Background

George Ranft was born on September 26, 1901 in New York City, the son of Conrad Ranft and Eva Glockner. He changed his name to Raft in 1917. He was raised in poverty in a rough neighborhood on the west side of the city known as Hell's Kitchen.

Education

Raft had only a limited education.

Career

At an early age he frequented pool parlors and dance halls, worked for bootleggers, and associated with local gangsters such as his childhood friend Owney Madden. He was also a semiprofessional baseball player and an unsuccessful bantamweight boxer.

Raft's talent for dancing led to a professional career in dance halls that included the Audubon Ballroom and Churchill's Sunken Gardens.

While working as a dancer he is said to have frequently served as a gigolo. His life in the nightclub field began as a dancer in Texas Guinan's troupe. He also appeared in a vaudeville touring company billed as "The Fastest Dancer in the World. "

Raft prospered as a nightclub performer. His acquaintance with gangsters who owned many of the clubs undoubtedly contributed to his steady employment.

Raft's handsome, well-defined features as well as his dancing ability and ambition helped him find work as an extra in Warner Brothers crime films and a small part in Queen of the Night Clubs (1929). This was followed by appearances in such mediocre motion pictures as Quick Millions (1931) and Dancers in the Dark (1932). He also appeared with Loretta Young in Taxi (1932), but it was in Scarface: Shame of a Nation (1932), with Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, and Karen Morley, that he gained widespread recognition on the screen. The movie, directed by Howard Hawks, was an adaptation by Ben Hecht of a book about Chicago crime by Armitage Trail. Paul Muni starred as Scarface Tony Camonte, a role roughly comparable to the real-life gangster Al Capone. Raft capably played the part of a henchman, Gino Rinaldi, who flipped a coin almost incessantly throughout the picture. The inane trait firmly established the character, who was eventually murdered by Camonte (Muni). Raft immediately became a highly recognized actor and Hollywood personality and was assured of future roles, especially in crime pictures.

The film also resulted in typecasting him as a gangster, crooked cop, or other disreputable figure with sleek hair and flashy clothes. He claimed that was the manner of most gangsters he knew in real life.

Following his breakthrough in Scarface, Raft appeared with Mae West and Constance Cummings in Night After Night (1932).

In The Bowery (1933) he was cast with the highly popular Wallace Beery and Fay Wray. In Bolero (1934), with Carole Lombard, Raft made a favorable impression as a graceful dancer. The character he played, however, was another lowdown type who worked his way out of honkytonks by using women as stepping-stones to build a career.

Although Raft's popularity increased with the public, he seldom received rave reviews. At best, critics usually considered his performances workmanlike, albeit wooden.

On some occasions he received extremely harsh criticism.

His career might have been enhanced further if he had not rejected the roles played by Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca.

In 1965 the Internal Revenue Service prosecuted him for tax evasion, claiming that he owed the government $75, 000 in back taxes. As his fortunes declined and opportunities for roles faded, Raft returned to nightclubs.

Prior to Fidel Castro's rise to power, he worked as an entertainment director at the Capri Hotel in Havana. He was also host at the Colony Club, a London gambling casino, until the British government banned his entrance into the country because of his association with underworld figures.

In the late 1960's he worked in public relations at the Beverly Hills office of the Las Vegas Riviera hotel.

He died in Hollywood.

Achievements

• From 1931 to 1967, Raft appeared in about sixty motion pictures, and he performed with many of Hollywood's leading stars. Among his movies were Souls at Sea (1937), with Gary Cooper; They Drive by Night (1940), with Humphrey Bogart and Ann Sheridan; and Manpower (1941), with Edward G. Robinson and Marlene Dietrich. Many of his films were low-budget productions, but he gained acceptance with moviegoers and in 1946 earned $450, 000, which made him one of Hollywood's highest-paid performers. The impact that Raft's personality made on the public is reflected in three films that were produced based on his life. He appeared in two of them, Broadway (1942) and Some Like It Hot (1959). In the latter, the character Spats Colombo was actually a self-parody. In The George Raft Story (1961), Ray Danton played the part of George Raft. If Raft did not achieve rank as an outstanding actor, he nevertheless succeeded in establishing his style and individuality on the screen and appealed to a worldwide audience.

Works

More photos

• book

  • I'm the Law (Lost TV Classics)

    (Iconic 'tough guy' George Raft plays NYPD Lieutenant Geor...)

  • Race Street

    (George Raft and William Bendix costar as childhood chums ...)

  • I'll Get You

    (Fugitive enters England illegally, following the disappea...)

  • They Drive By Night (1940)

    (George Raft and Humphrey Bogart share a driving ambition ...)

  • Night After Night

    (George Raft and Mae West star in the pre-code drama Night...)

  • Some Like It Hot
  • Scarface (1932)
  • Outpost In Morocco
  • Whistle Stop

Views

Quotations: "My celluloid hoodlums were always well-dressed, soft-voiced, and underplayed. "

Personality

He was a hardworking and anxious to succeed.

Raft was careless with money and lost large sums at the racetrack and other sporting events.

Quotes from others about the person

• Fred Astaire said that Raft was an extraordinary dancer who did "the fastest, most exciting Charleston I ever saw. "
  
  When he played the title role in Johnny Allegro (1949), a character on the right side of the law, a critic commented, "Nothing with any vague resemblance to vivid acting is contributed by Mr. Raft, who has become one of the most indifferent and comatose actors extant. "

Connections

In 1923, Raft married Grace Mulrooney. They lived together for less than a year and then separated. His wife, a Roman Catholic, objected to divorce for religious reasons, but Raft continued to support her during their long estrangement, which continued until her death in 1970. They had no children.

Raft had love affairs with Betty Grable, Marlene Dietrich, Tallulah Bankhead, Carole Lombard and Mae West. He stated publicly that he wanted to marry Norma Shearer, with whom he had a long romance, but his wife's refusal to allow a divorce eventually caused Shearer to end the affair.

Father:

Conrad Ranft

Mother:

Eva Glockner

Spouse:

Grace Mulrooney

References

• George Raft
• George Raft
• George Raft: The Films