![]() The first test went badly, but head of Columbia Harry Cohn liked Ray and asked for another test. Ray went to Hollywood and did a screen test with the director, George Cukor. ![]() Four weeks later, Arnow called back, saying Columbia wanted to audition Ray for a small part in Judy Holliday's new movie The Marrying Kind. monotonous", so he contacted Max Arnow, talent director at Columbia, and expressed interest in appearing in more movies. Hollywood stardom: The Marrying Kind Īfter several months, Ray found "the quiet life. Ray started his new job in November 1950. "I told them I couldn't care less, they could give me whatever they wanted," he said. You can take this town (Hollywood) and shove it." Ĭolumbia refused to release him from his contract and put him under suspension, giving him a leave of absence to work as constable. I'm going home where I can be a big fish in my small pond. "Of all the people in the picture they took up only one option-mine," he said. ![]() Senate, see, and I would've, too." Ĭolumbia picked up its option on Ray's services and signed him to a seven-year contract. "The guy I ran against was a 16-year incumbent, and I destroyed him with 80 percent of the vote! I was going to work my way up to the U.S. "I was 23 and a sort of child bride to the voters," he later said. Ray worked on the film between the primary and general elections. He was cast in the small role of a cynical college football player opposite John Derek and Donna Reed. Ray signed a contract and was sent to Los Angeles for a screen test. said, 'What's wrong with your voice kid? Are you sick? If you're sick you don't belong here.' I said, 'No, no, no, this is the way I've always spoken.' And they loved it." Ray would later retell this story in the trailer for Pat and Mike. Director David Miller was more interested in Ray than in his brother because of his voice also, Ray was comfortable talking to the camera owing to his political experience. Aldo's brother Guido saw an item in the San Francisco Chronicle about the auditions and asked his brother to drive him there. ![]() In April 1950 Columbia Studios sent a unit to San Francisco to look for some athletes to appear in a film they were making called Saturday's Hero (1951). "I always knew I was going to be a big man, but I thought it would be in politics," he said. ) He left college in order to run for the office of constable of the Crockett Judicial District in Contra Costa County, California. (Ray later described himself as an "arch conservative" and a " right-winger". He studied and played football at Vallejo Junior College and then entered the University of California at Berkeley to study political science. Upon leaving the Navy in May 1946, he returned to Crockett. Īt age 18 during World War II in 1944, Ray entered the United States Navy, serving as a frogman until 1946 he saw action at Okinawa with UDT-17. He attended John Swett High School, where he made the football team he also coached swimming. His father worked as a laborer at the C&H Sugar Refinery, the largest employer in the town. His family moved to the small town of Crockett, California, when Aldo was four years old. His brother Mario Da Re (1933-2010) lettered in football at USC from 1952 to 1954 and appeared as a contestant on the May 12, 1955, edition of Groucho Marx's NBC-TV quiz show You Bet Your Life. Ray was born Aldo Da Re in Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania, to an Italian family with five brothers (Mario, Guido, Dante, Dino, and Louis) and one sister (Regina).
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