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| Birth Name(s) : Ralph Bellamy |
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Full Ralph Bellamy Biography
Ralph Rexford Bellamy (June 17, 1904 – November 29, 1991) was a Tony Award-winning American actor with a career spanning 62 years.
Bellamy was born in Chicago, Illinois to Lilla Louise Smith, a native of Canada, and Charles Rexford Bellamy. 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 decade, establishing himself as a capable supporting actor. Bellamy received the lead role in the 1936 film Straight from the Shoulder.
"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 15 minutes after his final curtain or he would find the door locked."
Bellamy was also married to Alice Delbridge (1927-1930), Catherine Willard (1931-1945), and Alice Murphy (1949-1991).
Bellamy was a regular panelist on the television game show To Tell the Truth during its initial run. He also starred on the TV detective series Follow that Man.On the movie set, Sunrise at Campobello (1960), with Eleanor Roosevelt and Greer Garson
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.
In the 1988 Eddie Murphy film, Coming to America, Bellamy and co-star Don Ameche reprised a one-scene cameo of their roles as the Duke brothers. In Trading Places, Randolph and Mortimer Duke lost their enormous fortune in that film because of Murphy's character. In Coming to America, the brothers are now homeless and living on the streets. Akeem (Murphy) gives them a paper bag filled with money, which they gratefully accept and exclaim "We're Back!" (while failing to notice that the generous Prince Akeem bears an uncanny resemblance to Billy Ray Valentine (Murphy), the man who ruined them in Trading Places).
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 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.
In a 2007 episode of Boston Legal, footage of a 1957 episode of Studio One was used. The episode featured Bellamy and William Shatner as a father-son duo of lawyers. This was used in the present-day to explain the relationship between's Shatner's Denny Crane character and his father in the show. |
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