George Raft, 84, dies of emphysema

Press, 26 November 1980, Page 8

George Raft, 84, dies of emphysema

NZPA Los Angeles The Hollywood actor, George Raft, who specialised in tough-guy roles, has died at the age of 84 of the lung complaint emphysema, his I doctor has said. Raft’s sinister looks earned him. more than .$lO million from 100 roles in such films as “Scarface” and “The Patsy.” He grew up in a tough New York district known as "Hell’s Kitchen” and knew in real life the gansters he portrayed on screen. “1 was once a gun-packing ' bodyguard for a real tough character, but me, I left all that behind. I became the nicest guy in town,” he used to say. Raft made headlines in 1965 when he was convicted of income-tax evasion and in 1966 when he testified in New York before a Federal grand jury investigating Mafia financial transactions.

The grand jury was one of a series of incidents during his'career linking him with underworld figures. He always maintained they were (just acquaintances. . •: ■ ■/ “I’ve .never been, locked up, I’ve never taken a drink,. I never: hurt anybody, and I gave all' my money away. So how cdme I got this bum re* putation?” Raft*, asked in 1974.' He was banned from England in 1967 as an undesirable. He had been working for a London casino, his last full-time employment. Critics deplored his acting, and Raft himself 'made no claims of dramatic prowess, but audiences found him convincing in the role of the tight-lipped, poker-faced; operator on the wrong side of the law.

He was plagued by money trouble in later years. He had given much of his earnings to . his estranged wife.