| Subject: Character actor Ford Rainey dies at 96 |
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July 25, 2005
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Date Posted: Wednesday, July 25, 2012, 09:22:05am
Ford Rainey, a character actor best known for playing presidents, judges and other authority figures but also an experienced Shakespearean stage performer, has died. He was 96.
Rainey, of Malibu, died Monday at St. John's Health Center from complications of a series of strokes, his son James Rainey said.
During his long career Rainey had small roles in movies, including The Sand Pebbles with Steve McQueen and Two Rode Together with James Stewart and had dozens of appearances on TV shows, including Bonanza,Perry Mason and The Fugitive.
He continued working in his 90s, including an occasional role as Mickey on TV's The King of Queens.
Born Aug. 8, 1908, in Mountain Home, Idaho, Rainey was a shy youngster who found an outlet when he was coaxed onto the stage by a high school drama teacher. He went on to attend the Cornish Drama School in Seattle, worked in regional theater companies and in local radio.
Before he was able to make a full-time living as an actor he held a variety of other jobs, including logger, lineman, fruit picker, fisherman and clam digger.
In 1939 he made his Broadway debut in Dostoevski's Possessed.
He served off Oregon with the Coast Guard in World War II and after the war made his movie debut with an uncredited role in the 1949 James Cagney picture White Heat.
Rainey also repeatedly played presidents, ranging from Abraham Lincoln in the 1976 miniseries Captains and the Kings to President McNeil in TV's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
His stage work included understudy to Fredric March in the 1950s Broadway production of Long Day's Journey Into Night and he was in a 1972 Los Angeles production of The Crucible.
His Shakespearean roles included the lead in a touring production of King Lear.
In addition to his son James, Rainey is survived by his wife, Sheila; another son, Robert; a daughter, Kathleen, and five grandchildren.
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