Hollywood has produced hundreds of actors who could convincingly play a gangster. George Raft was different. He actually knew the men whose lives inspired the movies. He could dance with Broadway's most beautiful women, exchange pleasantries with notorious racketeers, and walk into an exclusive gambling establishment as though he owned the place. Sometimes he nearly did. His story is one of nightclubs, dangerous friendships, famous romances, remarkable loyalties and some spectacularly unfortunate decisions.

1901–1920s The Kid from Hell's Kitchen

Born George Ranft in New York City in 1901, the future movie star grew up in Hell's Kitchen, a rough Manhattan neighborhood where a boy learned early to recognize trouble. Raft's childhood was spent among the tenements, saloons and street gangs of New York's West Side, long before anyone imagined him wearing expensive suits on Hollywood soundstages.

He tried whatever might earn him a living. Boxing, baseball, odd jobs and eventually dancing all figured in his early career. Accounts of his youth also describe involvement in bootlegging and gunrunning, although the extent of his activities is difficult to separate from the legend that later surrounded him.

Among the people he came to know was Owney Madden, the notorious Irish-American gangster who became an important figure in New York's Prohibition underworld and controlled the celebrated Cotton Club in Harlem. Raft also developed a friendship with Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, another New Yorker whose ambitions eventually led him into the national crime syndicate and the development of Las Vegas.

These relationships would follow Raft for decades. His associations with gangsters were real, even if the popular image of him as a full-fledged mobster was never established as fact.

THE ROARING TWENTIES Dancing for Gangsters and Millionaires

Before George Raft became famous for threatening people on screen, he was a sensational nightclub dancer. He worked in establishments such as the Roseland Ballroom and became particularly accomplished at the Charleston, one of the defining dances of the Jazz Age.

Fred Astaire reportedly considered Raft one of the most exciting Charleston dancers he had ever watched. George Gershwin also came to see him perform. Imagine the scene: a crowded speakeasy, champagne arriving at the tables, elegantly dressed patrons slipping through the haze of cigarette smoke, and Raft commanding the dance floor.

He worked with Texas Guinan, the flamboyant nightclub hostess whose Prohibition-era establishments attracted celebrities, wealthy socialites, politicians and underworld figures. Guinan became an important influence on his entertainment career and helped open doors to Hollywood.

1929–1932 A Gangster Movie Changes Everything

Raft made an early film appearance in Queen of the Night Clubs in 1929. But his great opportunity came when director Howard Hawks cast him opposite Paul Muni in Scarface, released in 1932.

At the time, Raft was reportedly preparing to travel with a boxing exhibition involving heavyweight Primo Carnera, organized by his old acquaintance Owney Madden. Instead, Hollywood won out.

Raft played Guino Rinaldo, the close companion of the film's fictional Chicago crime boss. Scarface drew inspiration from the world of Al Capone, a man Raft himself claimed to have known.

Hawks gave Raft a simple piece of business: flip a coin during his scenes. The gesture became so memorable that it practically belonged to Raft for the rest of his career. A tossed nickel, an unreadable expression and a perfectly tailored suit were enough to suggest danger without a word of dialogue.

1930s–1940s When Bugsy Came to Hollywood

As Raft's movie career flourished, his old acquaintance Bugsy Siegel moved west. Siegel was handsome, ambitious and dangerously volatile, a gangster who enjoyed Hollywood company as much as any film star enjoyed a fashionable nightclub.

Siegel became a familiar presence among actors, producers and socialites. Raft was one of his close friends. According to accounts of the period, Siegel visited the set of Raft's 1941 film Manpower, where he became acquainted with Virginia Hill, who later became his romantic partner.

This was no ordinary Hollywood friendship. Raft even testified on Siegel's behalf in a legal proceeding involving bookmaking in 1944. For Raft, friendship and loyalty appeared to matter more than whether an acquaintance enjoyed a respectable reputation.

Siegel went on to become associated with the development of the Flamingo resort in Las Vegas. His ambitions ended violently when he was shot to death in Beverly Hills in June 1947. The murder remains one of the best-known unsolved killings in American organized-crime history.

AN EXTRAORDINARY FAVOR Did Raft Save James Cagney's Life?

One of the most remarkable stories connected to George Raft involves fellow actor James Cagney. The two men knew each other from their dancing days and later appeared together in the prison drama Each Dawn I Die.

During Cagney's presidency of the Screen Actors Guild in the early 1940s, he became involved in disputes over organized crime's influence in the film industry and its labor organizations.

In Cagney's later account, threats were made against his life. The story holds that Raft used his contacts with underworld figures to intercede, helping to persuade those involved to leave Cagney alone.

The precise circumstances of the alleged plot are difficult to verify independently, but the account has become a memorable part of the history of Hollywood's encounters with organized crime. Whether or not every detail unfolded as remembered, the story says much about Raft's reputation as a man who could reach people most movie executives would never dream of approaching.

HOLLYWOOD'S GOLDEN AGE Women, Romance and Risk

Raft was as well known for his romantic adventures as he was for his underworld acquaintances. His screen partners included Carole Lombard, Marlene Dietrich and Mae West, and his private life drew considerable attention from Hollywood gossip columnists.

He had a much-discussed romance with actress Norma Shearer, widow of the powerful MGM producer Irving Thalberg. Raft was legally married but separated, and the difficulties of obtaining a divorce complicated any possibility of marriage to Shearer. Their relationship ultimately ended without a wedding.

Mae West was a particularly important figure in his life. They appeared together in Night After Night in 1932, West's first feature film, and remained close friends for decades. Raft said in a 1978 interview that he spoke with West every day by telephone.

The affection between them endured through changes in fortune, shifting movie fashions and their final years. Their deaths in November 1980 occurred just two days apart.

1940s The Roles That Went to Bogart

Raft's business decisions could be as dramatic as his movies. He famously declined leading roles in High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon, both of which helped transform Humphrey Bogart into one of Hollywood's biggest stars.

Raft's name is also frequently associated with a supposed rejection of Casablanca. The Hollywood legend is more entertaining than the evidence: Raft was interested in the role of Rick Blaine, but Warner Bros. production records indicate that producer Hal Wallis wanted Bogart from the beginning.

Raft had genuine star power, but his reluctance to accept certain scripts and his disputes with studio management damaged his career. He disliked being typecast as a criminal, particularly as questions about his friendships followed him off the screen.

1950s The Havana Gambling Adventure

By the 1950s, Raft found a lucrative second career in the gambling business. Cuba, under President Fulgencio Batista, had become a playground for wealthy Americans and international visitors seeking casinos, luxurious hotels, nightclubs and warm Caribbean evenings.

American organized-crime figures saw tremendous opportunities in Havana. Meyer Lansky and Santo Trafficante Jr. were among the influential personalities associated with casino investments and operations on the island.

Raft became the public face of the casino at the fashionable Hotel Capri. Although he was not the owner, the establishment used his name and celebrity appeal to attract patrons. A visitor might arrive for the gaming tables and find a real Hollywood star welcoming the evening's crowd.

It was an extraordinary setting for a former Hell's Kitchen street kid. The Capri featured modern accommodations, a rooftop swimming pool, elegant entertainment and the sophisticated gambling atmosphere that had made Havana one of the Caribbean's most glamorous destinations.

The arrangement suited Raft's image perfectly. He had portrayed gambling-house proprietors and mobsters for years. Now he was greeting customers in a real casino whose ownership and management were connected to interests within organized crime.

1959 Castro Changes the Rules

The glamorous casino era ended abruptly when Fidel Castro's revolution overthrew Batista's government in January 1959. The new political order was hostile to the powerful American gambling interests that had flourished under Batista.

Raft's association with the Capri came to an end. The loss of his Havana income was a serious blow, and he returned to the United States facing a very different financial future.

For a man accustomed to associating with powerful casino operators, movie stars and wealthy patrons, being forced out by a revolution was an ending no Hollywood screenwriter could have improved upon.

1959 The Coin Toss Returns

Around the same time, Raft made a memorable appearance in Billy Wilder's classic comedy Some Like It Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon.

Raft played Spats Colombo, a Chicago gangster with a polished exterior and a decidedly unpleasant business. It was a clever return to the image that had made him famous nearly thirty years earlier.

Wilder even included a private joke for longtime moviegoers. When a younger gangster flips a coin, Raft's character dismisses the trick. The moment playfully mocked the very mannerism that had established his reputation in Scarface.

1960s London: Another Casino, Another Controversy

Raft's gambling adventures did not end with Havana. During the 1960s he became involved with London's Colony Sports Club, an upscale gambling establishment associated in historical accounts with organized-crime interests, including those of Meyer Lansky.

Once again, Raft's name and personality were valuable attractions. He could provide a Hollywood welcome to wealthy visitors, and his reputation lent the club an atmosphere of celebrity and exclusivity.

But British authorities were not impressed. After Raft temporarily left the United Kingdom, the government refused to permit his return in 1967.

The controversy even reached Parliament. Home Secretary Roy Jenkins explained that Raft's continued presence would not be conducive to the public good. In a subsequent parliamentary answer, Jenkins also confirmed that Raft had not faced criminal charges in Britain.

It was a remarkable predicament for an American movie star. Raft could entertain audiences, work a room filled with high rollers and trade stories with some of the underworld's best-known personalities, but the British government decided that his connections made him unwelcome.

THE MAN BEHIND THE MYTH Was George Raft Really a Gangster?

It is an obvious question, but the answer is not as simple as his screen image suggests. Raft knew organized-crime figures personally, and some of those relationships lasted for decades. He frequented their establishments, appeared in their company and sometimes publicly supported them.

Nevertheless, knowing gangsters is not the same as being convicted of operating a criminal organization. Raft repeatedly denied being a professional criminal. Many of his own accounts of his early life also contributed to an image that was part autobiography and part show-business legend.

His public personality made the distinction difficult. Here was an actor who could portray a Chicago racketeer with complete conviction and then leave the movie studio for dinner with people who really belonged to that world.

1980 The Final Curtain

Raft continued making occasional film and television appearances into his later years. His final screen appearance came in The Man with Bogart's Face, released in 1980, a fitting nod to the era of Hollywood mysteries and gangster pictures that had defined his career.

George Raft died in Los Angeles on November 24, 1980, at the age of 79. His longtime friend Mae West had died just two days earlier.

By then, the world that had shaped Raft's life had largely disappeared. Prohibition was a distant memory, Bugsy Siegel and Owney Madden were long gone, Havana's American casino empire had collapsed, and Hollywood had moved beyond the great gangster dramas of the 1930s and 1940s.

Yet the fascination remains. Raft was not simply an actor playing a role. He was a man who had traveled between the worlds of entertainment, gambling and organized crime during some of the most colorful decades in American history.

George Raft's greatest adventure may have been his ability to move between two worlds. On one side stood movie cameras, bright lights and beautiful leading ladies. On the other were underworld bosses, gambling fortunes and the constant possibility of danger. Somehow, the man from Hell's Kitchen managed to belong to both. In the end, his most intriguing role was the one he never had to audition for: himself.