Ralph Rexford Bellamy (June 17, 1904 – November 29, 1991) was an American actor with a career that spanned sixty-two years.
Bellamy was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Lilla Louise Smith, a native of Canada, and her husband Charles Rexford Bellamy. He began his acting career on stage, and by 1927 owned his own theatre company. In 1931, he made his film debut and worked constantly throughout the decade to establish himself as a capable suppo...
more
Ralph Rexford Bellamy (June 17, 1904 – November 29, 1991) was an American actor with a career that spanned sixty-two years.
Bellamy was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Lilla Louise Smith, a native of Canada, and her husband Charles Rexford Bellamy. He began his acting career on stage, and by 1927 owned his own theatre company. In 1931, he made his film debut and worked constantly throughout the decade to establish himself as a capable supporting actor. Bellamy was cast in the lead role in the 1936 film Straight from the Shoulder.
He received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Awful Truth (1937) with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant, and played a similar part, that of a naive boyfriend competing with the sophisticated Grant character, in His Girl Friday (1940). He portrayed detective Ellery Queen in a few films during the 1940s, but as his film career did not progress, he returned to the stage, where he continued to perform throughout the...
less