret of NIMH alongside fellow character actor John Carradine.

Aldo Ray was originally cast in the role of Gurney Halleck in David Lynch's 1984 film Dune, as his ex-wife Johanna Aldo Ray was the casting director, but was replaced by Patrick Stewart owing to ongoing issues with alcoholism.

Aldo Ray appeared in two more higher-profile films, Michael Cimino's The Sicilian and Blood Red, both in supporting roles that emphasized his Italian heritage.

In 1989, he was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in his throat that Aldo Ray attributed to excessive smoking and drinking.

Aldo Ray remained in Crockett, with his mother and family and friends.

Aldo Ray died there of complications from throat cancer and pneumonia on 27 March 1991 at age 64.

Aldo Ray was cremated and his ashes were put in an urn and buried in Crockett, with a majority of the residents coming out to pay their respects.

Quentin Tarantino says Aldo Ray would have been ideal casting for the character of Butch in Pulp Fiction and that the look of Butch in the film was inspired by Ray.

Aldo Ray appears as a character in Tarantino's 2021 novel Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Aldo Ray doesn't have to pretend to be cool, threatening, bruised, battered or tough.

Aldo Ray has never been considered a great Hollywood actor in the traditional sense but his natural, unaffected performances often seemed to emerge from some unsettled place.

Whenever Aldo Ray erupted on screen it felt like you were watching a volcano explode and if you didn't get out of the way it could easily swallow you up in a heavy flow of golden molten lava.