The Canadian actor Raymond Massey, who starred in Hollywood cinema in the thirties, is remembered today mainly as the performer of the role of Abraham Lincoln in the film "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" (1940). Subsequently, he played one of the most famous American presidents several more times. But this, of course, is far from the only good role in his biography.
Family, childhood and youth
Raymond Massey was born in 1896 in Toronto, Canada into the family of Anna and Chester Daniel Massey, a fairly wealthy man, the owner of Massey-Ferguson. It is known that Raymond had an older brother, Vincent, who later became a famous politician and even served as Governor General of Canada from 1952 to 1959.
Raymond Massey studied at a private school for boys Upper Canada, and then at the University of Toronto. When the First World War began, he enlisted in the Canadian army. He happened to serve as an artilleryman on the Western Front, in one of the battles he was wounded. Massey returned to his native Canada in 1919.
Upon his return, he began to participate in the family business - selling agricultural implements, but he was drawn to the theater. And at some point, he still got permission from his family members to build a career in this direction.
Raymond Massey from 1922 to 1943
In 1922 he appeared on the stage of one of the theaters in London in the play “In the Zone” based on the play by Eugene O'Neill. In general, over the next ten years, Massey took part in several dozen productions. It is known that in 1931 he first appeared on Broadway - in a play based on Shakespeare's classic "Hamlet". However, his performance in particular received bad reviews in the end.
And the actor's debut in cinema took place in 1928 - in the film "The Highest Degree of Treason". Massey played here a very small role as an architect (his name was not even mentioned in the credits). Further films followed one after another. The most vivid images of the actor in the early thirties - Sherlock Holmes in "The Motley Ribbon" (1931), Philip Waverton in "The Scary Old House" (1932), Citizen Chauvelen in "The Scarlet Primrose" (1934), the Spanish king Philip II of Habsburg in "The Flame over the island "(1936).
And in 1936, Massey played in the English film "The Face of the Coming" - a large-scale philosophical and fantastic work directed by William Cameron Menzies and written by the famous writer HG Wells. "The Image of the Coming" became a significant milestone in the history of science fiction and amazes with some of its prophecies (in particular, it tells how a new world war began due to the conflict between Poland and Germany).
In 1940, Raymond Massey was cast as Abraham Lincoln in the biopic Abe Lincoln in Illinois, directed by John Cromwell. But many American audiences weren't happy with this choice. They believed that a Canadian with a clear articulation and a well-trained voice was not suitable for the role. But Raymond decided to prove the opposite to everyone and spent a lot of effort to get used to this image. And these efforts paid off. When Abe Lincoln in Illinois was released, Massey's performance received the highest praise from critics and audiences. This role also earned him an Oscar nomination. Subsequently, he played Abraham Lincoln several times, in particular, in the 1962 film "How the West Was Conquered".
In 1941 and 1942, Massey took part in several more hit films - "The Road to Santa Fe", "49th Parallel", "Reap the Storm." However, in the same 1942, the actor interrupted his career and joined the Canadian army in World War II. He served in one of its units until he was wounded in 1943, after which he was demobilized.
The further fate and work of the actor
In 1944, Raymond became an American citizen and continued to work in Hollywood. After being nominated for an Oscar, Massey was invited to a big movie even more often than before. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the actor, among others, played Dean Graham in the 1947 noir thriller Obsessed (directed by Curtis Bernhardt) and Gale Winenand in the 1949 black and white drama The Source (directed by King Widor). And in the 1955 film Prince of the Players, Massey appeared as Junius Booth, father of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln.
In the sixties, American audiences remembered Massey as Dr. Gillespie in the medical drama series Dr. Kildare (1961-1966). And back in 1964, the actor showed himself in politics, publicly supporting the right-wing conservative Barry Goldwater, the Republican presidential candidates.
Raymond Massey's recent films include a small role as a preacher in the Western McKenna's Gold (released in 1968 and gaining considerable popularity in the USSR) and the role of Matthew Cunningham in the comedy film All My Dear Daughters (1972).
Actor Raymond Massey died on July 29, 1983 from pneumonia. He was buried in Beaverdale Memorial Park, in the city of New Haven (Connecticut).
Personal life facts
Raymond Massey has been married three times. In 1921, he married Margery Freemantre and lived with her for eight years. From this union, Raymond has a son, Jeffrey.
From 1929 to 1939, Massey was married to actress Adrianne Allen. They had two children - a girl Anna and a boy Daniel. By the way, they followed in the footsteps of their father and also chose acting as the main business of their lives. Massey and his son Daniel even starred together - in the movie "Royal Guard" (1961).
The divorce proceedings of Raymond and Adrianne were quite interesting. The fact is that Dorothy Whitney became the actor's lawyer. And Adrianne's lawyer is Dorothy's husband, William Dwight Whitney. After the end of the process, not only Raymond and Adrianne divorced, but also the Whitney couple. And then another amazing thing happened - Dorothy Whitney married Massey, and Adrianne married William Dwight. It is believed that these events formed the basis of the script for the American comedy "Adam's Rib", released in 1949.
Raymond's third marriage was a happy one and lasted more than forty years - from 1939 until Dorothy's death in July 1982. He himself survived her for only a year.
