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Raymond Massey
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Daughter of actors Raymond Massey and Adrienne Allen, Anna Massey is a respected actress of film, television and stage. She.made her own film debut in John Ford's Gideon's Day (1958). In the controversial Peeping Tom (1960) she was one of the few female cast members was not murdered, though she was the second victim in Hitchcock's Frenzy. Maturing into a versatile character actress in her 40s, she played Mrs. Danvers in the 1981 remake of Rebecca and Betsy in the 1985 remake of Anna Karenina. On television she won BAFTA and RTS Best Actress awards as the heroine of Anita Brookner's Hotel du Lac. She starred most recently on television as maiden aunt Miss Stanbury in He Knew He Was Right.
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Raymond Massey plays Abe Lincoln in this moving adaptation of Robert Sherwood's Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Expanded a bit for cinematic purposes, the film traces Lincoln's progress from his days of scrambling for a living as a woodsman, to his courtship of the tragic Ann Rutledge (Mary Howard) and then the mercurial Mary Todd (Ruth Gordon), to the formative years of his law practice, to his debates with Stephen Douglas (Gene Lockhart), and finally to his election as President of the soon-to-be-divided United States in 1860. Latter-day critics have complained about Massey's stolidity in his signature role, but even the most stone-hearted viewer will be moved by such scenes as Lincoln riding through the ruins of what once was the village of Salem; Abe's heated election-eve quarrel with his spiteful wife Mary; and his climactic speech from the observation car of the train that will carry him to Washington...and immortality. Abe Lincoln at Illinois turned out to be a succes d'estime for its producer Max Gordon and its studio (RKO), taking a bath to the tune of $750,000. Its failure moved one Hollywood wise-guy to collar Gordon at a party and say, "I can't understand it, Max. Lincoln was so kind to everybody but you."
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Raymond Massey and Jack Carson both starred in the farcical film noir, Arsenic and Old Lace. And who could forget Donald Sutherland as the irreverent "Hawkeye" in the comedy classic M*A*S*H? Art mimicking life, as Sutherland was once expelled from a University of Toronto residence for playing practical jokes. His latest role is as a deliciously vindictive character on the television drama Commander-in-Chief.
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When the release print was ready in December 1939, Massey was touring with the stage company in Detroit. He saw the film there and was surprised to see that a key scene of the story had been deleted: "the prairie scene with the beautiful prayer for the sick boy, the scene which explained Abe Lincoln's recognition of his destiny. Without it the story had become a documentary, a procession of episodes." Massey called Robert Sherwood, who was "heartbroken" about the cut but had resigned himself to it. Determined to fix the problem, Massey then called the film's producer, Max Gordon, but all he got was a terse, "You've been paid, mind your own business!" That was that.
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The second child of actors Raymond Massey and Adrienne Allen, Anna Massey made her own film bow as the spunky daughter of Jack Hawkins in John Ford's Gideon's Day (1958). See Full Anna Massey Biography
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Massey portrayed the character of "Jonathan Brewster" in the film version of Arsenic and Old Lace. The character had originally been played by Boris Karloff for the stage version and the character was written to resemble Karloff (an ongoing joke in the play and film). Massey and Karloff had appeared together in the 1932 James Whale suspense film The Old Dark House.
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Raymond Massey