Gene Raymond

Gene Raymond (1908-1998) was a blond, husky, handsome actor, who had his greatest popularity in the 1930s and early 1940s. He was married to Jeanette MacDonald, with whom he made Smilin' Through (1941). Though Raymond made over 40 films, his career never equalled his wife's stature.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 60. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.


British postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. P 134. Photo: Paramount. Sylvia Sidney and Gene Raymond in Behold My Wife! (Mitchell Leisen, 1934).


French postcard by A.N. (Noyer), Paris, no. 1004. Photo: RKO Films.

Overshadowed by his strong leading ladies

Gene Raymond was born Raymond Charles Guion in 1908, in New York City. He was a child performer by the age of 12. He attended the Professional Children's School while appearing in productions like 'Rip Van Winkle' and 'Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch'. His Broadway debut, at age 17, was in 'The Cradle Snatchers' which ran for two years. The cast included Mary Boland, Edna May Oliver, and a young Humphrey Bogart.

He was billed under his real name in these shows, but Paramount changed his name to the more pronounceable 'Gene Raymond' when they brought him out to Hollywood. His screen debut was in Personal Maid (Monta Bell, Lothar Mendes, 1931) with Nancy Carroll. Another early appearance was in the multi-director If I Had a Million with W. C. Fields and Charles Laughton.

He played the second male lead in successful films like Red Dust (Victor Fleming, 1932) with Jean Harlow and Clark Gable, Zoo in Budapest (Rowland V. Lee, 1933) with Loretta Young, and Ex-Lady (Robert Florey, 1933) as the husband of Bette Davis.

Flying Down to Rio (Thornton Freeland, 1933) with Dolores del Río was a big hit but the musical is now best remembered for the first teaming of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, in supporting roles. Raymond appeared in I Am Suzanne (Rowland V. Lee, 1934) with Lilian Harvey and Sadie McKee (Clarence Brown, 1934) with Joan Crawford, but he was overshadowed by his strong leading ladies.

With his blond good looks, classic profile, and youthful exuberance – he scored in light RKO musicals such as Hooray for Love (Walter Lang, 1935) and the comedy The Smartest Girl in Town (Joseph Santley, 1936), both with Ann Sothern. Raymond wrote several songs, including the popular 'Will You?' which he sang to Sothern in Smartest Girl in Town.


British postcard in the Film Shots series by Film Weekly. Photo: RKO Radio. Blanche Frederici, Dolores del Rio and Gene Raymond in Flying Down to Rio (Thornton Freeland, 1933).


British postcard in the Film Shots series by Film Weekly. Photo: RKO Radio. Gene Raymond, Raoul Roulien and Dolores del Rio in Flying Down to Rio (Thornton Freeland, 1933).

Indiscretions in a 28-year happy marriage with Jeanette Mac Donald

Gene Raymond married Jeanette MacDonald in 1937. He was five years her junior. At his blog Gods and Foolish Grandeur, Stephen O'Donnell writes: "Less than a year after their marriage, Raymond was arrested, caught having sex with another man. The studio hushed up the affair. (It appears there are at least three documented arrests for similar incidents, one in England during the war.) And yet, even with his 'indiscretions', the MacDonald and Raymond marriage seemed far from unhappy." His wife sang several of his more classical pieces in her concerts and recorded one entitled 'Let Me Always Sing'.

Jeanette MacDonald and Raymond made one film together, Smilin' Through (Frank Borzage, 1941), which came out as the U.S. was on the verge of entering World War II. In 1941, Gene Raymond also acted in Alfred Hitchcock's comedy Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941) with Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery. After service in the United States Army Air Forces Raymond returned to Hollywood. He played the fiance of the kleptomaniac Laraine Day in the complex Film Noir The Locket (John Brahm, 1946) also with Brian Aherne and Robert Mitchum.

He then wrote, produced and directed a modest mystery movie, Million Dollar Weekend (Gene Raymond, 1947), in which he also played the starring role as an embezzler. The film was not a success. In 1949, he and MacDonald decided to slow down their careers: she left the film industry, and he became very selective about the films he did. They spent the next 14 years travelling and staying active in Hollywood society. His last major film was the fine political drama The Best Man (Franklin Schaffner, 1964) with Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson, written by Gore Vidal.

In the 1950s Gene Raymond worked primarily in television, appearing in Playhouse of Stars (1953-1954), Fireside Theatre (1953-1955), Hollywood Summer Theater (1956) and TV Reader's Digest (1956). In the 1960s and 1970s, he appeared on ABC Television Network's Paris 7000 (1970) and had guest roles in such series as The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1965), Ironside (1968), Mannix (1969), The F.B.I. (1970) and The Invisible Man (1975). Apart from an occasional character role on television, he concentrated during his final years on his investments and business interests.

In 1963, Jeanette MacDonald, who suffered from heart disease, had an arterial transplant, and Raymond tried to nurse her back to health. In 1965, she had a heart attack and died with her husband by her side. This brought an end to their 28-year marriage, one of Hollywood's longest-lasting, although the union was childless. Every year after her death, he attended the Jeanette MacDonald International Fan Club convention in Los Angeles. He shared stories with her fans and friends, a thing he once said he would do "till Jeanette and I are together again". In 1974, Raymond married Nelson Bentley Hees and they lived together in Pacific Palisades. Hees died from Alzheimer's in 1995. Raymond's last public appearance was in 1997, at the 60th-anniversary banquet of the Jeanette Mac Donald Fan Club at Beverly Wilshire Hotel. In 1998, at 89 years of age, Raymond died of pneumonia at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. His body was interred next to Jeanette MacDonald's in the Freedom Mausoleum at Forest Lawn, Glendale.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9244/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Paramount. Sylvia Sidney and Gene Raymond in Behold My Wife! (Mitchell Leisen, 1934).


British postcard by Art Photo, no. 172. Photo: Olympe Bradna and Gene Raymond in Stolen Heaven (Andrew L. Stone, 1938).

Sources: Tom Vallance (The Independent), Stephen O'Donnell (Gods and Foolish Grandeur), Wikipedia and IMDb.