George Raft by Lewis Yablonsky

The many sides of George Raft - renowned dancer, movie star, ex-boxer, sportsman, friend of the underworld, gambler, and ladies' man - are all captured in this well-researched biography of the classic film star.

George Raft grew up in Hell's Kitchen, New York City, where a kid needed street smarts to get by. As a handsome teen, he excelled at dance, winning many ballroom awards, and spent his nights befriending Damon Runyon types and underworld mob bosses watching the floor shows at Lindy's.

He worked his way up from dancing in 'tea rooms' with high-class prostitutes to the vaudeville circuit, with entanglements and romances along the way. His dark good looks and slick style, with a hat pulled down over one eye, magnetized the ladies.

In the early days of talking pictures, his trendsetting prohibition-style made him a natural to portray the prototype gangster-gambler. Hanging out on Broadway and knowing all the gangsters helped make his performances authentic, and people naturally assumed he was well-connected to the mob.

From his first picture Quick Millions with Spencer Tracy in 1930, to Scarface with Paul Muni in 1932, Dashiell Hammett's The Glass Key in 1935, Each Dawn I Die (1939) with James Cagney, to a run of Warner Brothers prison pictures like Invisible Stripes (1942) with Humphrey Bogart. His tough-guy image made it into the unusual holiday picture Christmas Eve (1947), and he played it for comedy as a George Raft-type in Some Like It Hot (1959) and Ocean's Eleven (1960). As one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood, he could turn down roles, which he famously did for The Maltese Falcon, High Sierra, and a little film called Everybody Comes To Rick's (renamed Casablanca).

Sprinkled throughout are his romances with the leading ladies of Hollywood, including Norma Shearer and Betty Grable, his sexual prowess well known. One of his first roles in Night After Night (1932) starred Mae West, who said of their long-lasting affair that he was the best lover she ever had.

He was a class act to those around him, generous when someone needed a hand, including childhood friend Bugsy Siegel, who asked for a loan to buy a piece of the action in Las Vegas. Later, when Siegel was in trouble, he asked for another to save the Flamingo Hotel and his life.

This excellent and entertaining biography was co-written by George Raft, with full cooperation. It captures the actor and man in all his roles.

Whatever he did, it was with poise and class.

1974 / Hardcover / 290 pages