Nicholas Ray facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Nicholas Ray
Ray c. 1950
Born	Raymond Nicholas Kienzle Jr. (1911-08-07)August 7, 1911 Galesville, Wisconsin, U.S.
Died	June 16, 1979(1979-06-16) (aged 67) New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter, actor
Years active	1946–1979
Spouse(s)	Jean (Abrams) Evans ​ ​ (m. 1936; div. 1942)​ Gloria Grahame ​ ​ (m. 1948; div. 1952)​ Betty Utey ​ ​ (m. 1958; div. 1970)​ Susan Schwartz ​ (m. 1971)​
Children	4, including Anthony Ray

Nicholas Ray (born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle Jr., August 7, 1911 – June 16, 1979) was an American film director, writer, and actor. He is most famous for directing the 1955 movie Rebel Without a Cause. He also directed many other great films between 1947 and 1963, like They Live By Night, In A Lonely Place, Johnny Guitar, and Bigger Than Life.

Ray was known for his unique way of framing shots and using color in his films. He greatly influenced a group of French filmmakers called the French New Wave. Famous director Jean-Luc Godard once wrote that "the cinema is Nicholas Ray."

Early Life and Start in Film

Nicholas Ray was born 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 but sometimes struggled with his studies. At age sixteen, he moved to Chicago, Illinois to live with his older sister. There, he explored the city's exciting nightlife.

When he returned to La Crosse, he became a talented speaker, winning a radio contest. He also spent time at a local theater. After high school, he studied drama at La Crosse State Teachers College (now the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse). He later attended the University of Chicago for a short time, where he met the famous writer Thornton Wilder.

In 1932, Ray started the La Crosse Little Theatre Group. He also began using the name "Nicholas Ray." Through his connections, he met the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright and joined his community of apprentices at Taliesin. Ray helped organize a playhouse there, where he saw many non-Hollywood films. However, he later had a disagreement with Wright and left.

Ray then moved to New York City and joined a theater group called the Theatre of Action. He acted in several plays and worked with people who later became his friends and colleagues, like Elia Kazan. He also worked for the Federal Theatre Project, a government program that supported artists during the Great Depression. He traveled across America, collecting traditional folk music with folklorist Alan Lomax. Together, they created a radio show called Back Where I Come From, featuring artists like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. Folk music later appeared in many of Ray's films.

During World War II, Ray directed radio programs for the United States Office of War Information. He was briefly investigated by the FBI during a time when the government was concerned about certain political beliefs. However, the investigation was dropped. In 1944, Elia Kazan invited Ray to Hollywood to work as his assistant on the film A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

After returning east, Ray directed his only Broadway musical, Beggar's Holiday, in 1946. The next year, he directed his first movie, They Live by Night (1949), for RKO Pictures.

Hollywood Films

Ray's first film, They Live By Night, was released in 1949. It was about two young lovers on the run from the law. This movie showed Ray's interest in young people who feel like outsiders, a theme he often explored. The film influenced other movies about criminal couples, like Bonnie and Clyde.

Because of delays, two other films Ray directed, A Woman's Secret (1949) and Knock On Any Door (1949), were released before his first one. The New York Times praised They Live By Night for its "good, realistic production and sharp direction."

Ray made several other crime films, known as film noir. These included A Woman's Secret, starring his future wife Gloria Grahame, and Born to Be Bad (1950).

In 1949, Ray was asked to direct a film called I Married a Communist. This was a difficult time in Hollywood when people suspected of having certain political views were sometimes prevented from working. Ray managed to avoid being blacklisted (banned from working), and his contract was even extended.

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

After RKO, Ray signed with a new agent, Lew Wasserman, who helped guide his career through the 1950s. During this time, Ray directed films for most major studios, working in different genres like Westerns and melodramas.

In the mid-1950s, he made two of his most famous films: Johnny Guitar (1954) and Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Johnny Guitar was a unique Western with Joan Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge in strong roles usually played by men. French critics loved it, with François Truffaut calling it "the Beauty and the Beast of Westerns."

In 1955, Ray directed Rebel Without a Cause for Warner Bros.. This movie followed 24 hours in the life of a troubled teenager, starring James Dean in his most famous role. When Rebel was released shortly after Dean's death, it had a huge impact on movies and youth culture. It helped define the idea of the American teenager. The film is a great example of Ray's style, with its bold use of color, interesting architecture, and understanding of social outsiders.

Rebel Without a Cause was Ray's biggest success and helped launch the careers of young actors Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo. Ray had a very close working relationship with James Dean.

In 1956, Ray directed Bigger Than Life. In 1957, he directed The True Story of Jesse James, a remake of an older film. Ray wanted to cast Elvis Presley as the bandit, but the studio chose Robert Wagner instead.

After Rebel Without a Cause, Ray traveled overseas to promote the film. He met French critics who admired his work. This marked a change for Ray, as most of his later films were made outside Hollywood. He returned to Warner Bros. for Wind Across the Everglades (1958) and directed Party Girl (1958) at MGM, a gangster drama 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 was a difficult production, but it was praised by his European supporters.

As the film industry changed, it became harder for Ray to work in Hollywood. His films also became more complex and expensive.

Ray often helped write his films, but The Savage Innocents (1960) was the only one he directed where he received writing credit. This epic film about Inuit life was shot in harsh conditions in northern Canada, but much of the footage was lost in a plane crash. He had to use special effects to replace the lost scenes.

Now based in Europe, Ray directed King of Kings (1961), a huge film about the life of Jesus. It was a massive project with many challenges, including studio interference and thousands of extras. The film received mixed reviews.

Ray then directed another epic film, 55 Days at Peking (1963), about the Boxer Rebellion. This film also had a large international cast. During filming, Ray became ill and was replaced by other directors, though he still received credit for the film. This was his last major studio film.

Later Career and Teaching

Ray with Zsa Zsa Gabor in 1953

After 55 Days at Peking, Ray found it difficult to get work in Hollywood. He spent the 1960s in Europe, trying to develop new film projects that never quite happened. He worked on ideas for films based on novels and even a Western inspired by Hamlet.

He also tried to start a production company, Emerald Films, and planned to make films in Yugoslavia. However, these projects faced many problems and were never completed.

While in Europe, Ray connected with a new generation of filmmakers. He helped sell a film by Volker Schlöndorff and worked with Barbet Schroeder on other ideas. He also tried to make a film about young people during a time of rebellion, but it didn't happen.

In 1971, Ray moved to upstate New York and began a new career as a teacher at Harpur College. He believed in learning by doing, so he and his students started a major film project called We Can't Go Home Again. Students took on different roles, and the film used various types of footage and video, combining them into unique multi-image displays. Two documentaries, I'm A Stranger Here Myself: A Portrait of Nicholas Ray (1975) and Don't Expect Too Much (2011), show how he worked with his students.

After his contract at Binghamton ended, Ray moved back to New York City. He continued to teach acting and directing at places like the Lee Strasberg Institute and New York University, where Jim Jarmusch was his teaching assistant.

Towards the end of his life, Ray was diagnosed with cancer. He and his son came up with the idea for a documentary about a father-son relationship. This led to a collaboration with German filmmaker Wim Wenders, who had previously cast Ray as an actor in his film The American Friend (1977). Their film, Lightning Over Water (1980), also known as Nick's Film, combines documentary footage with dramatic scenes. It shows their journey of making a film and records Ray's last months. The film was finished after Ray's death in June 1979.

Death

Nicholas Ray was diagnosed with lung cancer in November 1977. He received various treatments, including surgery to remove a brain tumor. 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.

Directing Style

Many film experts consider Nicholas Ray an "auteur" because his films have a very recognizable and unique style. He was often praised by French film critics who used this term to describe directors whose personal vision shone through their work, even within the Hollywood studio system.

Working with Actors

Ray was influenced by Russian theater techniques, 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, star Joan Fontaine found his rehearsal style uncomfortable. However, Robert Ryan, who worked with Ray on another film, remembered that Ray gave very few specific instructions, allowing actors freedom.

Themes and Stories

Most of Ray's films are set in the United States and explore American themes. His early work collecting folk music influenced his understanding of American society. Ray often made films about characters who were outsiders or who didn't fit in. Many of his movies subtly criticized people who always conformed to society's rules. Films like They Live By Night and Rebel Without a Cause show his understanding of young people. However, he also made films about older characters facing challenges, such as In A Lonely Place and Bigger Than Life. His films were known for exploring non-conformist ideas and showing sympathy for characters with unconventional morals. His work captured the unique worries and contradictions of America in the 1950s.

Visual Style

While Ray started with black-and-white films, he became known for his vibrant use of color and widescreen formats. His films are also noted for their carefully planned visual scenes, with characters and objects arranged in ways that often highlight architecture. Ray liked widescreen because he felt it gave a horizontal line, similar to the designs of Frank Lloyd Wright. He often created unbalanced compositions to show a feeling of displacement or unease. He also liked to "destroy the rectangular frame" using multiple images, as seen in We Can't Go Home Again.

Ray's editing style was sometimes described as "dislocated," reflecting the troubled lives of his characters. He often used camera movements that started and ended abruptly. He also frequently cut suddenly from the main action to a close-up of a character who seemed only slightly involved. Another common technique was using dissolves (where one scene fades into another) for transitions, more often than most directors of his time.

Film Genres

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

• Crime films (part of the film noir style): They Live By Night, In A Lonely Place, and On Dangerous Ground.
• Social problem film: Knock On Any Door.
• Westerns: Run For Cover, Johnny Guitar, and The True Story of Jesse James.
• Women's pictures: A Woman's Secret and Born To Be Bad.
• World War II dramas: Flying Leathernecks and Bitter Victory.
• Family melodramas: Rebel Without A Cause and Bigger Than Life.
• Epic spectacles: King of Kings and 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 also directed ethnographic dramas like Hot Blood and The Savage Innocents, and even an early ecologically themed drama, Wind Across the Everglades.

Personal Life

Raymond Nicholas Kienzle Jr. was the youngest of his family and the only boy. He had three older sisters. His father was a building contractor who loved to read and listen to music. Ray remembered hearing jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong around 1920. His father passed away when Ray was sixteen.

Ray was indulged by his mother and sisters. After his father's death, he became more difficult to manage and was sent to live with his sister Ruth in Chicago. He was popular in high school, playing sports and being a cheerleader. He was very interested in debate and drama. He also won a scholarship to be a radio announcer.

At La Crosse Teachers College, he joined the drama society 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 views in the college paper.

In 1931, he transferred to the University of Chicago, where he met Thornton Wilder. He spent only one semester there before returning to La Crosse. In 1932, he and his friend Clarence Hiskey tried to start a local chapter of the US Communist Party.

By the end of 1932, Ray left college and began calling himself Nicholas Ray. He moved to New York City, where he met writer Jean Evans. They married in 1936 and had one son, Anthony Nicholas (Tony), born in 1937. They divorced in 1942.

While working for the Office of War Information, Ray met Connie Ernst, and they lived together from 1942 to 1944.

In Hollywood, while directing A Woman's Secret, he became involved with actress Gloria Grahame. They married in 1948 and had a son, Timothy, born later that year. Their marriage had difficulties, and they separated several times before divorcing in 1952.

In 1958, Ray married Betty Utey. They had two daughters, Julie Christina (born 1960) and Nicca (born 1961), both born in Rome. In 1963, the family moved to Madrid, Spain. Ray and Betty separated in 1964, and she returned to the US with their children. They divorced in 1970.

Through the mid-1960s, Ray lived in various European cities. 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 passed away 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.

Filmography (director)

Films

Other work

Filmography (actor)

Images for kids

• 

  Ray c. 1950

• 

  Ray with Zsa Zsa Gabor in 1953

See also

In Spanish: Nicholas Ray para niños