Remembering George Raft

George Raft (born George Ranft; September 26, 1901 – November 24, 1980) was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s. A stylish leading man in dozens of movies, today Raft is mostly known for his gangster roles as in the original Scarface (1932), and as a dancer in Bolero (1934), a truck driver in They Drive by Night (1940),  and Billy Wilder's 1959 comedy Some Like it Hot.

As a young man Raft showed aptitude in dancing which, with his elegant fashion sense, enabled him to earn work as a dancer in New York City nightclubs, often in the same venues as Rudolph Valentino before Valentino became a movie actor.

In 1929, Raft relocated to Hollywood and took small roles. In Taxi! (1932), starring James Cagney and Loretta Young, Raft has a colorful unbilled dancing role as Cagney's competitor in a dance contest who wins only to be knocked down by Cagney. His big break came later that same year as the nickel-flipping second lead alongside Paul Muni in Scarface (1932).

He was one of the three most popular gangster actors of the 1930s, with James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson; Raft ranked far above Humphrey Bogart in fame and box office clout throughout the decade.

In 1946 Raft announced he had created his own production company, Star Films. They ended up making Intrigue and Outpost in Morocco. His career as a leading man continued through the 1940s with films of gradually declining quality.

In 1953, Raft also starred as Lt. George Kirby in a syndicated television series police drama titled I'm the Law (in which he invested his own money, which ran for one season and was one of the earliest instances of a movie star of his previous calibre accepting the lead in a TV series. He wound up occasionally accepting supporting roles in movies, such as playing second fiddle to Robert Taylor in Rogue Cop (1954). Raft satirized his gangster image with a well-received supporting performance in Some Like it Hot (1959).

his final film appearances were in Sextette (1978), reunited with long-ago co-star Mae West, and The Man with Bogart's Face (1980), a nod to 1940s detective movies.

Raft died from leukemia at the age of 79 in Los Angeles, California, on November 24, 1980.