Editing Raymond Massey (section)

==Acting career==
He first appeared on the London stage in 1922 in [[Eugene O'Neill]]'s ''[[In the Zone (play)|In the Zone]]''.<ref name=NYT/><ref name=WP/> According to his obituary in ''[[The New York Times]]'', he appeared in "several dozen plays and directed numerous others" in England over the next decade.<ref name=NYT/> ''[[The Washington Post]]'' credited him with performances in over 80 plays, including ''Pygmalion'' with [[Gertrude Lawrence]]; ''Ethan Frome'' with [[Ruth Gordon]]; and the [[George Bernard Shaw]] works ''[[The Doctor's Dilemma (play)|The Doctor's Dilemma]]'' and ''[[Candida (play)|Candida]]'' with [[Katharine Cornell]].<ref name=WP/> In 1929, he directed the London premiere of ''[[The Silver Tassie (play)|The Silver Tassie]]''. He received poor reviews in his debut on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] in an unorthodox 1931 production of ''[[Hamlet]]''.<ref name=NYT/>

The first movie he was in was ''[[High Treason (1929 British film)|High Treason]]'' (1928). In 1931, he played [[Sherlock Holmes]] in ''[[The Speckled Band (1931 film)|The Speckled Band]]'', the first [[sound film]] version of the story. In 1934, he played the villain in ''[[The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934 film)|The Scarlet Pimpernel]]'', and in 1936, he starred in ''[[Things to Come]]'', a film adaptation by H.G. Wells of his own speculative novel ''[[The Shape of Things to Come]]'' (1933). In 1944, Massey played the district attorney in [[Fritz Lang]]'s classic film noir ''[[The Woman in the Window (1944 film)|The Woman in the Window]]'', which starred [[Edward G. Robinson]] and [[Joan Bennett]]. He portrayed the [[American Revolutionary War]] character Abraham Farlan, who hated the British for making him a casualty of that war, in the 1946 film ''[[A Matter of Life and Death (film)|A Matter of Life and Death]]'' (titled ''Stairway to Heaven'' in the U.S.).

[[File:Massey-Abe-Lincoln-in-Illinois-1938.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Raymond Massey in the Broadway production of ''[[Abe Lincoln in Illinois (play)|Abe Lincoln in Illinois]]'' (1938)]]
Despite being Canadian, Massey became famous for playing archetypal American historical figures. He played abolitionist/insurrectionist [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] in two films: ''[[Santa Fe Trail (film)|Santa Fe Trail]]'' (1940) and again in the low-budget ''[[Seven Angry Men]]'' (1955). The character of Brown is a wild-eyed lunatic in ''Santa Fe Trail'', whereas he is a well-intentioned but misguided character in the more sympathetic ''Seven Angry Men''. Massey scored a great triumph on Broadway in [[Robert E. Sherwood]]'s [[Pulitzer Prize for Drama|Pulitzer Prize]]-winning play ''[[Abe Lincoln in Illinois (play)|Abe Lincoln in Illinois]]'' despite reservations about Lincoln's being portrayed by a Canadian. He repeated his role in the [[Abe Lincoln in Illinois (film)|1940 film version]], for which he was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Actor]]. Massey again portrayed Lincoln in ''The Day Lincoln Was Shot'' on ''[[Ford Star Jubilee]]'' (1956), a silent appearance in ''[[How the West Was Won (film)|How the West Was Won]]'' (1962), and two TV adaptations of ''Abe Lincoln in Illinois'' broadcast in 1950 and 1951. He once complained jokingly that he was "the only actor ever typecast as a president."<ref name="Foster2003">{{cite book |last=Foster |first=Charles |title=Once Upon a Time in Paradise: Canadians in the Golden Age of Hollywood |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cb49Y-xN5TcC&pg=PA226 |year=2003 |publisher=Dundurn |isbn=978-1-55002-997-0 |page=226}}</ref> His preparation for the role was so detailed and obsessive that one person commented that Massey would not be satisfied with his Lincoln impersonation until someone assassinated him.<ref name="Fisher2011">{{cite book |last=Fisher |first=James |title=Historical Dictionary of Contemporary American Theater: 1930–2010 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m6O5-spILIUC&pg=PA20 |year=2011| publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-7950-8 |page=20}}</ref> On stage in a dramatic reading of [[Stephen Vincent Benét]]'s ''[[John Brown's Body (poem)|John Brown's Body]]'' (1953), Massey, in addition to narrating along with [[Tyrone Power]] and [[Judith Anderson]], took on the roles of both John Brown and Lincoln.

Massey played a Canadian on-screen only once, in ''[[49th Parallel (film)|49th Parallel]]'' (1941).

During World War II, he teamed up with Katharine Cornell and other leading actors in a revival of Shaw's ''Candida'' to benefit the Army Emergency Fund and the Navy Relief Society.<ref>Tad Mosel, ''Leading Lady: The Word and Theatre of Katharine Cornell'', Little, Brown & Co., 1978</ref>
[[File:Beverly Garland Richard Chamberlain Raymond Massey Dr. Kildare 1961.JPG|right|thumb|[[Beverly Garland]], [[Richard Chamberlain]] and Raymond Massey in the first episode of ''[[Dr. Kildare (TV series)|Dr. Kildare]]'' (1961)]]
Massey portrayed Jonathan Brewster in the film version of ''[[Arsenic and Old Lace (film)|Arsenic and Old Lace]]''. The character had been created by [[Boris Karloff]] for the stage version, and a running gag in the play and the film was the character's resemblance to Karloff. Even though the film was released in 1944, it was shot in 1941, at which time Karloff still was contracted to the Broadway play and could not be released for the filming (unlike his costars [[Josephine Hull]], [[Jean Adair]] and [[John Alexander (actor)|John Alexander]]). Massey and Karloff had appeared together earlier in [[James Whale]]'s suspense film ''[[The Old Dark House (1932 film)|The Old Dark House]]'' (1932).

After Massey became an American citizen, he continued to work in Hollywood. Memorable film roles included the husband of [[Joan Crawford]] during her Oscar-nominated role in ''[[Possessed (1947 film)|Possessed]]'' (1947) and the doomed publishing tycoon Gail Wynand in ''[[The Fountainhead (film)|The Fountainhead]]'' (1949) with [[Patricia Neal]] and [[Gary Cooper]]. In 1952 his stage play ''[[Hanging Judge (play)|Hanging Judge]]'' appeared in the [[West End theatre|West End]], directed by [[Michael Powell]].<ref>Wearing, J.P. ''The London Stage 1950–1959: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel''.  Rowman & Littlefield, 2014. p.186</ref> In 1955 he starred in ''[[East of Eden (film)|East of Eden]]'' as Adam Trask, father of Cal, played by [[James Dean]], and Aron, played by [[Richard Davalos]].

Massey became well known on television in the 1950s and 1960s. He was cast in 1960 as Sir Oliver Garnett in the episode "Trunk Full of Dreams" of the NBC series ''[[Riverboat (TV series)|Riverboat]]''.

Massey is remembered as Dr. Gillespie in the popular 1961–1966 NBC series ''[[Dr. Kildare (TV series)|Dr. Kildare]]'', with [[Richard Chamberlain]] in the title role. Massey and his son [[Daniel Massey (actor)|Daniel]] were cast as father and son in ''The Queen's Guards'' (1961).