George Raft

George Raft
From the trailer for Invisible Stripes (1939)
Born	George Ranft (1901-09-26)September 26, 1901 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	November 24, 1980(1980-11-24) (aged 79) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1924–1980
Spouse(s)	Grace Mulrooney (1923–1970; her death)

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 in the original Scarface (1932), Each Dawn I Die (1939), and Billy Wilder's 1959 comedy Some Like it Hot, as a dancer in Bolero (1934), and a truck driver in They Drive by Night (1940).

George Ranft was born in Hell's Kitchen, New York City, to a Catholic family of German descent, the son of Eva (née Glockner), a German immigrant, and Conrad Ranft, who was born in Massachusetts to German immigrant parents. His parents were married on November 17, 1895, in Manhattan. George's elder sister, Eva, known as "Katie", was born on April 18, 1896.

Some obituaries cited Raft's year of birth as 1895, which the actor reportedly stated was correct on television in 1980; he is recorded in the New York City Birth Index as having been born on September 26, 1901, in Manhattan as "George Rauft" (although "Rauft" is likely a mistranscription of "Ranft"); the 1900 census for New York City lists his elder sister, Katie, as his parents' only child, with two children born and only one living. On the 1910 census, he is listed as being eight years old. A boyhood friend of gangsters Owney Madden and Bugsy Siegel (and later a "wheel man" for the mob), Raft acknowledged having narrowly avoided a life of crime.

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. Raft became part of the stage act of flamboyant speakeasy hostess Texas Guinan, and his success led him to Broadway, where he again worked as a dancer. He later made a semiautobiographical film called Broadway (1942) about this period in which he plays himself. He had a great success as a dancer in London in 1926, and the Duke of Windsor was "an ardent fan and supporter."Fred Astaire, in his autobiography Steps in Time (1959), says Raft was a lightning-fast dancer and did "the fastest Charleston I ever saw."