Ray Collins (actor)

Ray Bidwell Collins was an American character actor in stock and Broadway theatre, radio, films, and television. With 900 stage roles to his credit, he became one of the most successful actors in the developing field of radio drama. A friend and associate of Orson Welles for many years, Collins went to Hollywood with the Mercury Theatre company and made his feature-film debut in Citizen Kane, as Kane's political rival. Collins appeared in more than 75 films and had one of his best-remembered roles on television, as Los Angeles homicide detective Lieutenant Arthur Tragg in the CBS-TV series Perry Mason.

Life and career

Ray Bidwell Collins was born December 10, 1889, in Sacramento, California, to Lillie Bidwell and William Calderwood Collins. His father was a newspaper reporter and dramatic editor on The Sacramento Bee. His mother was the niece of John Bidwell, pioneer, statesman, and founder of society in the Sacramento Valley area of California in the 19th century. Collins was inspired as a young boy to become an actor after seeing a stage performance by his uncle, Ulric Collins, who had performed the role of Dave Bartlett in the Broadway production of Way Down East. He began putting on plays with neighborhood children in Sacramento.
Collins made his professional stage debut at age 13, at the Liberty Playhouse in Oakland.
In December 1912, Collins and his first wife, Margaret Marriott, were a vaudeville team, who performed at the Alhambra Theatre in Seattle. In July 1914, the couple and their young son, Junius, moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, where Collins worked as an actor. In 1922, he was part of a stock company, Vancouver's Popular Players, which enacted plays at the original Orpheum Theatre. He operated his own stock company for five years at his own theatre, the Empress Theatre, in Vancouver. Collins toured in vaudeville and made his way to New York.
Collins worked prodigiously in his youth. Between the ages of 17 and 30, he was, it is said, out of work as an actor for a total of five weeks. In 1924, he and Marriott were divorced. That same year, he opened in Conscience, and after that, he was almost continually featured in Broadway plays and other theatrical productions until the Great Depression began. In 1926, he married Joan Uron. At the start of the Great Depression, Collins turned his attention to radio, where he was involved in 18 broadcasts a week, sometimes working as many as 16 hours a day. He also played parts in short films, starting in 1930, including the Vitaphone Varieties series based on Booth Tarkington's Penrod stories.
In 1934, Collins began a long association with Orson Welles, which led to some of his most memorable roles. They met when Welles joined the repertory cast of The American School of the Air, his first job in radio. In 1935, Welles won a place in the prestigious company that presented the news dramatization series The [March of Time (radio program)|The March of Time]—an elite corps of actors, including Collins, Agnes Moorehead, Everett Sloane, and Paul Stewart, who would soon form the core of Welles's Mercury Theatre.
On radio, Collins was in the distinguished repertory cast of the weekly historical drama Cavalcade of America for six years. Collins and Welles worked together on that series and others, including Welles's serial adaptation of Les Misérables and The Shadow.
Collins became a member of the repertory company of Welles's CBS Radio series The [Mercury Theatre on the Air] and its sponsored continuation, The Campbell Playhouse. Through the run of the series, Collins played many roles in literary adaptations, including Squire Livesey in "Treasure Island", Dr. Watson in "Sherlock Holmes", and Mr. Pickwick in "The Pickwick Papers". Collins's best-known work on this series, however, was in "The [War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama)|The War of the Worlds]", the celebrated broadcast in which he played three roles, most notably the rooftop newscaster who describes the destruction of New York. Additionally, he originated the title role in the popular Crime Doctor series.
Along with other Mercury Theatre players, Collins made his feature-film debut in Citizen Kane, in which he portrayed ruthless political boss Jim W. Gettys. He appeared in Welles's original Broadway production of Native Son and played a principal role in Welles's second film, The Magnificent Ambersons. His ongoing radio work included Welles's wartime series, Ceiling Unlimited and Hello Americans, and the variety show The [Orson Welles Almanac].
Having returned to his native California, Collins appeared in more than 75 major motion pictures, including Leave Her to Heaven ; The Best Years of Our Lives ; Crack-Up ; A Double Life ; two entries in the Ma and Pa Kettle series; and the 1953 version of The Desert Song, in which he played the nonsinging role of Kathryn Grayson's father. He displayed comic ability in The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer and The Man from Colorado, and played a supporting role in Welles's Touch of Evil.
On television, Collins was a regular in The Halls of Ivy, starring Ronald Colman. He appeared as Judge Harper in a The [Miracle on 34th Street (The 20th Century Fox Hour)|1955 TV adaptation] of the holiday classic Miracle on 34th Street, starring Thomas Mitchell, Teresa Wright, and MacDonald Carey. In 1957, Collins joined the cast of the CBS-TV series Perry Mason and gained fame as Los Angeles police homicide detective Lieutenant Arthur Tragg.
By 1960, Collins found his physical health declining and his memory waning, problems that in the next few years brought an end to his career. About the difficulty in remembering his lines, he said: "Years ago, when I was on the Broadway stage, I could memorize 80 pages in eight hours. I had a photographic memory. When I got out on the stage, I could actually — in my mind — see the lines written on top of the page, the middle, or the bottom. But then radio came along, and we read most of our lines, and I got out of the habit of memorizing. I lost my natural gift. Today it's hard for me. My wife works as hard as I do, cueing me at home."
In October 1963, Collins filmed his last Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Capering Camera", broadcast January 16, 1964. Although clearly Collins would not return to work on the series, his name appeared in the opening title sequence through the eighth season, which ended in May 1965. Executive producer Gail Patrick Jackson was aware that Collins watched the show every week and wished not to discourage him.
On July 11, 1965, Collins died of emphysema at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California, at age 75. Masonic funeral services were held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills.

Private life

Collins supported Thomas Dewey in the 1944 United States presidential election.

Theatre credits

Ray Collins played 900 roles on the legitimate stage.

Date	Title	Role	Notes
June 23 – July 5, 1924	The Blue Bandanna	Gentleman Jim Delano	Vanderbilt Theatre, New York
September 11, 1924 – January 1925	Conscience	Jeff Stewart	Belmont Theatre, New York
March 26, 1925 –	Eve's Leaves	Theodore Corbin	Wallack's Theatre, New York
September 28 – October 1925	The Bridge of Distances	Captain Aylmer Herryot	Morosco Theatre, New York
August 30 – December 1926	The Donovan Affair	Nelson	Fulton Theatre, New York
September 18 – October 1928	The Big Fight		Majestic Theatre, New York
November 9, 1928 – January 1929	On Call	John Q. Smith	Waldorf Theatre, New York
September 16 – October 1929	A Strong Man's House	Allen	Ambassador Theatre, New York
February 26–28, 1931	Paging Danger	Kenneth Holden	Booth Theatre, New York
March 24 – June 28, 1941	Native Son	Paul Max	St. James Theatre, New York

Film and television credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1930	Scotch Love		Short
1930	'		Short
1930	'		Short
1930	Masquerade		Short
1931	Snakes Alive	Mr. Schofield	Penrod short
1931	'	Mr. Schofield	Short
1932	His Honor, Penrod	Mr. Schofield	Penrod short
1932	Hot Dog	Mr. Schofield	Penrod short
1932	'		Short
1932	Murder in the Pullman		Short
1932	'		Short
1932	Lonesome Manor		Short
1932	If I'm Elected		Short
1932	You're Killing Me		Short
1940	Citizen Kane trailer	Himself, Jim W. Gettys	Short
1941	Citizen Kane	Jim W. Gettys	Feature film debut
1942	'	Jack Amberson
1942	'	Professor B
1942	Highways by Night	Uncle Ben
1942	'	Captain McCall
1943	Commandos Strike at Dawn	Bergesen
1943	'	Mr. Matthew Macauley
1943	Slightly Dangerous	Snodgrass
1943	Crime Doctor	Dr. John Carey
1943	Salute to the Marines	Colonel Mason
1943	Whistling in Brooklyn	Grover Kendall
1944	Madame Curie	Lecturer's voice
1944	See Here, Private Hargrove	Brodie S. Griffith
1944	'	Cardinal Faulhaber
1944	'	Deckman West
1944	'	Ernst Wallau
1944	Barbary Coast Gent	Johnny Adair
1944	Can't Help Singing	Senator Martin Frost
1945	Roughly Speaking	Mr. Randall
1945	The Unseen	off-screen Narrator	uncredited
1945	'	Phillip Treadway
1945	Leave Her to Heaven	Glen Robie
1946	Up Goes Maisie	Mr. Floyd Hendrickson
1946	Miss Susie Slagle's	Dr. Elijah Howe
1946	Badman's Territory	Colonel Farewell
1946	Night in Paradise	Leonides
1946	Boys' Ranch	David Banton
1946	Three Wise Fools	Judge Watson
1946	Crack-Up	Dr. Lowell
1946	'	Mr. Milton
1946	Two Years Before the Mast	Mr. Gordon Stewart
1946	'	Emil Blanchard
1947	'	Barton
1947	'	Dr. Matt Beemish
1947	'	Fred Houlihan
1948	'	Mac-Ian MacArden
1948	Homecoming	Lieutenant Colonel Avery Silver
1948	Good Sam	Reverend Daniels
1948	For the Love of Mary	Harvey Elwood
1948	Command Decision	Major Desmond Lansing
1948	The Man from Colorado	Big Ed Carter
1949	Hideout	Arthur Burdette
1949	Red Stallion in the Rockies	Matthew Simpson
1949	It Happens Every Spring	Professor Greenleaf
1949	'	Enright
1949	Free for All	Mr. A. B. Blair
1949	'	Jefferson Almond
1950	Francis	Colonel Hooker
1950	Paid in Full	Dr. Fredericks
1950	'	Commodore John Balwind Parker
1950	Summer Stock	Jasper G. Wingait
1950	Kill the Umpire	Jonah Evans
1951	Vengeance Valley	Arch Strobie
1951	You're [in the Navy Now]	Rear Admiral L.E. Tennant
1951	Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm	Jonathan Parker
1951	Reunion in Reno	Judge Thomas Kneeland
1951	'	Mortimer X. Welsh
1951	I Want You	Judge Turner
1952	Invitation	Dr. Warren Pritchard
1952	Young Man with Ideas	Edmund Jethrow
1952	Dreamboat	Timothy Stone
1953	Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation	Jonathan Parker
1953	'	General Birabeau
1953	Column South	Brigadier General Storey
1953	'	Fred F. Whacker
1953	Bad for Each Other	Dan Reasonover
1953	Cavalcade of America	Daniel Webster	TV episode "The Last Will of Daniel Webster"
1954	Rose Marie	Inspector Appleby
1954	Athena	Mr. Tremaine
1954	Lux Video Theatre	Barton Keyes	TV episode "Double Indemnity"
1954–1955	'	Merriweather	TV series
1955	'	Sheriff Masters
1955	Texas Lady	Micah Ralston
1955	Climax!	Jerome Harris	TV episode "The Champion"
1955	You Are There	P. T. Barnum	TV episode "P. T. Barnum Presents Jenny Lind"
1955	Science Fiction Theatre	Milton Otis	TV episode "The Frozen Sound"
1955	Science Fiction Theatre	Hugh Fredericks	TV episode "Target Hurricane"
1955	'	Judge Harper	TV episode "The [Miracle on 34th Street (The 20th Century Fox Hour)\|The Miracle on 34th Street]"
1956	Ford Star Jubilee	Oliver Webb	TV episode "Twentieth Century"
1956	Front Row Center	Crocker	TV episode "The Challenge"
1956	Never Say Goodbye	Dr. Bailey
1956		Alfred Metcalfe
1956	Science Fiction Theatre	Dr. Paul Sinclair	TV episode "Sound That Kills"
1956	Sneak Preview		TV episode "Real George"
1956	Studio One	Gen. Sam Woolery	TV episode "The Star-Spangled Soldier"
1956	Studio One		TV episode "A Special Announcement"
1956	Father Knows Best	Dean Walton	TV episode "Betty Goes to College"
1956	Zane Grey Theatre	Evan Gracie	TV episode "The Long Road Home"
1956	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Herbert Brenner	TV episode "Conversation Over a Corpse"
1956	The Joseph Cotten Show	Corbett	TV episode "The Trial of Mary Surratt"
1957	Spoilers of the Forest	Eric Warren
1957	Playhouse 90	Harris Clayton	TV episode "Invitation to a Gunfighter"
1957–1964	Perry Mason	Lieutenant Arthur Tragg	TV series
1958	Touch of Evil	Adair
1960	I'll Give My Life	John Bradford