Biografia

13 agosto 1908 · New York, New York, Stati Uniti

3 maggio 1998 · Los Angeles, California, Stati Uniti (polmonite)

Raymond Charles Guion

1,74 m

Raymond was a decorated bomber pilot of World War II. At the outbreak of war, Mr. Raymond joined the Army Air Forces as a pilot in the B-17 bomber group that inaugurated precision bombing. As a colonel in the Air Force Reserve in 1967 he again flew jets into South Vietnam on high-priority missions and won the Legion of Merit.

Made one movie, Catene del passato (1941), with wife, Jeanette MacDonald.

Brother-in-law of Clarence Rock and of Marie Blake (also known as Blossom Rock). Blake was best-known for her role as "Grandmama" on television's La famiglia Addams (1964).

Performed on Broadway as Raymond Guion from his 1921 debut as a 12-year old through 1930. He returned briefly for another production in the 1957 flop, A Shadow of My Enemy.

Raymond and Jeanette MacDonald were married on June 16, 1937. Nine days later, Mary Pickford and Charles 'Buddy' Rogers were wed. That night, both couples left aboard the liner SS Lurline to honeymoon in Honolulu, Hawaii. Their respective cabins were adjacent, and Raymond and Rogers seem to have already been quite well-acquainted.

In Bernard F. Dick's biography of Loretta Young, titled "Hollywood Madonna" (August 1, 2011, University Press of Mississippi: ISBN13 978-1617030796), Raymond is described as bisexual. An excerpt of the biography states, "Raymond was probably one of the leading men Loretta developed a crush on, not knowing at the time that he was bisexual, more homosexually than heterosexually inclined.... Raymond's lover at the time was Mary Pickford's husband, Buddy Rogers....But at the time 'Zoo in Budapest' was filmed, Raymond had not met MacDonald, and only a few kindred spirits knew his sexual preferences".

[in 1972, about Jeanette MacDonald and their marriage] We had 28 glorious years. Jeanette and I respected and loved each other, very deeply. We put one another before anyone or anything. I am blessed to have known her, loved her and been loved by her - absolutely, an incredible lady!

It isn't really me that they admire, it's the men I portray. I could be the same person and drive a truck for a living and I'd go unnoticed.