
Ralph Bellamy
1904 - 1991Ralph Rexford Bellamy (June 17, 1904 – November 29, 1991) was an American actor whose career spanned 62 years on stage, screen and television. During his career, he played leading roles as well as supporting roles, garnering acclaim and awards, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for The Awful Truth (1937).
His film career began with The Secret Six (1931) starring Wallace Beery and featuring Jean Harlow and Clark Gable. By the end of 1933, he had already appeared in 22 movies, most notably Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1932) and the second lead in the action film Picture Snatcher with James Cagney (1933). He played in seven more films in 1934 alone, including Woman in the Dark, based on a Dashiell Hammett story, in which Bellamy played the lead, second-billed under Fay Wray. Bellamy kept up the pace through the decade, receiving a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Awful Truth (1937) with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant, and played a similar part, that of a naive boyfriend competing with the sophisticated Grant character, in His Girl Friday (1940). He portrayed detective Ellery Queen in a few films during the 1940s, but as his film career did not progress, he returned to the stage, where he continued to perform throughout the 1950s. Bellamy appeared in other movies during this time, including Dance, Girl, Dance (1940) with Maureen O'Hara and Lucille Ball, and the horror classic The Wolf Man (1941) with Lon Chaney, Jr. and Evelyn Ankers. He also appeared in The Ghost of Frankenstein in 1942 with Chaney and Bela Lugosi.
Bellamy appeared in numerous television series. In 1949, Bellamy starred in the television noir private eye series Man Against Crime (also known as Follow That Man) on the DuMont Television Network; initially telecast live in its earliest seasons, the program lasted until 1956 and was simulcast for a season on Dumont and NBC, and ran on CBS during a different year. The lead role was taken by Frank Lovejoy in 1956, who subsequently starred in NBC's Meet McGraw detective series.
An Emmy Award nomination for the mini-series The Winds of War (1983) – in which Bellamy reprised his Sunrise at Campobello role of Franklin D. Roosevelt – brought him back into the spotlight.
Highly regarded within the industry, Bellamy served as a four-term President of Actors' Equity from 1952–1964. Description above from the Wikipedia article Ralph Bellamy, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Westinghouse Presents: The Dispossessed
Tom Donovan
Juano Hernández, Ralph Bellamy
In 1879, the American Indian lived under severe handicaps: having no legal status as a human being and with the requirement to stay on reservations. Defying the law, Ponca Chief Standing Bear leads his people off their disease-ridden reservation. Though they're captured, the Poncas are given three days to find a lawyer and find a legal way to become their own people once again.
Westinghouse Presents: The Dispossessed
Cary Grant: A Class Apart
Robert Trachtenberg
Barbara Harris, Jeanine Basinger
Documentary that explores the life and career of leading man Cary Grant through film clips and interviews. Produced as S18E03 of the long running series American Masters.
Cary Grant: A Class Apart
His Girl Friday
Howard Hawks
Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell
Walter Burns is an irresistibly conniving newspaper publisher desperate to woo back his paper’s star reporter, who also happens to be his estranged wife. She’s threatening to quit and settle down with a new beau, but, as Walter knows, she has a weakness: she can’t resist a juicy scoop.
His Girl Friday
The Defender (Studio One)
Robert Mulligan
Ralph Bellamy, Martin Balsam
The pilot for the television series, "The Defenders." The story of Walter and Kenneth Pearson, a father-and-son legal team. Broadcast as two segments of "Studio One," the story relates how the Pearsons defend a young man accused of killing a woman during a robbery attempt.
The Defender (Studio One)
The Immortal
Joseph Sargent
Christopher George, Jessica Walter
A professional race-car driver discovers that there are certain properties in his blood that will make him, basically, immortal. A dying multi-millionaire also finds out about the racer's blood, and is determined to get it to keep himself alive. This pilot film preceded the later TV series.
The Immortal
Coming to America
John Landis
Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall
An African prince decides it’s time for him to find a princess... and his mission leads him and his most loyal friend to Queens, New York. In disguise as an impoverished immigrant, the pampered prince quickly finds himself a new job, new friends, new digs, new enemies and lots of trouble.
Coming to America