#Fact1During the late-1950s, Raft was employed as a celebrity greeter at the Mafia-owned Hotel Capri casino in Havana, a job that played off his image as a movie mobster and tough guy. He was present on January 1, 1959 when rebels stormed Havana, overthrowing dictator Fulgencio Batista. According to Raft, as the rebels began looting the Capri, they recognized him and he was able to convince them not to hurt anyone.2Raft never looked at himself on film. After not watching a clip of his movies on the Tonight Show, Johnny Carson asked why. Raft said he said he would find so much wrong with his performance that he would spend his next film worried about his acting and never get it right. He only wanted to worry if people stopped going to his movies.3He played himself in ten films: Broadway (1942), Stage Door Canteen (1943), Nous irons à Paris (1950), The Ladies Man (1961), The Patsy (1964), Casino Royale (1967), Silent Treatment (1968), The Great Sex War (1969), Deadhead Miles (1973) and Sextette (1978).4As previously reported, he turned down the roles of Roy "Mad Dog" Earle in "High Sierra (1941)", Sam Spade in "The Maltese Falcon (1941)", and Rick Blaine in "Casablanca (1942)." All three of these parts were picked up by Humphrey Bogart, and each one was essential in making Bogart a superstar.5According to The Lewiston Daily Sun newspaper June 1936, George was 5 feet, 10 inches tall, weighed 155 pounds, had an olive complexion, black hair and brown eyes.6There has been much debate over when George was born. Although most sources and articles claim his birth year as 1895, including his gravestone, New York census reports suggest Mr. Raft was born in 1901.7Mother, Eva, died of asthma at her 610 West 174th Street home in 1937, after a long illness, at the age of 62. Mr. Raft was at her bedside.8His father was reported to having two thriving businesses: During the winter, the elder Raft was superintendent of the John Wanamaker department store. In the summer he owned and managed a merry-go-round at a small amusement park at Hasting-on-the-Hudson, New York. That merry-go-round was a family affair, began by George's grandfather. This was at Coney Island, Brooklyn.9The "Hell's Kitchen" set built for George in 'Invisible Stripes' was an exact replica of Raft's own New York birthplace.10Theft of $3150 worth of jewelry and clothing from Beverly Hills home at 1218 Coldwater Canyon Road reported May 10, 1939.11George's father, Conrad Ranft, was born in Massachusetts, to German parents, Catherine Weil and Christopher Ranft. George's mother, Eva (Glockner), was born in Germany.12According to both the 1900 and 1910 Censuses for New York City, Raft only had one sibling named Eva "Katie" Ranft, born on April 18, 1896 in Manhattan.13His parents Conrad and Eva Ranft had ten children, nine of them boys, with George the eldest.14A lifelong baseball fan, by 1955 he had attended the World Series for the past 25 years.15Featured in "Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir" by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry (McFarland, 2003).16As a teenager, he was a bat-boy for the New York Highlanders (Yankees), tried out for semi-pro baseball, boxed at the Polo Athletic Club and hustled pool.17July 1939: Signed a long-term contract with Warner Bros. Studios.18Is portrayed by by Ray Danton in The George Raft Story (1961), Nicholas Mayer in Mae West (1982) and by Joe Mantegna in Bugsy (1991).19According to James Cagney's autobiography Cagney By Cagney, (Published by Doubleday and Company Inc 1976), a Mafia plan to murder Cagney by dropping a several hundred pound klieg light on top of him was stopped at the insistence of George Raft. Cagney at that time was President of the Screen Actors Guild and was determined not to let the mob infiltrate the industry. Raft used his 'many' mob connections to cancel the hit.20Appeared with Mae West in both her first (Night After Night (1932)) and last (Sextette (1978)) films. He died two days after West's death.21Banned from entering Britain in 1966 because of his alleged Mafia connections.22Second actor to portray the title role for CBS Radio's "The Adventures of Rocky Jordan" (1951-1953).23Was a close friend of notorious gangster Benjamin Bugsy Siegel since their childhood in New York. Siegel actually lived at Raft's home in Hollywood for a time while trying to make inroads for organized crime within the movie colony.24Not much is known about his marriage to Mulrooney except that she was some years his senior. Although separated early, they were never divorced, and he continued to support her faithfully until her death in 1970.25He turned down High Sierra (1941), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942) and Double Indemnity (1944).26Interred at Forest Lawn (Hollywood Hills), Los Angeles, California, USA, in the Court of Remembrance.

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