Aldo Ray
| Aldo Ray | |
|---|---|
Ray on the DuMont version of Twenty Questions, 1954
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| Born |
Aldo Da Re September 25, 1926 Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | March 27, 1991 (aged 64) Martinez, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Throat cancer |
| Occupation | Film actor |
| Years active | 1951–1991 |
| Spouse(s) |
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| Children | 4 |
Aldo Ray (born Aldo Da Re; September 25, 1926 – March 27, 1991) was an American actor.
Ray was born Aldo Da Re in Pen Argyl in Northampton County in eastern Pennsylvania, to an Italian family with five brothers (Mario, Guido, Dante, Dino and Louis) and one sister (Regina). (His brother, Mario Da Re (1933-2010), lettered in football at USC in the years 1952 to 1954, and on May 12, 1955 appeared as a contestant on the NBC quiz show You Bet Your Life hosted by Groucho Marx.) His family moved to the small town of Crockett in northern California when Aldo was four years old; his father worked as a laborer at the C & H Sugar Refinery, the largest employer in the town. He attended John Swett High School, where he made the football team; he also coached swimming.
In 1944, at age 18, during World War II, Aldo entered the United States Navy, serving as a frogman until 1946; he saw action at Okinawa with UDT-17. Upon leaving the Navy in May 1946 he returned to Crockett. He studied and played football at Vallejo Junior College, then entered the University of California at Berkeley to study political science. (Ray later described himself as an "arch conservative" and a "right winger".) He left college in order to run for the office of Constable of the Crockett Judicial District in Contra Costa County California. "I always knew I was going to be a big man but I thought it was going to be in politics," he said.
In April 1950 Columbia Studios sent a unit to San Francisco to look for some athletes to appear in a film they were making called Saturday's Hero (1951). Aldo's brother Guido saw an item on the San Francisco Chronicle about the auditions and asked his brother to drive him there. Director David Miller was more interested in Ray than his brother because of his voice; also, Ray was comfortable talking to the camera due to his political experience. He later recalled, "They...said 'What's wrong with your voice kid? Are you sick? If you're sick you don't belong here.' I said, 'No, no, no, this is the way I've always spoken.' And they loved it."
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