Ray Danton- actor who did almost only B movies back in the 50s/60s

Verificatia?

He was so handsome and talented.

Married to B - actress Julie Adams.

He was a guest on the premiere episode of Surfside 6. Feels relevant because of that other thread with Van hottie person.

A few of his movies are available on YouTube. He’s so handsome.

R3 What a beautiful couple. I wonder if they made any children.

He looked like a more conventionally handsome Tony Perkins. Only shorter and less skinny with darker skin.

You can see him shirtless in the Roz Russell vehicle “A Majority of One.”

And, for an added bonus, you’ll get to see Roz portray a Jewish character and Alex Guiness play a Japanese man. (I guess Mickie Rooney was not available.)

At home...

R9 are you gonna lie and pretend you knew who he was like you always do?

From his IMDB page, under Trivia:

In his memoir, Robert Wagner relates that his fondest memory of filming The Longest Day (1962) was that when the hotelier where the actors were lodged saw Ray Danton check in with two women in tow, he booked them into a room with two-way mirrors and charged guests to watch Danton make love simultaneously to two women night after night.

I remember seeing him in "I'll Cry Tomorrow" and thinking he was one of the sexiest men I'd ever seen.

Yeah he was gorgeous. Even better in color because you see his beautiful complexion

I wonder if Danton knew he was being watched every night as he fucked those women every night.

Someone who colorizes old movies colorized his movie “Outside The Law” and uploaded it to YT. Colorized never looks right.

The B&W version is better

I saw “The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond” around a decade ago on TCM and loved it. It’s a very enjoyable film and he was terrific and so handsome. He had that NYC charisma and charm.

He was no Peter Allen.

R11, I’ll bet RJ was wishing he was being ravaged by Ray all night.

Sex on a stick in The Chapman Report fucking desperate Shelley Winters.

He gets proper acknowledgment at the end of this post about Julie Adams.

I remember Julie Adams from the long defunct soap Capitol.

Betty May has *quite* the lengthy IBDB page.

info bump.

He reminds me of a more "clean cut" version of the late actor Michael Zaslow, who also died too young.

Zaslow was, I believe, a Russian Jew with dark wavy hair - Danton has a hint of darker features but definitely looked more like the typical clean cut guy of that era.

He was sort of a slicker version of Tony Franciosa, like he'd been rubbed with more olive oil.

[quote]Betty May has *quite* the lengthy IBDB page.

I think you meant IMDB. IBDB is for Broadway.

Is Alec Baldwin some kin to him?

Does Alec Baldwin have dark skin and features?

I would have rimmed him deep...

Not to be mistaken for Ray Dalton.

If you are into him,. do a search on your porn sites....he has some interesting stuff.

Danton was a stage name. His real surname was Caplan, and he was Jewish, born and raised in NYC. He went to a private high school in The Bronx. After that he went to college in Pittsburgh. He moved back to NYC after to try and make it in Broadway but ended up getting pushed into tv roles instead, before getting a contract with Universal in 1955 to do films. During his time with Universal, MGM borrowed him a few times. In 1958 Warner Bros. nabbed him and gave him a long term contract. At the time they were recruiting attractive young men to appeal to younger audiences and try to get ahead of the other studios.

HE IS JEWISH TOO - someone pass me the smelling salts!

Yes. He was a handsome NY Jewish boy who changed his name to be able to get roles easier.

Jewish = cut

In most cases, American = cut

Circumcision in America started to be practiced outside of Jewish people in the late 1800s. By 1959 over 90 percent of non-Jewish people were getting their sons circumcised. It’s been very common for many years now.

When Ray Danton was contracted by Warners in 1958 he was quickly put into all those ABC series like Surfside 6, Hawaiian Eye, 77 Sunset Strip, etc. mentioned in the great Van Williams thread. I remember the first time I saw him, guest starring in the ABC series The Roaring Twenties with Donald May and Dorothy Provine and asking my 7 year old self - "Who is that?" I had taken notice and have never forgotten him. But I don't think Warners ever gave him a series of his own, did they?

No. They didn’t. They cast him in a lot of B films as the lead etc. hoping he would take off but he never really did become a big star. However he was blessed to work most of his life, although in the 70s he had to start creating his own projects.

Did he really die from the AIDS?

R40 no. Why are you making things up? He died from kidney failure as he had kidney disease.

R40 here. Educate yourself. And it can happen to ANYONE.

He made children with Julie.

The man must have had plenty of stamina if he was into all night threesomes.

R43 yes. He had two sons. Steve Danton (Ray legally changed his surname to Danton and passed that one onto his sons) who is now 67, and Mitchell, who is now 60. They both worked as stuntmen for tv shows for a while but never got into Hollywood or acting fully like their father did.

Here is Steve when he was younger (he’s now 67).

And this is Mitchell during his time as a stuntman and extra for the 90s Star Trek shows. He worked as a stuntman for all of them. He also worked as a tv editor for a while.

Here is Mitchell in 2015, (on the right)sharing how to be successful as a TV editor.

Mitchell with his pretty mom, Julie Adams.

There aren’t very many photos of Steve.

r39, Ray indeed guested on all those series between 1958 and 1961, as well as Maverick, Laramie, Bronco, Bourbon Street Beat, Cheyenne, Sugarfoot, The Alaskans, Lawman and Colt 45, all on ABC. Check Imdb before you correct me, please.

Mitchell looks like he got the same nose job as his dad.

R49 maybe you should re-read your own post at r38 and then read mine at r39. I wasn’t saying no he didn’t guest star on all those shows. You ended r38 with a question. I answered it.

They didn’t have a nose job. Jesus. Clearly he just got his dads nose.

My apologies, r39! I stand corrected by you.

Ray sang, too. He played Starbucks in the National tour of 110 in the Shade, opposite Inga Swenson.

Butterface.

[quote]Ray sang, too. He played Starbucks in the National tour of 110 in the Shade, opposite Inga Swenson.

Oh, dear.

r54, Ray only played one Starbuck.

Julie Adams definitely had rhinoplasty.

Rhinoplasty in those days created some pretty artificial looking noses like Julie, Kathryn Grayson and Jane Wyman's.

R59, Jane Wyman’s nose was the one she was born with.

An example of a thoroughly botched nose job was the one done on Nanette Fabray.

R60 exactly. That poster thinks every weird shaped nose was a nose job. Not everyone has the same nose shape and size.

Fabray's nose was a mess. So is R61's.