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NICHOLAS RAY (1911 – 1979)

Raymond Nicholas Kienzle, Christian name of Nicholas Ray, was born in Galesville, Wisconsin, USA, August 7, 1911, and he died in New York on June 16, 1979. He studied architecture under Frank Lloyd Wright. Ray was a theater actor, a student of Elia Kazan and John Houseman, participated in traveling shows, and later performed on Broadway. In 1938 he became interested in American folklore. He wrote and produced a radio program, “Back Where I Came From”. From 1942 to 1948 he was a theater director on Broadway. He started his film career as assistant director on Elia Kazan’s “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”.

Ray’s films have always given special attention to marginal and fragile heroes confronting a society where it is difficult to integrate, often depicting misfits, outlaws, or young people in revolt. Only love, enraptured and infinite, can save them, even metaphorically. In some of the most beautiful, personal and distinctive films ever made in Hollywood, and then in a series of increasingly difficult independent productions, Ray redefined commercial moviemaking. Éric Rohmer, French director and critic for the magazine “Cahiers du Cinema,” called him “the most important filmmaker of the postwar era”.  Director Jean-Luc Godard believed Ray to be the “pure expression of cinema”. His most important film noir, “In a Lonely Place” (1950) tells the story of a violent screenwriter Dixon Steele (Humprey Bogart) who falls in love with a fellow Hollywood burnout while he is under investigation for a murder of a girl he barely knew. The story was changed drastically from the source novel and shaped to better suit Bogart, The result is considered one of Bogart’s best and most complex performances. Despite their marital problems, Ray insisted on casting his wife Gloria Grahame for the role of Bogart’s lover because he knew she was right for the part, and Grahame was praised for her work as well. A critically acclaimed film at the time of its release, but something of a box-office dud, “In a Lonely Place” has gained a reputation over the decades as a classic example of superb film noir and existential, heartbreaking romance.

After the failure of “55 Days at Peking” in 1963, Ray left the film business, and devoted himself to teaching at universities and conferences, later to retire when he learned he had cancer. Even after he joined Alcoholics Anonymous and stopped drinking in 1976, it seemed too late for his luck to change; he had simply burned too many bridges by then. But Wim Wenders, who greatly admired Ray invited him to Germany to play a role in “The American Friend”, in 1977, They also co-directed the documentary “Lightning Over Water,” about the last days of Nicholas Ray in his fight against cancer. Ray was cremated and his ashes were buried in the tomb of his mother.

Nicholas Ray was married to Jean Evans (1930 – 1940), Gloria Grahame (1948 – 1952), Betty Utey and Susan Schwartz (1969-1979). In 1960, Gloria Grahame, ex-wife of Nicholas Ray, married Anthony Ray, son of the director, and her former stepson, which caused a major scandal in Hollywood.