- Born
- Died
- Birth nameRaymond Charles Guion
- Height5′ 8½″ (1.74 m)
- Gene Raymond was born on August 13, 1908, in New York City as Raymond Guion. He was a child performer and a Broadway veteran by the age of 12. Blond, husky, and handsome, he enjoyed his greatest popularity in the 1930s and early 1940s. His big break came in Personal Maid (1931). He was soon cast in classics such as Red Dust (1932) (opposite Jean Harlow and Clark Gable) and in Ex-Lady (1933) (as the husband of Bette Davis 's character). His career continued to grow with a starring role in Sadie McKee (1934) (opposite Joan Crawford).
Soon after, he met and fell in love with one of MGM's stars, actress/singer Jeanette MacDonald. They married in 1937. In 1941, he and Jeanette were cast opposite one another in Smilin' Through (1941), their only picture together. In 1948, Raymond tried his hand at directing and producing with Million Dollar Weekend (1948), but it was not a very successful venture. In 1949, he and MacDonald decided to slow down their careers: she left the movies, and he became very selective on the ones he did. They spent the next 14 years traveling and staying active in Hollywood society.
In 1963, 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".- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous (updated by R.M. Sieger)
- SpousesNellie Ada Bentley(September 8, 1974 - March 19, 1995) (her death)Jeanette MacDonald(June 16, 1937 - January 14, 1965) (her death)
- Raymond was a decorated bomber pilot of World War II. At the outbreak of war, Mr. Raymond joined the Army Air Forces as a pilot in the B-17 bomber group that inaugurated precision bombing. As a colonel in the Air Force Reserve in 1967 he again flew jets into South Vietnam on high-priority missions and won the Legion of Merit.
- Made one movie, Smilin' Through (1941), with wife, Jeanette MacDonald.
- Brother-in-law of Clarence Rock and of Marie Blake (also known as Blossom Rock). Blake was best-known for her role as "Grandmama" on television's The Addams Family (1964).
- Performed on Broadway as Raymond Guion from his 1921 debut as a 12-year old through 1930. He returned briefly for another production in the 1957 flop, A Shadow of My Enemy.
- Raymond and Jeanette MacDonald were married on June 16, 1937. Nine days later, Mary Pickford and Charles 'Buddy' Rogers were wed. That night, both couples left aboard the liner SS Lurline to honeymoon in Honolulu, Hawaii. Their respective cabins were adjacent, and Raymond and Rogers seem to have already been quite well-acquainted.
In Bernard F. Dick's biography of Loretta Young, titled "Hollywood Madonna" (August 1, 2011, University Press of Mississippi: ISBN13 978-1617030796), Raymond is described as bisexual. An excerpt of the biography states, "Raymond was probably one of the leading men Loretta developed a crush on, not knowing at the time that he was bisexual, more homosexually than heterosexually inclined.... Raymond's lover at the time was Mary Pickford's husband, Buddy Rogers....But at the time 'Zoo in Budapest' was filmed, Raymond had not met MacDonald, and only a few kindred spirits knew his sexual preferences".
- [in 1972, about Jeanette MacDonald and their marriage] We had 28 glorious years. Jeanette and I respected and loved each other, very deeply. We put one another before anyone or anything. I am blessed to have known her, loved her and been loved by her - absolutely, an incredible lady!
- It isn't really me that they admire, it's the men I portray. I could be the same person and drive a truck for a living and I'd go unnoticed.
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