GORDON MACRAE

Gordon MacRae was born Albert Gordon MacRae in East Orange, New Jersey in 1921, but his parents moved to Syracuse, New York when he was young. His father was a radio star, "Wee Willie" MacRae, and his mother was a concert pianist. MacRae did not inherit their musical talents, because he was adopted, but he WAS very talented in the arts in school, being in the drama club, singing in choir, and playing several musical instruments (and he also played many sports as well!). At 18, he won a local singing talent contest and the prize was getting to sing at the 1939 New York World's Fair for several weeks. Next, Big Band leader Horace Heidt hired MacRae as a vocalist. A couple of years later, MacRae met Sheila Margaret Stephens, an amateur singer and actress, and they were married (he had just turned 20 and she was just 16, but World War II was about to begin, and once it did, McRae enlisted). After the war, the couple soon had two children (and later two more), and MacRae began singing in revues on Broadway, while his wife remained home taking care of their children. In 1947, he was signed by Capitol Records, and the next year he starred on the radio show "The Railroad Hour", which had operettas and musical dramatizations, all featuring McRae and different leading ladies. Later that year, he was signed to a contract by Warner Bros. and among other movies, he made five very popular movies that paired him with beautiful young Doris Day. In 1955, he had his best role ever, as Curly in Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma, opposite Shirley Jones as Laurey. The following year, filming began on Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, and Frank Sinatra was intended to play the lead role of Billy Bigelow. But Sinatra, who had a notoriously short fuse, blew up when he found out (on the first day of filming) that they needed to shoot each scene twice, once for regular CinemaScope and once for CinemaScope 55, and he quit! In just three days, the producers signed McRae, and even though he had not played the part, he did a great job (and ironically, the cameramen found a way to only shoot the scenes once!). After two of the greatest movie musical successes ever, MacRae seemed poised for a long distinguished career, and yet after Carousel, he essentially retired from movies completely, appearing in two movies two decades later. He spent much of the remainder of his life performing in dinner theater (often with his wife), and appearing on TV and radio. What happened? MacRae had become an alcoholic early in his career, and it spiraled out of control just when he reached the height of his fame (he later revealed he had been picked up for drunk driving during the filming of "Carousel"). By the time he got his drinking under control, the era of movie musicals had passed. In 1967, he and his wife divorced, and he remarried and had another child, and his ex-wife went on the replace Audrey Meadows as Alice in the last version of The Honeymooners. Two of his children, Meredith and Heather became actresses. MacRae passed away in 1986 at the age of 64. He had a very notable career, but he starred in just 14 movies in his prime, and one can only wonder how much more he might have accomplished had his personal problems not derailed him!