Ralph Rexford Bellamy (June 17,1904–November 29,1991) was an American actor whose career spanned 65 years on stage,film,and television. During his career,he played leading roles as well as supporting roles,garnering acclaim and awards,including a Tony Award for Best Dramatic Actor in Sunrise at Campobello and Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for The Awful Truth (1937).
Bellamy was born in Chicago. 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.
In 1949,Bellamy starred in the television noir private eye series Man Against Crime (also known as Follow That Man) on the DuMont Television Network;initially telecast live in its earliest seasons,the program lasted until 1956 and was simulcast for a season on Dumont and NBC,and ran on CBS during a different year. The lead role was taken by Frank Lovejoy in 1956,who subsequently starred in NBC's Meet McGraw detective series.
Bellamy appeared in the syndicated anthology series,Death Valley Days ("The Vintage Years",1962) as Daniel Quint,a minister. In the storyline,a young woman whom Quint befriends on a stagecoach ride,Lorna Erickson (Merry Anders),sets him up to be robbed by her paramour,Johnny Meadows (William Bryant).
An Emmy Award nomination for the mini-seriesThe Winds of War (1983)–in which Bellamy reprised his Sunrise at Campobello role of Franklin D. Roosevelt–brought him back into the spotlight. This was quickly followed by his role as Randolph Duke,a conniving millionaire commodities trader in Trading Places (1983) alongside Don Ameche. The Eddie Murphy film,Coming to America (1988),included a brief cameo by Bellamy and Don Ameche,reprising their roles as the Duke brothers.[2] Around this time,he again portrayed Franklin Roosevelt in the sequel to The Winds of War,War and Remembrance (also 1988).[2]
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).
Bellamy was married four times:first to Alice Delbridge (1927–1930),then to Catherine Willard (1931–1945). On the occasion of his marriage to organist Ethel Smith (1945–1947),Time magazine reported,""Ralph Bellamy,41,veteran stage (Tomorrow the World) and screen (Guest in the House) actor;and Ethel Smith,32,thin,Tico-Tico-famed cinema electric organist (Bathing Beauty);he for the third time,she for the second;in Harrison,N.Y."[7] She was in fact 42 years old at the time. Bellamy's fourth wife was Alice Murphy (1949–1991;his death).[8]
In 1984,Bellamy was presented with a Life Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild,and in 1987,he received an Honorary Academy Award "for his unique artistry and his distinguished service to the profession of acting." Bellamy has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6542 Hollywood Boulevard. In 1992,a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs,California,Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.[11]
In a 2007 episode of Boston Legal,footage of a 1957 episode of Studio One was used. The episode featured Bellamy and William Shatner as a father-and-son lawyer duo. This was used in the present day to explain the relationship between Shatner's Denny Crane character and his father in the show.
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Sunrise at Campobello is a 1960 Warner Bros. biographical film telling the story of the struggles of future President of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his family when Roosevelt was stricken with paralysis at the age of 39 in August 1921. Based on Dore Schary's 1958 Tony Award-winning Broadway play of the same name, the film was directed by Vincent J. Donehue and stars Ralph Bellamy, Greer Garson, Hume Cronyn and Jean Hagen.
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↑ Flint, Peter B. "Ralph Bellamy, the Actor, Is Dead at 87."The New York Times, November 30, 1991 Quote: Ralph Bellamy, a veteran character actor who appeared in more than 100 movies but who attained his greatest recognition on Broadway as the stricken Franklin D. Roosevelt struggling to walk in "Sunrise at Campobello," died yesterday at St. Johns Hospital and Health Center in Los Angeles. He was 87 years old."
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