Billy Rayes

Last updated

Billy Rayes was an American actor, juggler and mimic. He was touring Australia when he signed to appear as the male juvenile in Dad and Dave Come to Town (1938). [1] He appeared alongside his wife, the American model, Leila Steppe. [2]

After filming Rayes went back to America, where he continued to base himself. [3] However he would return to Australia periodically to perform, particularly on the Tivoli Circuit. [4]

Related Research Articles

Roy Rene Australian actor and comedian

Roy Rene, born Henry van der Sluys, was an Australian comedian and vaudevillian. As the bawdy character Mo McCackie, Rene was one of the most well-known and successful Australian comedians of the 20th century.

John Farrow Australian-born American film director

John Villiers Farrow, KGCHS was an Australian film director, producer and screenwriter. Spending a considerable amount of his career in the United States, in 1942 he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for Wake Island, and in 1957 he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Around the World in Eighty Days. He had seven children by his wife, actress Maureen O'Sullivan, including actress Mia Farrow.

Chips Rafferty

John William Pilbean Goffage MBE, known professionally as Chips Rafferty, was an Australian actor. Called "the living symbol of the typical Australian", Rafferty's career stretched from the late 1930s until his death in 1971, and during this time he performed regularly in major Australian feature films as well as appearing in British and American productions, including The Overlanders and The Sundowners. He appeared in commercials in Britain during the late 1950s, encouraging British emigration to Australia.

Ann Richards (actress)

Shirley Ann Richards was an Australian actress and author, who achieved notability in a series of 1930s Australian films for Ken G. Hall before moving to the United States, where she continued her career as a film actress, mainly as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer starlet. Her best known performances were in It Isn't Done (1937), Dad and Dave Come to Town (1938), An American Romance (1944), and Sorry, Wrong Number (1948). In the 1930s, she was the only Australian actor under a long-term contract to a film studio, Cinesound Productions. She subsequently became a lecturer and poet.

George Stephenson "Onkus" Wallace, was an Australian comedian, vaudevillian, radio personality and film star. During the early to mid-20th century, he was one of the most famous and successful Australian comedians on both stage and screen, with screen, song and revue sketch writing amongst his repertoire. Wallace was a small tubby man with goggle eyes, a mobile face and croaky voice who appeared in trademark baggy trousers, checkered shirt and felt hat. His career as one of Australia's most popular comedians spanned four decades from the 1920s to 1960 and encompassed stage, radio and film entertainment. Ken G. Hall, who directed him in two films, wrote in his autobiography that George Wallace was the finest Australian comedian he had known.

Billy Bevan Australian actor

Billy Bevan was an Australian-born vaudevillian, who became an American film actor. He appeared in more than 250 American films between 1916 and 1950.

<i>Captain Fury</i> 1939 film

Captain Fury is a 1939 American Western film directed by Hal Roach. It is set in colonial Australia as one of Hollywood's few attempts to depict Australian history.

<i>Dad and Dave Come to Town</i> 1938 film by Ken G. Hall

Dad and Dave Come to Town is a 1938 Australian comedy film directed by Ken G. Hall, the third in the 'Dad and Dave' comedy series starring Bert Bailey. It was the feature film debut of Peter Finch and is one of the best known Australian films of the 1930s.

<i>Mr. Chedworth Steps Out</i> 1939 Australian film

Mr. Chedworth Steps Out is a 1939 Australian comedy film directed by Ken G. Hall starring Cecil Kellaway. Kellaway returned to Australia from Hollywood to make the film, which features an early screen appearance by Peter Finch.

<i>Botany Bay</i> (film) 1953 film by John Farrow

Botany Bay is a 1953 American drama film directed by John Farrow and starring Alan Ladd, James Mason and Patricia Medina. It was based on a novel of the same name by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall.

Raymond Longford

Raymond Longford was a prolific Australian film director, writer, producer and actor during the silent era. Longford was a major director of the silent film era of the Australian cinema. He formed a production team with Lottie Lyell. His contributions to Australian cinema with his ongoing collaborations with Lyell, including The Sentimental Bloke (1919) and The Blue Mountains Mystery (1921), prompted the Australian Film Institute's AFI Raymond Longford Award, inaugurated in 1968, to be named in his honour.

Hugh D. McIntosh Australian politician

Hugh Donald "Huge Deal" McIntosh was an Australian show-business entrepreneur.

The 1912 Australia rugby union tour of Canada and the United States was a collection of friendly rugby union games undertaken by the Australia national rugby union team against various invitational teams from Canada and the U.S, and also against the US national team.

It Isn't Done is a 1937 Australian comedy film about a grazier who inherits a barony in England.

<i>Lovers and Luggers</i> 1937 Australian film

Lovers and Luggers is a 1937 Australian film directed by Ken G. Hall. It is an adventure melodrama about a pianist who goes to Thursday Island to retrieve a valuable pearl.

Tall Timbers is a 1937 action melodrama set in the timber industry directed by Ken G. Hall and starring Frank Leighton and Shirley Ann Richards.

<i>Dad Rudd, M.P.</i> 1940 Australian film

Dad Rudd, M.P. is a 1940 comedy that was the last of four films made by Ken G. Hall starring Bert Bailey as Dad Rudd. It was the last feature film directed by Hall prior to the war and the last made by Cinesound Productions, Bert Bailey and Frank Harvey.

Red Sky at Morning is a 1944 Australian melodrama set during the 19th century. It features an early screen performance by Peter Finch, who plays a convict who falls in love with the wife of a sea captain.

Gloria Dawn (actor) Australian actress

Gloria Dawn was an Australian actress of film and stage, singer and vaudevillian performer. She was one of the leading stars of the stage from the 1950s to her death.

Laurence Craddock Le Guay, was an Australian fashion photographer.

References

  1. 'Stage Turns For Tivoli And Embassy', The Courier-Mail (Brisbane), Tuesday 5 April 1938, p. 8
  2. 'Show Girls Marry Millionaires Prominent New York Mannequin in Sydney', The Sydney Morning Herald Tuesday 14 June 1938 Supplement: Women's Supplement p 6
  3. Sample of reviews for one of his performances
  4. Collection Finding Aid for Tivoli Theatres at National Library of Australia