Raymond Massey

Father of Anna Massey, Daniel Massey and Geoffrey Massey. Grandfather of Raymond Massey and Alice Massey. Former father-in-law of Penelope Wilton. Distantly related to Anthony Steel. Younger brother of Canadian politician Vincent Massey (1887-1967), who was the first Canadian-born Governor General of Canada (1952-59).

Scion of the Massey family, whose farm implement manufacturing business merged with the Harris company in 1891 to form Massey-Harris. Then in 1953, it merged with the Ferguson company to become Massey-Harris-Ferguson, shortened to Massey-Ferguson in 1957. Massey-Ferguson, now an AGCO (formerly Varity) subsidiary, is the largest-selling farm tractor brand in the world. Vincent and Raymond Massey were the last Masseys to have a direct role in the company. Each elected to pursue other careers.

Educated at the University of Toronto & Balliol College, Oxford, he joined the Canadian Field Artillery in World War I, served in France & was wounded. His first appearance was in a stage production in Siberia, during its occupation by American Forces in 1918. Raymond returned to Canada & the farm implement business after the war, but footlights proved a greater allure than plowshares.

He appeared at the Everyman Theatre, London in "In the Zone" in 1922 and from then his acting career never looked back. As adept in front of arc lights as the footlights, he was signed up for a 5 year contract by Alexander Korda.

Had three roles in common with Charlton Heston: (1) Massey played Sherlock Holmes in The Speckled Band (1931) while Heston played him in The Crucifer of Blood (1991), (2) Massey played Cardinal Richelieu in Under the Red Robe (1937) while Heston played him in The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge (1974) and (3) Massey played Abraham Lincoln in Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940), Pulitzer Prize Playhouse: Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1950), Ford Star Jubilee: The Day Lincoln Was Shot (1956) and How the West Was Won (1962) while Heston played him in The Great Battles of the Civil War (1994).

Appeared with Boris Karloff in The Old Dark House (1932). Massey later played the role of Jonathan Brewster in the film Arsenic and Old Lace (1942). Karloff created this role in the original Broadway play, "Arsenic and Old Lace", and recreated the role on television in The Ford Theatre Hour: Arsenic and Old Lace (1949) and The Hallmark Hall of Fame: Arsenic & Old Lace (1962).

Massey joked that the British thought he was American and the Americans thought he was British. He was actually Canadian, but his mother and paternal grandmother were both Americans and his branch of the Massey family migrated from England to Canada via the United States. He later became a United States citizen. He died the same day as his The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) and A Matter of Life and Death (1946) co-star David Niven, and was interred in the Ludington family plot in Beaverdale Cemetery, Hamden, Connecticut.

His divorce from his ex-wife Adrianne Allen was the inspiration for the 1949 film Adam's Rib (1949). Each was represented by one half of a famous husband-and-wife team of divorce lawyers, Dorothy and her husband William Dwight Whitney. After the trial was over, the Whitneys divorced. The ex-Mrs. Whitney married Massey, and the ex-Mrs. Massey married the ex-Mrs. Whitney's ex-husband.

Played Abraham Lincoln a total of five times--twice on TV, twice in the movies, as well as in the stage play "Abe Lincoln in Illinois". He portrayed Lincoln on television in Pulitzer Prize Playhouse: Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1950) and Ford Star Jubilee: The Day Lincoln Was Shot (1956), opposite Lillian Gish as Mary Todd Lincoln, and in the films Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940), and How the West Was Won (1962). In the film Prince of Players (1955), Massey played Junius Brutus Booth, the father of Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth. Massey spoke the lines given to Abraham Lincoln in the staged dramatic reading of Stephen Vincent Benet's "John Brown's Body", in which he also spoke John Brown's lines. Massey also played John Brown in the films Santa Fe Trail (1940) and Seven Angry Men (1955).There had been dissatisfaction among the public when it was learned that Massey, a Canadian with clear diction and a fine speaking voice, had been selected to play Lincoln in the stage production of "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" -- until he received rave reviews for his performance. His subsequent reprise of the role in the 1940 film version (Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940)) earned him an Oscar nomination.

During the 1964 presidential race, he endorsed Republican candidate Barry Goldwater.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 554-555. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998.

Mentioned in Seinfeld: The Gum (1995) "Seinfeld" (1989) {The Gum (#7.10)}.

Is one of two actors to have received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for portraying Abraham Lincoln; the other is Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln (2012).