Wissenswertes

Had to quit acting when sound came along due to the fact that his vocal cords had been damaged when he was younger and he could only talk in a whisper.

Served as a gagman, writer and assistant director for Mack Sennett'.

On November 25, 1957, he was having dinner at The Masquers Club, a private club for actors and producers in Los Angeles, when he choked on some food and died. The newspapers initially listed his cause of death as a heart attack. An autopsy reveal he died of asphyxia.

While rarely credited as a writer, Griffith did, in fact, apparently co-write more movies than he appeared in as an actor.

Although Griffith had a long career as an actor, writer and producer, he is probably best known to modern audiences for his small but pivotal role in Im Westen nichts Neues (1930) as the French soldier who takes cover in the same shell crater as German soldier Lew Ayres, who stabs him with a bayonet and is then forced to spend the night watching him die.

His parents, James Henry Griffith and Mary Guichard (she was born in France), along with his grandfather, Gerald Griffith, and great grandfather, Thomas Griffith, were all actors.

According to "Classic Images," Griffith was born in 1895. Most obituaries incorrectly list his birth year as either 1890 or 1897.

Contracted respiratory diptheria as a child which permanently damaged his vocal chords.

Served in the Navy (1910-1912).

First child, Raymond Griffith, Jr. was stillborn on June 6, 1929, their second child, Michael, was born on July 16, 1931. They adopted their daughter Patricia in 1933.

In 2005, Griffith's most well known comedy, Hands Up! (1926) was included in the National Film Registry.

His daughter recalls that he was an avid reader of classic literature, and that he probably got much inspiration for the stories of his movies from this interest.

Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith, pg. 196-197. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387