George Raft
George Raft (born George Ranft; September 26, 1901 – November 24, 1980) was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s. A stylish leading man in dozens of movies, today Raft is mostly known for his gangster roles in the original Scarface (1932), Each Dawn I Die (1939), and Billy Wilder's 1959 comedy Some Like it Hot, as a dancer in Bolero (1934), and a truck driver in They Drive by Night (1940).
Early life
George Ranft was born in Hell's Kitchen, New York City to a Catholic family of German descent, the son of Eva (née Glockner) and Conrad Ranft. His father was born in Massachusetts to German immigrant parents, and his mother was a German immigrant. His parents were married on November 17, 1895, in Manhattan. His elder sister, Eva, known as "Katie", was born on April 18, 1896.
Although Raft's birth year in obituaries has been reported as 1895, he is recorded in the New York City Birth Index as having been born on September 26, 1901 in Manhattan as "George Rauft" (although "Rauft" is likely a mistranscription of "Ranft"); the 1900 Census for New York City lists his elder sister, Katie, as his parents' only child, with two children born and only one living. On the 1910 Census, he is listed as being eight years old, and his birth record can be found in the New York City birth index as being 1901. A boyhood friend of gangsters Owney Madden and Bugsy Siegel (and later a "wheel man" for the mob), Raft acknowledged having narrowly avoided a life of crime.
