Ralph Bellamy

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Ralph Bellamy
in The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976)
Birth name	Ralph Rexford Bellamy
Born	June 17, 1904 Chicago, Illinois, USA
Died	November 29, 1991 Santa Monica, California, USA

Ralph Rexford Bellamy (June 17, 1904 – November 29, 1991) was a Tony Award-winning American actor with a career spanning sixty-two years.

Bellamy was born in Chicago, Illinois to Lilla Louise Smith, a native of Canada, and Charles Rexford Bellamy.^[1] 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 thirties, establishing himself as a capable supporting actor. Bellamy received the lead role in the 1936 film Straight from the Shoulder. He then received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Awful Truth (1937) opposite Irene Dunne and Cary Grant and played a similar part (the naive, aw-shucks boyfriend competing with the sophisticated light-comedy Grant character) in His Girl Friday (1940). He portrayed detective Ellery Queen in a few films during the forties, but as his film career had not progressed, he returned to the stage, where he continued to perform throughout the fifties. Highly regarded within the industry, he served four years as President of Actors' Equity.

"In 1945 Ethel married Ralph Bellamy, who at the time was appearing on Broadway in State of the Union, and the couple lived in Ethel's Park Vendome apartment. In 1947 Bellamy walked out, stating that he had no intention of paying his wife alimony. Ethel charged abandonment and claimed that he drank heavily, that he was moody, and would lock himself in his room. The organist said her husband became jealous when at their parties she received most of the attention. Bellamy contended that she had advised him to be home fifteen minutes after his final curtain or he would find the door locked."

Bellamy was a regular panelist on the television game show To Tell the Truth during its initial run.

On Broadway he appeared in one of his most famous roles, as Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Sunrise at Campobello. He later starred in the 1960 film version.

On film, he also starred in Rosemary's Baby (1968) as a sweet talking but devilish physician, before turning to television during the seventies. An Emmy Award nomination for the mini-series The Winds of War (1983), in which Bellamy reprised his Sunrise at Campobello role of Franklin Roosevelt, and a role as a conniving billionaire alongside Don Ameche in Trading Places (also 1983) brought him back into the limelight.

In 1984 he was presented with a Life Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild, and in 1987 received an Honorary Academy Award "for his unique artistry and his distinguished service to the profession of acting."

Among his later roles was a memorable appearance as a once-brilliant but increasingly forgetful lawyer sadly skewered by the Jimmy Smits character on an episode of L.A. Law.

He continued working regularly and gave his final performance in Pretty Woman (1990).

He died as a result of a lung ailment in Santa Monica, California at the age of 87, and was buried in Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Bellamy has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6542 Hollywood Boulevard.