Raymond Hart Massey was a Canadian, later American, actor, known for his commanding, stage-trained voice.
26 Facts About Raymond Massey
2.
Raymond Massey was the grandson of businessman Hart Massey and great-grandson of company founder Daniel Massey.
3.
Raymond Massey attended secondary school at Upper Canada College in Toronto for two years before transferring to Appleby College in Oakville, Ontario.
4.
Raymond Massey took several courses at the University of Toronto, where he was an active member of the Kappa Alpha Society.
5.
Raymond Massey joined the Canadian Army at the outbreak of World War I, and served on the Western Front in the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery.
6.
Lieutenant Raymond Massey returned to Canada after being wounded at Zillebeke in Belgium during the Battle of Mont Sorrel in 1916 and was engaged as an army instructor for American officers at Yale University.
7.
Raymond Massey later went to work in the family business, selling farm implements, but he was drawn to the theater.
8.
Raymond Massey persuaded his reluctant family to allow him to pursue this career.
9.
In 1942, during World War II, Raymond Massey rejoined the Canadian Army and served as a major in the adjutant general's branch.
10.
Raymond Massey first appeared on the London stage in 1922 in Eugene O'Neill's In the Zone.
11.
Raymond Massey received poor reviews in his debut on Broadway in an unorthodox 1931 production of Hamlet.
12.
In 1944, Massey played the district attorney in Fritz Lang's classic film noir The Woman in the Window, which starred Edward G Robinson and Joan Bennett.
13.
Raymond Massey portrayed the American Revolutionary War character Abraham Farlan, who hated the British for making him a casualty of that war, in the 1946 film A Matter of Life and Death.
14.
Raymond Massey repeated his role in the 1940 film version, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
15.
Raymond Massey again portrayed Lincoln in The Day Lincoln Was Shot on Ford Star Jubilee, a silent appearance in How the West Was Won, and two TV adaptations of Abe Lincoln in Illinois broadcast in 1950 and 1951.
16.
Raymond Massey played a Canadian on-screen only once, in 49th Parallel.
17.
Raymond Massey portrayed Jonathan Brewster in the film version of Arsenic and Old Lace.
18.
Raymond Massey became well known on television in the 1950s and 1960s.
19.
Raymond Massey was cast in 1960 as Sir Oliver Garnett in the episode "Trunk Full of Dreams" of the NBC series Riverboat.
20.
Raymond Massey's older brother, Vincent Raymond Massey, was the first Canadian-born governor general of Canada.
21.
Raymond Massey dabbled in politics, appearing in a 1964 television advertisement in support of the conservative Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater.
22.
Raymond Massey died of pneumonia in Los Angeles, California on July 29,1983, a month before he would have turned 87.
23.
Raymond Massey's death came on the same day as that of David Niven, with whom he had co-starred in The Prisoner of Zenda and A Matter of Life and Death.
24.
Raymond Massey is buried in New Haven, Connecticut's Beaverdale Memorial Park.
25.
Raymond Massey has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for films at 1719 Vine Street and one for television at 6708 Hollywood Boulevard.
26.
Raymond Massey's achievements have been recognized in a signature cocktail, the Raymond Massey.