George Raft

Born

1901

Died

1980

From

New York, New York, USA·Los Angeles, California, USA

Height

1.70 m (5'7")

Credits on file

Decades active

In short · Acted for 11 decades — 98 credits.

Remembered for

Ranked by community engagement + sustained interest across this person's credits in our database.

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Biography

George Raft was born in Hell's Kitchen, a rough neighborhood in New York City, into a poor family. His birth name was George Ranft, and he was the son of Eva (Glockner) and Conrad Ranft, a department store deliveryman. Both of his parents were of German descent. From an early age, Raft showed a strong interest in and talent for dancing. His dark good looks and sharp sense of style made him a local favorite at places like the El Fey Club, where he performed for Texas Guinan. In 1928, Raft moved to Hollywood to pursue acting. His first major role came in 1932 as the coin-tossing henchman in *Scarface*. Throughout his career, he was known for playing tough-guy roles, often as a gangster or convict. The realism he brought to these characters, along with his real-life associations with gangsters such as Owney Madden and Bugsy Siegel, fueled persistent rumors that he was a gangster himself. While this somewhat shady reputation may have contributed to his early popularity, it later made him less desirable to movie executives. He later parodied his gangster image in Billy Wilder's *Some Like It Hot* (1959).