Paula Raymond

Paula Raymond
from the trailer for the film Crisis (1950).
Born Paula Ramona Wright
(1924-11-23)November 23, 1924
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Died December 31, 2003(2003-12-31) (aged 79)
West Hollywood, California, U.S.
Other names Paula Rae Wright
Rae Patterson
Years active 1938–1994
Spouse(s) Floyd Patterson (1944–1946)(divorced) 1 child
H. Leslie Williams (1965-1966)[1]
Children Raeme Dorene Patterson (1946-1993)
Jack Kelly and Paula Raymond in Maverick (1961)

Paula Raymond (November 23, 1924 – December 31, 2003) was an American model and actress who played the leading lady in numerous movies and television series episodes. She was the niece of American pulp-magazine editor Farnsworth Wright.[2]

Early years

Paula Ramona Wright was born in 1924, in San Francisco, California. Her father was a corporate lawyer. Following her parents' divorce, Raymond and her mother moved to Los Angeles.[3]

As a child, Raymond studied ballet, piano, and singing. She was a member of both the San Francisco Opera Company and the San Francisco Children's Opera Company. She graduated from Hollywood High School in 1942.[2] Following graduation, she returned to San Francisco to attend college. She also worked with two theater groups there.[4]

Modeling

Before she became an actress, Raymond was a photographers' model. She told author Leo Verswijver, "I got started modeling at $25 an hour and [I] forgot all about acting, because I was earning a living."[3] Her work included posing for the cover of True Confessions magazine.[4]

Film

Raymond's first acting role was playing Bettina Bowman in Keep Smiling (1938),[4] credited as Paula Rae Wright. In 1950, she was put under contract by MGM, where she played opposite such leading men as Cary Grant and Dick Powell. Earlier in her career, Raymond acted in film noir thrillers such as City That Never Sleeps (with Gig Young, Mala Powers and Marie Windsor), but later in her career she developed a horror film reputation.

In 1952, she played the heroine in The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. Her low-budget horror movies included Blood of Dracula's Castle. In 1954, she starred as Queen Berengaria in the film King Richard and the Crusaders. She also starred in a 1955 western, The Gun That Won the West.

Raymond did some work for Paramount Pictures using the screen name Rae Patterson.[4]

Television

In the late 1950s and 1960s, Raymond appeared in many television shows including Perry Mason (five episodes), Maverick, Hawaiian Eye (five episodes), M Squad (three episodes) with Lee Marvin, 77 Sunset Strip (four episodes), as Martha Harrington in Peter Gunn season 1, episode 11, in 1958. She turned down the role of saloon keeper Kitty Russell in the long-running western classic series Gunsmoke, and the role went instead to Amanda Blake. Raymond later noted in an interview that she later regretted the decision but that she had assumed the character would be depicted entirely differently.

Raymond appeared in a 1959 episode "The Paymaster" of the ABC/Desilu western series, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.[5] In Have Gun - Will Travel, "Lady with a Gun," season 3, episode 30, she played Eve McIntosh, a woman seeking revenge for her brother's killing. In 1961, she also played opposite Jack Kelly in an episode from the final season of the Western comedy television series Maverick entitled "The Golden Fleecing."

She also appeared in the third episode of the first season, initially broadcast on February 3, 1959, in ABC's science fiction series Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond entitled "Emergency Only," which also memorably featured Jocelyn Brando as a screaming fortune teller at a party.

In 1962 she portrayed the role of Franny Wells in the episode "House of the Hunter" on CBS's Rawhide.

Raymond was cast as former Union Army spy Pauline Cushman in the 1964 episode, "The Wooing of Perilous Pauline" of the syndicated western series, Death Valley Days.[6]

Personal life

In 1962, Raymond was a passenger in a car that crashed into a tree on Sunset Boulevard. Her nose was severed by the rear view mirror. After a little more than a year of extensive plastic surgery and recovery she returned to acting. In 1977, while working on the soap opera Days of Our Lives, after only three appearances, she accidentally tripped on a telephone cord and broke her ankle. She was written out of the show.[7] In 1984, she broke both hips, and in 1994, she broke her shoulder.

In 1944, Raymond married Floyd Leroy Patterson. In 1946, they divorced shortly after the birth of their daughter, Raeme Dorene Patterson. In 1993, Raymond's daughter died.

Death

On December 31, 2003, Raymond died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles[4] from a series of respiratory ailments. She was 79.[8]

References in Literature

Paula Raymond is referenced in Joan Didion's Play it as it Lays with an unnamed character remarking "'Gee, Paula Raymond was a pretty girl... Funny she never became a star.'" This quote comes after the protagonist, an actress named Maria, has a traumatic abortion, and seems to be drawing a parallel between Maria and Raymond.[9]

Partial Filmography

Bibliography

  • Parla, Paul; Charles P. Mitchell (2000). "Paula Raymond: Pursuing the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms". Screen Sirens Scream! Interviews with 20 Actresses from Science Fiction, Horror, Film Noir and Mystery Movies, 1930s to 1960s. Jefferson, N.C. and London: McFarland. pp. 197–121. ISBN 0-7864-0701-8.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show.php?id=226
  2. 1 2 Parla, Paul; Mitchell, Charles P. (2000). Screen Sirens Scream!: Interviews with 20 Actresses from Science Fiction, Horror, Film Noir and Mystery Movies, 1930s to 1960s. McFarland. pp. 197–199. ISBN 9780786445875. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  3. 1 2 Verswijver, Leo (2003). "Movies Were Always Magical": Interviews with 19 Actors, Directors, and Producers from the Hollywood of the 1930s through the 1950s. McFarland. pp. 148–149. ISBN 9780786411290. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 McLellan, Dennis (January 10, 2004). "Paula Raymond, 79; MGM Leading Lady in '50s, Prolific TV Actress". Los Angeles Times. California, Los Angeles. Archived from the original on 14 March 2017. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  5. ↑ ""The Paymaster" on the Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, December 1, 1959". Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved August 12, 2013.
  6. ↑ "The Wooing of Perilous Pauline". Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  7. ↑ Bergan, Ronald (January 14, 2004). "Paula Raymond". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 14 March 2017. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  8. ↑ Independent News and Media Limited (2009). Paula Raymond Leading actress in the 1950s. Retrieved August 19, 2009.
  9. ↑ Play it as it lays: a novel (3. print. ed.). New York, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 1970-01-01.
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