6 Things You Never Knew About George Raft, TCM’s Star of the Month

Zhanna Slor January 7, 6:00 am

SCARFACE, George Raft, 1932 — Everett Collection

This month, TCM is celebrating one of the original cinematic gangsters, George Raft, as their Star of the Month. Tune in every Tuesday this January at 8pm EST, when they’ll showcase some of his biggest hits, such as the original 1932 Scarface, Some Like it Hot and They Drive By Night. In the meantime, here are a few things you probably didn’t know about the Golden Age cinema star.

SCARFACE, from left: Osgood Perkins, Vince Barnett (rear), Paul Muni, Karen Morley, George Raft, 1932

Courtesy of Everett

1 He held many jobs before becoming an actor

Raft, a child of German Jewish immigrants, left school at age 12 and worked as an apprentice electrician, pool hustler, boxer and minor league baseball player before taking a crack at Hollywood. He remained a huge baseball fan throughout his life and attended more than 25 World Series games.

2 No one is sure exactly when he was born

Raft was born George Ranft in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City either in 1895 or 1901. Most obituaries cited Raft’s year of birth as 1895, which he stated was correct when he appeared on The Mike Douglas Show seven months prior to his death. However, Raft is recorded in the New York City Birth Index as having been born on September 26, 1901, in Manhattan as “George Rauft,” and 1901 is the year listed on his Social Security card. The 1900 New York City census listed his sister Katie as his parents’ only child. In the 1910 census, he was listed as eight years old. So when he died in 1980, he was either 79 or 85. Interestingly, 1895 was the year his parents were married… so it’s possible they were trying to hide that their child was born out of wedlock. Alternatively, they may have adjusted his age publicly to avoid his conscription into World War I, which began in 1914.

3 In addition to playing gangsters, he was rumored to have been friends with some in real life

Raft was supposedly close friends with real-life gangsters Owney Madden and Bugsy Siegel, which may have helped his popularity early in his career, but hurt it later. Raft was banned from entering Britain in 1966 due to his alleged Mafia connections.

4 Raft was a ladies’ man, but only married once

Raft married only once, to Grace Mulrooney, prior to becoming a star. He and Mulrooney separated shortly after their wedding in 1923, but Mulrooney was a devout Catholic and refused to sign divorce papers, so technically, they remained married until her death in 1970. Meanwhile, he had relationships with many women, including Marlene Dietrich, Betty Grable, Tallulah Bankhead, Virginia Pine, Carole Lombard, Mae West and Norma Shearer. He once stated publicly that he wanted to marry Shearer, but his wife’s refusal to allow a divorce eventually caused Shearer to end the affair.

5 Raft turned down several roles that eventually went to Humphrey Bogart and made him a star

THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, George Raft, 1940, truck

Courtesy of Everett

Raft turned down roles in High Sierra (1940) and The Maltese Falcon (1941), which were later played by Humphrey Bogart and resulted in his soaring fame.

6 He never watched his own films.

Raft was a perfectionist, which led to him avoid his own movies. When asked by Johnny Carson why he never watched his own work on screen, Raft said he would find so much wrong with his performance that he would spend his next film worried about his acting.