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date & photographer unknown
Today is the birthday of radio, stage and screen actor, Raymond Massey. His most dramatic roles were his portrayals of the eighteenth president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.
Raymond Massey as Abraham Lincoln - 1938
photographer unknown
Massey scored a great triumph on Broadway in the Robert E. Sherwood Pulitzer Prize-winning play Abe Lincoln in Illinois despite reservations about Lincoln's being portrayed by a Canadian. He repeated his role in the 1940 film version, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Massey again portrayed Lincoln in The Day Lincoln Was Shot on Ford Star Jubilee (1956), a silent appearance in How the West Was Won (1962), and two TV adaptations of Abe Lincoln in Illinois broadcast in 1950 and 1951. He once complained jokingly that he was "the only actor ever typecast as a president."
His preparation for the role was so detailed and obsessive that one
person commented that Massey would not be satisfied with his Lincoln
impersonation until someone assassinated him. On stage in a dramatic reading of John Brown's Body, by Stephen Vincent Benét (1953), Massey, in addition to narrating along with Tyrone Power and Judith Anderson, took on the roles of both John Brown and Lincoln.
My favorite role of his was when he starred in Things to Come, in 1936, a film adaptation by H. G. Wells of his own speculative novel The Shape of Things to Come (1933). The cultural historian Christopher Frayling called Things to Come "a landmark in cinematic design". The film also starred, Ralph Richardson, Cedric Hardwicke and Ann Todd.
Things to Come UK poster
Massey became an American citizen in 1944. After he became an American citizen, he continued to work in Hollywood. Memorable film roles included the husband of Joan Crawford during her Oscar-nominated role in Possessed (1947) and the doomed publishing tycoon Gail Wynand in The Fountainhead (1949), with Patricia Neal and Gary Cooper. In 1955, he starred in East of Eden as Adam Trask, father of Cal, played by James Dean, and Aron, played by Richard Davalos.
But Massey had a good sense of humor: he played Jonathan Brewster in the movie version of Arsenic and Old Lace which is proof Massey could take a joke. Brewster was created for Boris Karloff, who played the part on Broadway, but was unavailable for the movie. The character required Massey to look like the Frankenstein monster. A running gag in the play and the film was the character's resemblance to Karloff. It was an American black comedy film directed by Frank Capra and starring Cary Grant, Peter Lorre, Jack Carson; the score for the film was written by Max Steiner of King Kong fame.
Arsenic and Old Lace - 1944
movie poster
Massey was born in Toronto, Ontario, on August 30, 1896. He was the great-grandson of founder Daniel Massey, whose branch of the Massey family emigrated to Canada from New England a few years before the War of 1812, their ancestors having migrated from England to the Massachusetts colony in the 1630s.
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. Lieutenant 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. In 1918, he was recalled to active service and joined the Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force that went to Siberia during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. On the orders of his commanding general, he organized a minstrel show troupe with himself as end man in blackface to bolster morale of allied troops on occupation duty in Vladivostok.
Raymond Massey died of pneumonia in Los Angeles, California on July 29, 1983, he was 86 years old. His 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. Massey is buried in Beaverdale Memorial Park in New Haven, Connecticut.
Viewfinder links:
Judith Anderson
Gary Cooper
Joan Crawford
James Dean
Sir Cedric Hardwicke
Grace Kelly
Raymond Massey
Patricia Neal
David Niven
Tyrone Power
Sir Ralph Richardson
Max Steiner
Net links:
Filmography
Radio appearances
Major Smolinski ~ Raymond Massey: Did not suffer fools
YouTube links:
Raymond Massey ~
Abe Lincoln in Illinois (excerpt)
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) scene with Peter Lorre
Arsenic and Old Lace ~"He Looks Like Boris Karloff!"
Raymond Massey as Abraham Lincoln - 1938
photographer unknown
Styrous® ~ Sunday, August 30, 2020
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