Search the Western Clippings Site

An Interview With…
        - Archives

Will "Sugarfoot" Hutchins
    - Archives

Do You Remember?
    - Archives

Comic Book Cowboys
    - Archives

Westerns of...
    - Archives

Heavies and Characters
      - Warren Oates
      - Ford Rainey
      - Ward Bond
      - William Mims
      - James Gregory
      - Guy Wilkerson
      - Frank Ferguson
      - Al Ferguson
      - Mort Mills
      - Slim Whitaker
      - Le Roy Mason
      - Kenneth MacDonald
      - Nestor Pavia
      - Steve Clark
      - Pierce Lyden
      - Bud Geary
      - Lyle Talbot
      - Rayford Barnes
      - I. Stanford Jolley
      - Don Harvey
      - Bruce Dern
      - Ian MacDonald
      - Bob Kortman
      - Bob Wilke
      - Denver Pyle
      - Jack Ingram
      - Jan Merlin
      - Neville Brand
      - John Anderson
      - John Milford
      - Lee Marvin
      - Trevor Bardette
      - Morgan Woodward
      - Michael Pate
      - Fred Kohler
      - Mari Blanchard
      - Dick Alexander
      - Hank Worden
      - Marie Windsor
      - Edmund Cobb
      - Gregg Barton
      - Douglas Fowley
      - Walter Burke
      - Budd Buster
      - R. G. Armstrong
      - Gregg Palmer
      - Rex Holman
      - Ernie Adams
      - Robert Ryan
      - Ted de Corsia
      - Scott Marlowe
      - Lee Roberts
      - James Coburn
      - Victor Jory
      - Kenne Duncan
      - Stephen McNally
      - Wallace Ford
      - Earle Hodgins
      - Douglas Kennedy
      - DeForest Kelley
      - George Macready
      - Terry Frost
      - John Doucette
      - Riley Hill
      - James Seay
      - Richard Devon
      - Harry Lauter
      - James Griffith
      - Myron Healey
      - J. Farrell MacDonald
      - Jean Willes
      - Hank Patterson
      - L. Q. Jones
      - Tom London
      - Leo Gordon
      - Holly Bane/Mike Ragan
      - Dan Duryea
      - John Cason
      - Dennis Moore
      - Lee Van Cleef
      - Jack Elam
      - Roy Barcroft
      - William Fawcett
      - Byron Foulger
      - Gerald Mohr
      - Tom Bay
      - Lafe McKee
      - Paul Sorenson, Ben Welden, William Watson, George Barrows
      - Strother Martin
      - Carl Stockdale
      - Edward J. Peil
      - George Wallace
      - Claude Akins
      - Al Taylor
      - Henry Silva
      - John Dehner
      - Donald Curtis
      - Steve Brodie
      - John Merton
      - Lyle Bettger
      - Ted Adams
      - John Cliff
      - Marshall Reed
      - Barton MacLane
      - Al Bridge
      - Warner Richmond
      - Charles Stevens
      - Ethan Laidlaw
      - Chris Alcaide
      - Tris Coffin
      - Noah Beery Sr.
      - Frank Ellis
      - Zon Murray
      - Lane Bradford
      - Morris Ankrum
      - Harry Woods
      - Charlie King
      - Glenn Strange
      - Forrest Taylor
      - Bud Osborne
      - Dick Curtis
      - George Chesebro

The Stuntmen - Neil Summers
    - Archives

Western Treasures
    - Archives

Circus Cowboys
    - Archives

Radio Range Riders
    - Archives

Rangeland Elegance
    - Archives

Western Artifacts
    - Archives

Film Festival Fotos
    - Archives

Silent Western Reviews
    - Archives

Serial Report
    - Archives

Subscribe to Western Clippings

COLLECTIBLES FOR SALE:

Western Clippings Back Issues

Daily Comic Strips
    - Page 1 (1910-1949)
    - Page 2 (1950-1979)

Sunday Comic Strips
    - 1907-1990

Books

Miscellaneous Collectibles

Autographs

Lobby Cards

Movie Posters

Home

Ford Rainey.FORD RAINEY

Tall, austere, authoritative-looking character actor Ford Rainey was always believable and gave a winning performance in every TV show or movie he was in, be it doctor, reverend, lawman, rancher, warden, judge, storekeeper or military man—he even played President Lincoln several times.

Born August 8, 1908, in Mountain Home, Idaho, Ford was a painfully shy youngster who found an outlet when he was coaxed onto the stage by a high school drama teacher. He graduated from Centralia Jr. College in Washington State and the Cornish Drama School in Seattle. Growing up in small town Idaho he learned to ride at an early age which helped him in his later film work.

While working to support himself as an actor in regional touring companies he worked as a logger, fisherman, fruit picker, carpenter, clam digger and oil tanker laborer. Rainey served with the U.S. Coast Guard off the Oregon Coast during WWII. He then went to NY to study acting with the legendary Michael Chekhov and made his Broadway debut in “Possessed”. He made his film debut, unbilled, in James Cagney’s “White Heat” in ‘49.

Already 41, acting jobs were few until he became more established in the mid-‘50s. His first Westerns were badguy roles on “Kit Carson” and “Cowboy G-Men”. A good role as the Bisbee Marshal in Glenn Ford’s “3:10 to Yuma” helped establish his credibility and led to more prominent parts in other films such as “The Badlanders”, “Flaming Star”, “Two Rode Together” and especially on TV in “Tall Man”, “Stoney Burke”, “Wide Country”, “Empire”, “Laramie”, “Have Gun Will Travel”, “Rawhide”, “Big Valley”, “Iron Horse”, “Cimarron Strip”, “Dundee and the Culhane”, “Wild Wild West”, “Virginian”, “Daniel Boone”, “Bonanza”, “Alias Smith and Jones” (a recurring role as Deputy D. A. Collins) and “Gunsmoke”.

As Westerns faded from TV, Rainey continued to work on all the major shows—“Mannix”, “Cannon”, “Ironside”, “F.B.I.”, “Six Million Dollar Man”, “Bionic Woman” (a recurring role as Jim Elgin on both the latter two), “Newhart”, “Matlock”, etc. His final work was on “The King of Queens” in 2003.

A bachelor until age 46, he married Sheila Hayden in ‘54. Sons Robert and James were born as the couple settled in Malibu where their daughter Kathy was born. Late in life Rainey became a beekeeper and bird breeder, owning his own solar heater and earning the name ‘The Wizard’ from neighborhood children. At 90 he won trophies in bird breeding from several Southern California competitions.

A more than competent character player who lent much to our enjoyment was 96 when he died July 25, 2005, in Malibu after a series of strokes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i