Curiosidades

He was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild in 1933.

He was regularly seen socially with a select circle of friends known as the Irish Mafia.

Was one of the most popular and durable actors in Hollywood, playing everything from handsome heroes in his youth to nefarious old men later in his career.

In Howard Hawks' Jejum de Amor (1940), Bellamy's character, as happened in several movies, loses his girl to Cary Grant. At one point in the movie, as the conniving newspaper editor, Grant is giving a henchman directions to help him identify Bellamy's character, and Grant says, "He looks like Ralph Bellamy.".

As a boy, he delivered newspapers and groceries, and worked as a soda jerk at a drugstore.

Ralph owned his own stock company for four seasons (1926-1930). It was called "The Ralph Bellamy Players" and it toured Nashville, Evanston, and Iowa (including Des Moines). Overall, he spent nine years in repertory and touring companies, playing over 400 roles, including an average of two or three in each play.

Ran away from home at age 17 to join a traveling band of Shakespearean players. He also worked as an usher at Ravinia Park Open Air Pavilion.

He has appeared in four films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Cupido é Moleque Teimoso (1937), Jejum de Amor (1940), A Vida é uma Dança (1940) and O Bebê de Rosemary (1968).

He was posthumously awarded a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars on February 26, 1992.

Attended New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois. He was president of the Drama Club there. However, he was expelled for smoking on school grounds,.

Honored with Broadway's 1958 Tony Award as Best Actor (Dramatic) for his portrayal of Franklin D. Roosevelt in "Sunrise at Campobello", a role that he recreated in its movie version Dez Passos Imortais (1960). Next he also played the role in two miniseries: Sangue, Suor e Lágrimas (1983) and its sequel War and Remembrance (1988).

Great-uncle of actor Sam Huntington, to whom he bequeathed his Lifetime Achievement Oscar. Ralph's wife Alice Murphy was the sister of Sam's maternal grandmother Clara Murphy.

Turned down the role of Noah Cross in Chinatown (1974); the role was played by John Huston instead.

While he was under contract for Columbia Pictures, he directed a screen test for a xylophone player in New York in Frank Capra's Do Mundo Nada se Leva (1938). The xylophone did not get the role.

He was a member of The Lambs, an actor's club first established in New York in 1874.

He was a liberal Democrat who supported Franklin D. Roosevelt during his time in office.

Was the eldest of three children born to Charles Rexford Bellamy, who was employed with an advertising agency, and Lilla Louise Smith. One of his younger siblings, a boy, died a couple of days after birth.

Had two children: Lynn Bellamy and Willard Bellamy.

Attended New Trier High School, as did Rock Hudson, Hugh B. O'Brien, Ann-Margret, Bruce Dern, Penelope Milford, Virginia Madsen and Liz Phair.

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6542 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.

Following his death, he was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) in Los Angeles, California.

Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 37-38. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 3, 1991-1993, pages 55-56. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001.

Autobiography: "When The Smoke Hit The Fan (A Reminiscence of the Theater, Movies, and T.V." Doubleday & Co, NYC; 1979.

Bellamy served four terms as the president of the labor union Actors' Equity between 1952 and 1964.

During the 1970s and the 1980s, Bellamy was somewhat typecast in playing Democratic politicians. He portrayed Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the television series "The Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance", and was also cast as Adlai Stevenson in the television film "The Missiles of October".

As a long-time member of the Democratic Party, Bellamy took part in the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. It is unclear which candidate he supported.

Early in his film career, Bellamy was typecast in playing bland and dull-witted characters in romantic films involving love triangles. The female lead would inevitably choose the suitor with the sharper wit or the ambitious career man over whatever character Bellamy was playing. Bellamy himself was fed-up with such roles. He reportedly had more fun when playing the wealthy detective Ellery Queen in several 1940s films, or in playing supporting roles in two of Universal's gothic horror films.

Throughout the 1930s and the 1940s, Bellamy was part of the so-called "Irish Mafia" or "Boy's Club", an informal social club for Hollywood actors of primarily Irish descent. He was one of the few members who had no actual connection to Ireland. The other known members of the club included (among others) James Cagney, Frank McHugh, Frank Morgan, Pat O'Brien, Lynne Overman, and Spencer Tracy. By coincidence, Bellamy was the last surviving member of the club in the early 1990s.

Among his last major appearances in television was portraying the guest character August Redding in an 1988 episode of "L.A. Law". His character was portrayed as a once-brilliant lawyer whose career is coming to an abrupt ending because of his decline to senility and poor health. The role was seen as an intended swan song for Bellamy's own career, though he had a few more roles until his death in 1991.