Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 20, 1994 TAG: 9410200100
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
Raye suffered from a variety of health problems in recent years, including a stroke in 1990 and circulatory problems that forced doctors to amputate her left leg below the knee a year ago.
Her most notable role came in 1947's ``Monsieur Verdoux,'' in which she played the indestructible mate of wife-killer Charlie Chaplin.
She also was a tireless entertainer of American troops in three wars and won many citations for her efforts, including a special Academy Award in 1969. President Clinton awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom last November, citing her ``great courage, kindness and patriotism.''
In September 1991, at age 75 and confined to a wheelchair, she married for the seventh time to her 42-year-old manager, Mark Harris, in Las Vegas. ``He makes me feel very young and womanly,'' she said in a television interview. ``I'm really in love this time.''
The Butte, Mont., native was appearing at the Trocadero nightclub in Los Angeles in 1935 when she was spotted by director Norman Taurog. Cast in a Bing Crosby musical, ``Rhythm on the Range,'' she stopped the show with her full-throated rendition of ``Mr. Paganini.''
Paramount Pictures signed her to a contract and she appeared in ``Hideaway Girl,'' ``The Big Broadcast of 1937,'' ``College Holiday,'' ``Waikiki Wedding,'' ``Artists and Models,'' ``Give Me a Sailor,'' ``College Swing'' and other musical comedies. Her cavernous mouth and exclamation ``Oh boyyy!'' became trademarks.
``Then they tried to make a glamor girl out of me,'' she recalled in 1955. ``They tried to emphasize my legs. That was ridiculous. I was no glamor girl; I was a comedian.''
She made wartime movies such as ``Pinup Girl,'' ``Hellzapoppin,'' ``Navy Blues,'' ``Four Jills in a Jeep,'' then her film career declined. Her only important film after ``Monsieur Verdoux'' was the 1962 Doris Day musical ``Jumbo.''
The comedian was one of the first Hollywood figures to entertain American troops during World War II. She continued her service in the Korean War and in Vietnam.
In 1969 the Motion Picture Academy presented her with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, citing ``her five trips to Vietnam, spending at least four months on each trip, entertaining troops, building morale and nursing the sick and wounded in field hospitals.''
by CNB