Ralph Bellamy

He gained prominence for his roles in Boy Meets Girl (1938), His Girl Friday (1940), Flight Angels (1940), The Wolf Man (1941), and Sunrise at Campobello (1960). He is also known for his later roles in Rosemary's Baby (1968), Oh, God! (1977), Trading Places (1983), and Pretty Woman (1990).

The recorded working language is French and English. Positions recorded include President of Actors Equity Association. Distinctions recorded are Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play, Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, star on Hollywood Walk of Fame and Academy Honorary Award.

• Name — Ralph Bellamy • Birth Name — Ralph Rexford Bellamy • Born — 17 June 1904 • Birthplace — Chicago, Illinois, U.S. • Died — 29 November 1991 • Place of death — Santa Monica, California, U.S. • Resting Place — Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills • Occupation — Actor • Years Active — 1925–1990 • Political Party — Democratic

Bellamy was born Ralph Rexford Bellamy on June 17, 1904, in Chicago, Illinois. He was the son of Lilla Louise (née Smith), a native of Canada, and Charles Rexford Bellamy. He ran away from home when he was 15 and managed to gain employment in a road show. He toured with road shows before finally landing in New York City. He began acting on stage there and, by 1927, owned his own theater company. In 1931, he made his film debut and worked constantly throughout the decade both as a lead and as a capable supporting actor. He co-starred in five films with Fay Wray.

• Illustration — Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell and Bellamy in a publicity shot for His Girl Friday (1940) • Illustration — Gloria McGehee and Ralph Bellamy in Man Against Crime (1953) • Illustration — As Franklin D. Roosevelt in the film Sunrise at Campobello (1960) • Illustration — Guest stars for the 1961 premiere episode of The Dick Powell Show, "Who Killed Julie Greer?". Standing, from left: Ronald Reagan, Nick Adams, Lloyd Bridges, Mickey Rooney, Edgar Bergen, Jack Carson, Ralph Bellamy, Kay Thompson, Dean Jones. Seated, from left: Carolyn Jones and Dick Powell. His film career began with The Secret Six (1931), starring Wallace Beery and featuring Jean Harlow and Clark Gable. By the end of 1933, he had already appeared in 22 movies, including Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1932) and the second lead in the action film Picture Snatcher with James Cagney (1933). He played in seven more films in 1934 alone, including Woman in the Dark, based on a Dashiell Hammett story, in which Bellamy played the lead, second billed under Fay Wray. Bellamy received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Awful Truth (1937) with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant, and played a similar part, that of a naive boyfriend competing with Grant's sophisticated character, in His Girl Friday (1940). He portrayed detective Ellery Queen in a few films during the 1940s, but as his film career did not progress, he returned to the stage, where he continued to perform throughout the 1950s. Bellamy appeared in other movies during this time, including Dance, Girl, Dance (1940) with Maureen O'Hara and Lucille Ball, and the horror classic The Wolf Man (1941) with Lon Chaney Jr. and Evelyn Ankers. He also appeared in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) with Chaney and Bela Lugosi. Bellamy appeared on Broadway as Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Sunrise at Campobello, winning a Tony Award for the role in 1957. He reprised the role in the 1960 film version. In the summer of 1961, Bellamy hosted nine original episodes of Frontier Justice. In 1950, Bellamy became a member of The Lambs, an actors club located in New York. Bellamy appeared in Death Valley Days ("The Vintage Years", 1962) as Daniel Quint, a minister. In the story, a young woman whom Quint befriends on a stagecoach ride, Lorna Erickson (Merry Anders), sets him up to be robbed by her paramour (William Bryant). Highly regarded within the industry, Bellamy served four terms as the president of Actors' Equity from 1952 to 1964. On film, Bellamy starred in The Professionals (1966) as an oil tycoon, and in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby (1968) as an evil physician. He turned to television during the 1970s. He played many roles in numerous shows, sometimes as a series regular. In 1970, he played the lead role of Ethan Arcane in the series The Most Deadly Game. Bellamy portrayed Adlai Stevenson in the TV movie The Missiles of October (1974), a treatment of the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was a member of the cast of the short-lived series Hunter in 1977. An Emmy Award nomination for the mini-series The Winds of War (1983)—in which Bellamy reprised his Sunrise at Campobello role of Franklin D. Roosevelt—brought him back into the spotlight. This role was followed by his role as Randolph Duke, a conniving millionaire commodities trader in Trading Places (1983). The Eddie Murphy film Coming to America (1988) included a brief cameo by Bellamy and Don Ameche, reprising their roles as the Duke brothers. Around this time, he again portrayed Franklin Roosevelt in War and Remembrance (1988), the sequel to The Winds of War. Among his later roles was an appearance as a once-brilliant but increasingly senile lawyer sadly skewered by Jimmy Smits' character on an episode of L.A. Law. Bellamy continued working regularly and gave his final performance in Pretty Woman (1990).

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Bellamy was seen socially with a select circle of friends known affectionately as the Irish Mafia, but they preferred the less sensational Boy's Club as its name. This group consisted of a group of Hollywood A-listers who were mainly of Irish descent (despite Bellamy having no Irish family connections). Others included James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Spencer Tracy, Lynne Overman, Frank Morgan and Frank McHugh. Bellamy opened the Palm Springs Racquet Club in Palm Springs, California, with fellow actor Charles Farrell in 1934. Bellamy was married four times: first to Alice Delbridge (1927–1930), then to Catherine Willard (1931–1945), then to organist Ethel Smith (1945–1947), and finally to Alice Murphy (1949–1991; his death). A Democrat, Bellamy was in attendance at the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.

On November 29, 1991, Bellamy died from a lung ailment at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California. He was 87 years old.

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1949 — Follow that Man — Leading Role: PI Mike Barnett — All Episodes: 1949-1954 • 1966 — The F.B.I. — Captain Jennerson — episode: "The Death Wind" • 1961 — Rawhide — Judge Quince — S4:E4, "Judgment at Hondo Seco" • 1961 — Checkmate — Governor Tom Barker — episode: "Portrait of a Running Man" • 1965 — Rawhide — Marshal Hanson Dickson — S8:E9, "The Pursuit" • 1967 — The Invaders — Morgan Tate — episode: "The Condemned" • 1967 — Gunsmoke — Sheriff Bassett — episode: "Rope Fever" • 1968 — The F.B.I. — Dryden — episode: "The Butcher" • 1968 — The Virginian — Jeremiah — season 7 episode 01 (The saddle warmer) • 1974 — The Missiles of October — U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson — television film • 1976 — Once an Eagle — Ed Caldwell — TV miniseries • 1976 — The Moneychangers — Jerome Patterton — TV miniseries • 1976 — The Boy in the Plastic Bubble — Dr. Huber — TV Movie • 1977 — The Bob Newhart Show — Professor Alan Dreeben — episode: "You're Fired, Mr. Chips" • 1977 — Testimony of Two Men — Dr. Jim Spaulding — TV miniseries • 1978 — Wheels — Lowell Baxter — TV miniseries • 1980 — Condominium — Lee Messenger — Television film • 1984 — The Winds of War — Franklin D. Roosevelt — TV miniseries • 1984 — The Love Boat — Harold Fleming — episode: Aerobic April/The Wager/Story of the Century • 1986 — The Twilight Zone — Emile Francis Bendictson — episode: "Monsters!" • 1987 — Matlock — Sen. Lambert Crawford — "The Power Brokers" parts 1 and 2 (season 2, episodes 5 and 6) • 1988 — War and Remembrance — Franklin D. Roosevelt — TV miniseries • 1988 — L.A. Law — August Redding — S2:E15, "The Bald Ones" • 1989–1990 — Christine Cromwell — Cyrus Blain — four episodes • 2007 — Boston Legal — Walter Crane — episode: "Son of the Defender" (posthumous role; archive footage)

• Screen Snapshots Series 15, No. 7 (1936) • Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 12 (1937) • Breakdowns of 1938 (1938) • What's My Line?, the "mystery guest" three times (in March 1952, January 1958 and September 1960)

• Year — Program — Episode/source • 1944 — Lady Esther Screen Guild Theatre — Phantom Lady