Martha Raye

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BIRTHDAY

August 27, 1916

Butte, Montana, USA

DIED

October 19, 1994

RECENT CREDITS

Wisecracks (FILM) Sep. 29, 1993

The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of F... (FILM) Jun. 28, 1991

NBC's 60th Anniversary Celebration (TV) May. 12, 1986

Alice in Wonderland (TV) Dec. 10, 1985

Murder, She Wrote (TV) Sep. 30, 1984

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BIOGRAPHY

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Former child performer who toured with her vaudevillian parents, self-dubbed 'Martha the Mouth' and 'The Big Mouth' first made a name for herself as a sophisticated jazz song stylist. After enjoying success onstage and in radio, Raye entered features films in 1936, where she gained a second following as a raucous, knockabout singing comedienne. She supplied broad comic relief in a number of Bing Crosby films and often got to sing in her peppy, surprisingly mellifluous voice, most notably in "Double or Nothing" (1937) and the film version of Rodgers and Hart hit, "Boys from Syracuse" (1940). In an offbeat bit of casting, Raye gave her finest film performance as the only wife to survive the murderous intentions of her Bluebeard-like bigamist husband Charlie Chaplin in his black and bleak comedy "Monsieur Verdoux" (1947). In the 1950s Raye, ever the manic, live wire singer and self-mocking entertainer, turned to TV where she hosted and guested on numerous variety programs. She later did occasional stage work as well, notably a turn as one of the replacement stars in the Broadway smash, "Hello, Dolly!". She received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian award in 1969 mainly for her long years of volunteer service entertaining US troops in World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars. In 1991 Raye alleged that the Bette Midler character in the feature "For the Boys" was more than loosely based on her career. Late in life Raye and her seventh husband Mark Harris received unwanted media attention when some made accusations that her deteriorating physical and mental condition made her unable to manage her considerable estate and that Harris was a fortune hunter.

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