Anthony Ray Dies: ‘Shadows’ Actor, Son Of Director Nicholas Ray Was 80
Anthony “Tony” Ray, the actor-producer son of Rebel Without a Cause director Nicholas Ray, died June 29 in Saco, Maine, following a long illness, his family has announced. Ray, who lived in Saco for the last 10 years, was 80.
A graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse and a member of the Actor’s Studio, Ray was on the producing teams of such 1970s hits as The Rose, An Unmarried Woman, Harry and Tonto, and Freebie and the Bean. He was an assistant director throughout the 1960s and into the ’70s on TV series The Iron Horse and Bewitched, films Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Cactus Flower, and, according to his family, Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus and John Huston’s The Misfits, among other credits.
Ray, who often went by the name Tony Ray, also worked as an actor, his credits starting in 1957 with Men In War and an uncredited appearance in his dad’s 1957 film The True Story of Jesse James. Later, he’d appear in John Cassavetes’ Shadows (as pictured, above, with co-star Lelia Goldoni), soap opera Search for Tomorrow, and primetime TV’s The Twilight Zone and The Untouchables.
According to his family, Ray Cape retired to Cape Neddick, Maine, in the late 1980s, and subsequently created a film program at Emerson College and directed the International Film and Television Workshop in Rockport, Maine. He was a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Director’s Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild.
Though born in Washington, D.C. to Nicholas Ray and writer Jean Evans, Ray grew up in New York City and later lived among Hollywood’s biggest stars. In 1948, his father married actress Gloria Grahame, divorcing four years later. In 1960, the 23-year-old Anthony Ray married the 37-year-old Grahame, his former stepmother, in Tijuana, Mexico, scandalizing Hollywood when the news went public and damaging the actress’ career. They divorced in 1974.
Ray is survived by his wife Eve; daughter, Kelsey; and son, Tony Jr. A service to celebrate his life will be held in the autumn.
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