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Ray Walston, South Pacific, 1957. Making an impact in Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield vehicles is not easy But Bray managed it. He just didn’t believe it. And simply blew his career when his and Marilyn’s Bus Stop director, Joshua Logan, asked him to be the Hawaii heeler-dealer Luther Billis in his South Pacificmusical. As a US Marine, Bray had served in that area during WWII but he said: No thank you. And always regretted it. “Had I appeared in the smash hit, who knows where I might have ended up.” His 128 screen roles would have been rather better than support bits at Allied Artists.
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Jack De Mave, Lassie, TV, 1968-1970. Poor Bray ended up as Forest Ranger Corey Stuart. With Lassie as his co-star! He lasted four seasons, 1964-1968, until the booze proved a problem. And he was let go, nicely with the studio saying he had tired of the role. He never acted again. Becoming an ardent fly fisherman, hunter and… by all account, a carver of model ducks.
Birth year: 1917Death year: 1983Other name: Casting Calls: 2