Ray Teal

Ray Teal

actor, soundtrack

Ray Teal was born on Jan 12, 1902 in USA. Ray Teal's big-screen debut came with Sweetheart of the Navy directed by Duncan Mansfield in 1937, strarring Orchestra Leader (uncredited). Ray Teal is known for Wide Country directed by John Peyser, Earl Holliman stars as Mitch Guthrie and Andrew Prine as Andy Guthrie. The upcoming new movie Ray Teal plays is The Hanged Man which will be released on Mar 13, 1974.

Most familiar to TV audiences as no-nonsense Sheriff Roy Coffee on the long-running western series Bonanza (1959), Ray Teal was one of the most versatile character actors in the business. In his almost 40-year career he played everything from cops to gunfighters to sheriffs to gangsters to a judge at the Nuremberg War Crimes trials. He could play a kindly grandfather in one film and a heartless, sadistic killer in the next, and be equally believable in both roles. A native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, he was a musician who worked his way through college playing the sax in local bands. At UCLA in the 1920s he formed his own band and led it until 1936. He appeared in several films in minor bit parts, and it wasn't until 1938 that he had a somewhat more substantial part, in Western Jamboree (1938). The next year he had a bigger part in the splashy Spencer Tracy adventure 'Northwest Passage' (Book I -- Rogers' Rangers) (1940) as one of Rogers' Rangers. He appeared in serials, westerns, crime dramas, costume epics (he even appeared as Little John in The Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1946)!), war pictures, had a small but memorable part as an anti-Semitic blowhard who gets knocked into a store display by Dana Andrews in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) and a bigger and more memorable part as one of Spencer Tracy's fellow judges in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961). He also made many appearances on TV, in everything from The Lone Ranger (1949) to Green Acres (1965). He died of natural causes in 1976.

  • Birthday

    Jan 12, 1902

  • Place of Birth

    Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA

Known For

Wide Country
TV
Wide Country

19628.3

Judgment at Nuremberg
Movie
Judgment at Nuremberg

19618.3

One-Eyed Jacks
Movie
One-Eyed Jacks

19617.1

Inherit the Wind
Movie
Inherit the Wind

19608.1

Bonanza
TV
Bonanza

19597.3

Maverick
TV
Maverick

19578.1

Colt .45
TV
Colt .45

19578.1

Alfred Hitchcock Presents
TV
Alfred Hitchcock Presents

19558.5

Cheyenne
TV
Cheyenne

19558.0

The Magical World of Disney
TV
The Magical World of Disney

19548.4

Movies & TV Shows

All
Movies
TV Shows