Nicholas Ray facts for kids

Nicholas Ray was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is most famous for directing the 1955 movie Rebel Without a Cause, which starred James Dean. Ray also directed many other well-known films between 1947 and 1963, including They Live By Night, In A Lonely Place, Johnny Guitar, and Bigger Than Life. His movies often used interesting camera angles and colors, and he was a big influence on a group of French filmmakers known as the French New Wave. The famous director Jean-Luc Godard once said, "... there is cinema. And the cinema is Nicholas Ray."

Early Life and Start in Movies

Nicholas Ray was born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle Jr. on August 7, 1911, in Galesville, Wisconsin. He was the youngest of four children. His father was a builder. Ray grew up in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He was a popular student and enjoyed public speaking.

After high school, Ray studied drama at La Crosse State Teachers College. He later attended the University of Chicago for a short time, where he met the famous writer Thornton Wilder. Ray then started a local theater group in La Crosse.

Through his connections, Ray met the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright and joined his community of apprentices at Taliesin. Ray helped organize the Hillside Playhouse there, where he saw many different kinds of films.

Later, Ray moved to New York City and joined theater groups. He worked with many people who later became his friends and colleagues, like Elia Kazan. He also worked for the Federal Theatre Project, which was a government program during the Great Depression. Ray became friends with Alan Lomax, a folklorist, and they traveled together, collecting traditional American music. From 1940 to 1941, Ray directed a radio show called Back Where I Come From, which featured folk artists like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. Folk songs later appeared in some of his movies.

During World War II, Ray directed radio programs for the United States Office of War Information. In 1944, Elia Kazan, who was heading to Hollywood to direct a film, suggested Ray come too. Ray worked as Kazan's assistant on the movie A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

In 1946, Ray directed his only Broadway musical, Beggar's Holiday, with music by Duke Ellington. The next year, Ray directed his first film, They Live by Night (1949), for RKO Pictures.

Hollywood Films

They Live By Night was finished in 1948 but wasn't released until November 1949. This was because of changes happening at RKO Pictures. Because of this delay, two other films Ray directed, A Woman's Secret (1949) and Knock On Any Door (1949), came out before his first one.

They Live By Night was a crime film about two young lovers on the run. It was known for showing sympathy for young people who felt like outsiders, a theme Ray often explored in his movies. This film influenced many other movies about criminal couples, like Bonnie and Clyde. Critics praised Ray's direction for being "good" and "realistic."

Ray directed several more crime films. While at RKO, he also directed A Woman's Secret, starring Gloria Grahame, who later became his wife. He also directed Born to Be Bad (1950), about a social climber in San Francisco.

His last film at RKO was The Lusty Men (1952), starring Robert Mitchum as a rodeo champion. Ray later said this film was about "a man who wants to bring himself all together before he dies."

After leaving RKO, Ray worked for most of the major Hollywood studios. He directed films in many different styles, including Westerns and melodramas.

In the mid-1950s, he made his two most famous films: Johnny Guitar (1954) and Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Johnny Guitar was a Western with Joan Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge in strong, action-packed roles usually played by men. French critics especially loved this movie.

In 1955, at Warner Bros., Ray directed Rebel Without a Cause. This movie showed 24 hours in the life of a troubled teenager, played by James Dean. When Rebel was released, shortly after Dean's early death, it had a huge impact on movies and youth culture. It helped define what it meant to be an American teenager. The film is a great example of Ray's unique style, with its strong use of color, interesting use of buildings in scenes, and understanding of characters who don't fit in.

Rebel Without a Cause was Ray's biggest success. It also helped launch the careers of young actors Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo. Ray had a strong connection with James Dean during filming. He also worked closely with Sal Mineo to develop his character, Plato. During filming, Ray had a brief relationship with Natalie Wood.

In 1956, Ray directed the drama Bigger Than Life for 20th Century-Fox. In 1957, he directed The True Story of Jesse James, a remake of an older film. Ray wanted Elvis Presley to play the famous outlaw Jesse James, but the studio chose Robert Wagner instead.

After Rebel Without a Cause, Ray traveled overseas to promote the film. He visited Paris and London. In London, he learned about James Dean's death. After this, most of Ray's later films were made outside of Hollywood. He returned to Warner Bros. for Wind Across the Everglades (1958), a drama about bird poachers. At MGM, he directed Party Girl (1958), a gangster film with musical numbers.

Before these, Ray went to France to direct Bitter Victory (1957), a World War II drama filmed in the Libyan desert. This film was seen as an art film and was praised by Ray's supporters in Europe.

As the 1950s ended, Ray's films became more complex and expensive to make. The old Hollywood studio system was also changing, making it harder for him to work there.

Ray often helped write his films, but The Savage Innocents (1960) was the only film he directed for which he received screenwriting credit. This film was about Inuit life and was a large production filmed in very cold locations like northern Manitoba and Baffin Island.

Ray then directed King of Kings (1961), a movie about the life of Jesus. This was a huge project filmed in Spain with many extras. The studio, MGM, was very involved, and the film became difficult for Ray to control.

His last major film was 55 Days at Peking (1963), about the Boxer Rebellion. It had a big international cast, including Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner. Ray faced many challenges during this production and eventually became ill, leading to other directors finishing parts of the film.

Later Career and Teaching

Ray with Zsa Zsa Gabor in 1953

In the early 1960s, Nicholas Ray found it harder to get work in Hollywood. After 55 Days at Peking, he didn't direct another film until the 1970s. He spent time in Europe, trying to develop new movie projects. He worked on ideas for films based on books and plays, but many of them never got made.

In 1971, Ray moved to upstate New York and began a new career as a teacher at Harpur College. He taught students about filmmaking by having them work on a major project together. This film, called We Can't Go Home Again, used different types of film and video. It was an experimental film that combined images in unique ways. Two documentaries, I'm A Stranger Here Myself: A Portrait of Nicholas Ray (1975) and Don't Expect Too Much (2011), show how Ray worked with his students.

After leaving Binghamton, Ray continued to teach acting and directing at places like the Lee Strasberg Institute and New York University. One of his teaching assistants was a student named Jim Jarmusch, who later became a famous director.

Towards the end of his life, Ray worked with German filmmaker Wim Wenders on a documentary called Lightning Over Water (1980), also known as Nick's Film. This movie showed Ray's last months as he continued to work on films and stage scenes. The film was finished after Ray's death.

Death

Nicholas Ray was diagnosed with lung cancer in November 1977. He received treatment, but he passed away from heart failure on June 16, 1979, in New York City. His ashes were buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in La Crosse, Wisconsin, his hometown.

Directing Style

Critics often describe Nicholas Ray as an "auteur" because his films have a very recognizable and unique style. He was known for making movies that stood out, even though he worked within the Hollywood studio system.

Working with Actors

Ray was influenced by Russian theater methods, which focused on deep character understanding. He sometimes worked with actors who were trained in "Method acting," like James Dean. Some actors found Ray easy to work with, while others found his methods challenging. For example, on Born To Be Bad, Ray started with a "table read" (where actors read the script together), which was common in theater but less so for films. The star, Joan Fontaine, found this uncomfortable. However, other actors, like Joan Leslie, appreciated his hands-on approach.

Themes in His Films

Many of Ray's films are set in the United States and explore American themes. He was interested in ethnography (the study of cultures) and how people lived in different parts of America. Ray often made films about characters who were outsiders or didn't fit in. His movies often questioned traditional ideas and showed sympathy for young people facing challenges, as seen in They Live By Night and Rebel Without a Cause. He also explored the problems faced by older characters in films like In A Lonely Place and Bigger Than Life. His work was unique for its time because it explored the "anxieties and contradictions of America in the ’50s."

Visual Style

While Ray started with black-and-white films, he became known for his strong use of color and widescreen formats. His films often had carefully planned scenes with interesting camera angles and compositions that highlighted buildings and spaces. Ray liked the "horizontal line" in widescreen, which he linked to Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture. He also liked to "destroy the rectangular frame" of traditional film, using multiple images in films like We Can't Go Home Again.

Ray's editing style was sometimes described as "dislocated," reflecting the complex lives of his characters. He often used camera movements that started or ended in the middle of an action. He also frequently cut quickly from the main scene to a close-up of a character's reaction, even if that character seemed unimportant. He also used "dissolves" (where one scene fades into another) more often than many other directors of his time.

Film Genres

Ray directed films in almost every major Hollywood genre, but he always added his own unique style and themes. He made:

• Crime films: They Live By Night, In A Lonely Place
• Social problem films: Knock On Any Door
• Westerns: Run For Cover, Johnny Guitar
• Women's pictures: A Woman's Secret, Born To Be Bad
• World War II dramas: Flying Leathernecks, Bitter Victory
• Family melodramas: Rebel Without A Cause, Bigger Than Life
• Epic spectacles: King of Kings, 55 Days at Peking

He also made films that didn't fit neatly into one category, like Party Girl, which was a gangster film with dance numbers. He even made films that explored new ideas, like Wind Across the Everglades, which touched on environmental themes.

Personal Life

Nicholas Ray was the youngest of four children and the only boy. His father was a building contractor. Ray's family moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin, where his father loved to read and listen to music. Ray remembered hearing famous jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong playing by the Mississippi River. His father died when Ray was sixteen.

Ray was close to his mother and sisters. His sister Ruth first took him to the movies. As a teenager, Ray was popular and had a good sense of humor. He enjoyed football, basketball, and especially debate. He won a scholarship to be a radio announcer.

At La Crosse Teachers College, he joined the drama club and met his first girlfriend, Kathryn Snodgrass. They worked together on the school newspaper and a stage show. Ray also started to share more left-leaning political ideas in the college paper.

In 1933, Ray went to New York City and met Jean Evans (born Jean Abrahams). They married in 1936 and had a son, Anthony Nicholas, known as Tony. They divorced in 1942.

While working in Hollywood, Ray met and married actress Gloria Grahame in 1948. They had a son named Timothy. Their marriage was difficult, and they divorced in 1952.

In 1958, Ray married Betty Utey. They had two daughters, Julie Christina and Nicca, both born in Rome. They separated in 1964 and divorced in 1970.

Ray lived in many places in Europe during the 1960s. In 1969, he returned to the United States and met Susan Schwartz, who became his companion until the end of his life. They married in Taos, New Mexico.

Nicholas Ray died in 1979. A memorial was held in New York City, attended by all four of his wives and all four of his children. His ashes were buried in his hometown of La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Films Directed by Nicholas Ray

Other Film Work

Films Nicholas Ray Acted In

Images for kids

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  Nicholas Ray with actress Zsa Zsa Gabor in 1953.

See also

In Spanish: Nicholas Ray para niños