Ralph Bellamy(1904-1991)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Ralph Bellamy was a veteran actor who was so well-liked and respected by
his peers that he was the recipient of an honorary Oscar in 1987 for
his contributions to the acting profession.
Ralph Rexford Bellamy was born June 17, 1904 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Lilla Louise (Smith), originally from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and Charles Rexford Bellamy, who had deep roots in New England. Bellamy began his career as a player right out of high
school in 1922, joining a traveling company that put on Shakespearean
plays. For the next five years he appeared with stock companies and
repertory theaters associated with the Chautauqua Road Co., which
brought culture to the hinterlands. He not only learned his craft but
by 1927 wound up owning his own theatrical troupe. Two years later he
made his Broadway theatrical debut in "Town Boy" (29 years later he
would win a Tony Award).
Bellamy made the first of his over 100 films in 1933, appearing as a
gangster in The Secret 6 (1931).
While he never became a major star or played many leads in "A"
pictures, he made a career out of playing second-leads in major
productions before developing into a character actor. In his heyday he
typically played a rich but dull character who is jilted by the leading
lady (he won his only Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actor, for
just such a role in the 1937 comedy
The Awful Truth (1937), in which
he lost Irene Dunne to
Cary Grant). He also specialized in
redoubtable detectives who always find their man (he starred as Ellery
Queen in a series of four "B" movies) and as slightly sinister yet
stylish villains (such typecasting reaching its apogee with his turn as
the not-so-kindly doctor in the horror classic
Rosemary's Baby (1968)).
Bellamy's greatest role was as
Franklin D. Roosevelt in
Dore Schary's play "Sunrise at Campobello,"
for which he won a 1958 Best Actor-Dramatic Tony Award. He also
reprised his portrayal of Roosevelt in Schary's 1960 movie adaptation
of his play
Sunrise at Campobello (1960),
which brought his co-star Greer Garson a
Golden Globe award and a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for
playing Eleanor Roosevelt.
To play F.D.R. and show his struggle with the onset of polio, Bellamy
studied up on Roosevelt as both man and politician, gaining an insight
into the future president's psyche. Like Method actors
Marlon Brando and
Jon Voight, who prepared for their portrayals
of paraplegic war veterans in the movies
The Men (1950) and
Coming Home (1978) by living in
veterans hospitals with paraplegics, Bellamy tried to understand the
trauma that F.D.R. underwent and the challenges he faced. Bellamy spent
a considerable amount of time at a rehabilitation center learning how
to master leg braces, crutches and a wheelchair to increase the
verisimilitude of his portrayal of Rosevelt. So successful was his
portrait of Roosevelt that he was called upon a generation later to
recreate F.D.R. for the blockbuster TV miniseries
War and Remembrance (1988)
(ironically, Voight himself would later play F.D.R. in the movie
Pearl Harbor (2001)).
Bellamy also had a prolific career on television, beginning with his
1948 debut in
The Philco Television Playhouse (1948).
He starred in one of the first TV police shows,
Man Against Crime (1949),
which was on the air from 1949-54, and later had roles in several other
TV series, including
The Eleventh Hour (1962),
The Survivors (1969) and
The Most Deadly Game (1970).
He also appeared in countless TV-movies and tele-plays, and was three
times nominated for an Emmy Award.
Known as a champion of actors' rights, Bellamy was one of the founders
of the Screen Actors Guild, and also served four terms as President of
Actors' Equity from 1952 to 1964. He took office during some of the
darkest days of McCarthyism, but positioned Actors' Equity and thus,
the Broadway theater to the left of Hollywood by resisting
blacklisting. Many of those blacklisted in Hollywood found homes in the
theater. Under Bellamy, Actors Equity established standards to protect
members against charges of Communist Party membership or "exhibiting
left-wing sympathies". (One of the charges levied against legendary
stage and film director Elia Kazan, including
Rod Steiger at the time Kazan received an
honorary Oscar, was that he should have defied the House Un-American
Activities Committee and not have named names because he could have
remained employed in the theater even if he had been blacklisted in
Hollywood.)
Under Bellamy's leadership, Actor's Equity managed to double its assets
within the first six years of his presidency and was successful in
establishing the first pension fund for actors. It was for his services
to the acting community that he was the recipient of an honorary
Academy Award in 1987.
Ralph Bellamy died on November 29, 1991 in Santa Monica, California. He
was 87 years old.
his peers that he was the recipient of an honorary Oscar in 1987 for
his contributions to the acting profession.
Ralph Rexford Bellamy was born June 17, 1904 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Lilla Louise (Smith), originally from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and Charles Rexford Bellamy, who had deep roots in New England. Bellamy began his career as a player right out of high
school in 1922, joining a traveling company that put on Shakespearean
plays. For the next five years he appeared with stock companies and
repertory theaters associated with the Chautauqua Road Co., which
brought culture to the hinterlands. He not only learned his craft but
by 1927 wound up owning his own theatrical troupe. Two years later he
made his Broadway theatrical debut in "Town Boy" (29 years later he
would win a Tony Award).
Bellamy made the first of his over 100 films in 1933, appearing as a
gangster in The Secret 6 (1931).
While he never became a major star or played many leads in "A"
pictures, he made a career out of playing second-leads in major
productions before developing into a character actor. In his heyday he
typically played a rich but dull character who is jilted by the leading
lady (he won his only Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actor, for
just such a role in the 1937 comedy
The Awful Truth (1937), in which
he lost Irene Dunne to
Cary Grant). He also specialized in
redoubtable detectives who always find their man (he starred as Ellery
Queen in a series of four "B" movies) and as slightly sinister yet
stylish villains (such typecasting reaching its apogee with his turn as
the not-so-kindly doctor in the horror classic
Rosemary's Baby (1968)).
Bellamy's greatest role was as
Franklin D. Roosevelt in
Dore Schary's play "Sunrise at Campobello,"
for which he won a 1958 Best Actor-Dramatic Tony Award. He also
reprised his portrayal of Roosevelt in Schary's 1960 movie adaptation
of his play
Sunrise at Campobello (1960),
which brought his co-star Greer Garson a
Golden Globe award and a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for
playing Eleanor Roosevelt.
To play F.D.R. and show his struggle with the onset of polio, Bellamy
studied up on Roosevelt as both man and politician, gaining an insight
into the future president's psyche. Like Method actors
Marlon Brando and
Jon Voight, who prepared for their portrayals
of paraplegic war veterans in the movies
The Men (1950) and
Coming Home (1978) by living in
veterans hospitals with paraplegics, Bellamy tried to understand the
trauma that F.D.R. underwent and the challenges he faced. Bellamy spent
a considerable amount of time at a rehabilitation center learning how
to master leg braces, crutches and a wheelchair to increase the
verisimilitude of his portrayal of Rosevelt. So successful was his
portrait of Roosevelt that he was called upon a generation later to
recreate F.D.R. for the blockbuster TV miniseries
War and Remembrance (1988)
(ironically, Voight himself would later play F.D.R. in the movie
Pearl Harbor (2001)).
Bellamy also had a prolific career on television, beginning with his
1948 debut in
The Philco Television Playhouse (1948).
He starred in one of the first TV police shows,
Man Against Crime (1949),
which was on the air from 1949-54, and later had roles in several other
TV series, including
The Eleventh Hour (1962),
The Survivors (1969) and
The Most Deadly Game (1970).
He also appeared in countless TV-movies and tele-plays, and was three
times nominated for an Emmy Award.
Known as a champion of actors' rights, Bellamy was one of the founders
of the Screen Actors Guild, and also served four terms as President of
Actors' Equity from 1952 to 1964. He took office during some of the
darkest days of McCarthyism, but positioned Actors' Equity and thus,
the Broadway theater to the left of Hollywood by resisting
blacklisting. Many of those blacklisted in Hollywood found homes in the
theater. Under Bellamy, Actors Equity established standards to protect
members against charges of Communist Party membership or "exhibiting
left-wing sympathies". (One of the charges levied against legendary
stage and film director Elia Kazan, including
Rod Steiger at the time Kazan received an
honorary Oscar, was that he should have defied the House Un-American
Activities Committee and not have named names because he could have
remained employed in the theater even if he had been blacklisted in
Hollywood.)
Under Bellamy's leadership, Actor's Equity managed to double its assets
within the first six years of his presidency and was successful in
establishing the first pension fund for actors. It was for his services
to the acting community that he was the recipient of an honorary
Academy Award in 1987.
Ralph Bellamy died on November 29, 1991 in Santa Monica, California. He
was 87 years old.