Ford Rainey

Ford Rainey
Ford Rainey
	Rainey in The Bionic Woman
Born	Ford Rainey; August 8, 1908; Mountain Home, Idaho, U.S.
Died	July 25, 2005 (aged 96); Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Resting place	Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary
Other names	Ford Raney
Education	Centralia College ; Cornish College of the Arts
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1939–2003
Spouse	Sheila Hayden (m. 1954)
Children	3

Ford Rainey (August 8, 1908 – July 25, 2005) was an American film, stage, and television actor.^[1]

Early life

Rainey was born in

Seattle.^[4]

He then moved to Connecticut to study acting at the Michael Chekhov Theatre Studio. Growing up in the outdoors and learning to ride horses helped him in his career as a tough-guy film presence later in life. Like many young actors, he worked odd jobs, including as a logger, fisherman, fruit picker, carpenter, and clam digger, in addition to working on an oil tanker before becoming a successful actor.^{[citation needed]}

He served in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II.^[3]

Career

Rainey worked at radio stations KJR and KOMO in Seattle, Washington.^[3]

He made his film debut in

television movie My Sweet Charlie (1970), and appeared in other TV movies such as A Howling in the Woods (1971) and The Stranger Who Looks Like Me (1974) with Meredith Baxter and Beau Bridges.^{[citation needed}

]
He guest-starred on such
Sara
.

In the 1961–62 season Rainey co-starred with

editor Lloyd Ramsey.^[5]^: 1182 In 1963–1964, he was a member of the regular cast of the NBC anthology series The Richard Boone Show.^[5]^: 893 He portrayed Dr. Barnett on the NBC crime drama Search in 1972–1973,^[5]^: 938 he had the role of Police Chief Vernon in Tenafly in 1973–1974^[5]^: 1062, and he played James Barrett on the crime drama The Manhunter on CBS in 1974–1975.^[5]

Between 1962 and 1965 Rainey made four guest appearances on the CBS courtroom series Perry Mason, beginning with the role of Russell Durham in "The Case of the Unsuitable Uncle." In (1964) he played murder victim Harry Trilling in "The Case of the Ugly Duckling." Randolph Cartwell in "The Case of the Paper Bullets". In 1965 he played Dr. Fisher in "The case of Fatal Fortune". Similar character to Halloween II

During the mid-1960s, Ford played U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in The Time Tunnel episode “The Death Trap” with Robert Colbert, the uncredited President seen on the TV addressing the Robinsons before their launch in the pilot episode of Lost in Space “The Reluctant Stowaway”, as well as the President once more in the “Doomsday” episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. (He played Lincoln again a decade later in the 1976 theatrical film Guardian of the Wilderness.

Rainey portrayed the adoptive father of

Amerika

.

Rainey played a general on CBS's M*A*S*H, and a judge on both The Waltons and Matlock.

Later television appearances, in the 1990s and 2000s, include ER and recurring roles on Wiseguy, Ned and Stacey, and The King of Queens. He could also be seen in some commercials in the middle 1970s through the 1980s, such as REACH toothbrushes. During that time he was part of Trinity Square Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

Ford Rainey was a bachelor until the age of 46, when, in 1954, he married Sheila Hayden and settled in New York City, where sons Robert and James were born. The family moved to Malibu, California, where daughter Kathy was born.^{[citation needed]}

Rainey remained in Malibu with his wife while he acted and enjoyed hobbies such as

Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.^{[citation needed}

]

In May 2012, Ford's 54-year-old chiropractor son Robert Rainey was found murdered in his Los Angeles, California office.^[6] The homicide remains unsolved.^[7]

Filmography

White Heat (1949) – Zuckie Hommell (uncredited)
Perfect Strangers (1950) – Ernest Craig (uncredited)
The Robe (1953) – Ship's Captain (uncredited)
The Human Jungle (1954) – Jones – Older Cop (uncredited)
3:10 to Yuma (1957) – Bisbee Marshal
The Badlanders (1958) – Warden
The Last Mile (1959) – Red Kirby
John Paul Jones (1959) – Lt. Simpson
Flaming Star (1960) – Doc Phillips
Parrish (1961) – John Donati (uncredited)
Two Rode Together (1961) – Reverend Henry Clegg
Ada (1961) – Speaker
Claudelle Inglish (1961) – Rev. Armstrong
Dead to the World (1961) – Congressman Keach
Rawhide (1961) – Sheriff in S3:E30, "Incident of the Wager on Payday"
Rawhide (1962) – Broken Bow in S5:E8, "Incident of the Dogfaces"

40 Pounds of Trouble (1962) – Judge
Kings of the Sun (1963) – The Chief
Rawhide (1965) – Col. Hart in S7:E23, "Retreat"
Gunpoint (1966) – Tom Emerson
Johnny Tiger (1966) – Sam Tiger
The Sand Pebbles (1966) – Harris
Chuka (1967) – Captain Robert R. Foster (uncredited)
The Gypsy Moths (1969) – Stand Owner
The Naked Zoo (1970) – Harry Golden
The Traveling Executioner (1970) – Stanley Mae
My Old Man's Place (1971) – Sheriff Coleman
Alias Smith and Jones (1972) – Collins in S2:E19, "The Biggest Game in the West
"