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Biography
René Ray (1911-1993) started her career as a singer and, as herself, appeared in one of the first British talkies, High Treason (1928). Other films rapidly followed in which she played a variety of young women or herself, as she did in Tonight’s the Night: Pass it On (1932) and Born Lucky (1933). Her parts quickly became more significant and soon she had the female lead, as she did the musical films Street Song (1935) and Beloved Imposter (1936). Her acting ability having been spotted, she made her West End stage debut in J. B. Priestley’s play, Bees on the Boat Deck. However, most of her acting in the 1930s was in films and, in the decade, she appeared in 34 of them.
In the 1940s, she spent much more time on stage, her plays including The Admirable Crichton, Claudia and Wuthering Heights. During the Second Eorld War, she toured France, Belgium and Holland, entertaining the troops with her show That Certain Age. She had only made two films between 1940 and 1947 when she was invited to the USA to take a role in If Winter Comes (1947) that starred Deborah Kerr and Angela Lansbury. The film was not a success but her presence in the USA led to her being asked to appear on Broadway in J. B. Priestley’s An Inspector Calls, directed by Sir Cedric Hardwicke. The play survived for 95 performances.
Although still not thirty years old, Rene Ray was becoming more interested in writing than in acting. Her novel, Wraxton Mayne was first published in 1947.
In 1952, she gave a magnificent performance as the star in Sylvia Rayman’s Women of Twilight. She reprised her role in the 1953 film. A couple more films were to follow, but by then writing had become her main interest. She soon had a significant success. A TV series The Strange World of Planet X (1956) was based on one of her novels. The next year it was made into a film.
In 1975, she became the third wife of Earl Middleton, thus becoming Countess Middleton. Her husband died in 1979.
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Theatre: Programs (UK) - post 1939 | WOMEN OF TWILIGHT by Sylvia Rayman |
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