Ford Rainey, a character actor best known for playing presidents, judges and other authority figures but also an experienced Shakespearean stage performer, has died. The Centralia High School and Centralia College graduate was 96.
Rainey, of Malibu, Calif., died Monday at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif., from complications of a series of strokes, said his son, James Rainey.
During his long career, Rainey had small roles in movies, including ”The Sand Pebbles” with Steve McQueen and ”Two Rode Together” with James Stewart, and had dozens of appearances on TV shows, including ”Bonanza,” ”Perry Mason” and ”The Fugitive.”
Locally, he was named Centralia College's distinguished alumnus in 1982 for his work on stage, television and film.
He continued working into his 90s, including an occasional role as Mickey on TV's ”The King of Queens.”
Rainey was born Aug. 8, 1908, in Mountain Home, Idaho, and moved to the Twin Cities when he was 11. He was a shy youngster who found an outlet when he was coaxed onto the stage by Margaret Corbet, his Centralia High School drama teacher and the first dean of Centralia College.
"I first met Margaret in study hall. I was painfully shy. She took it to mean I was studious," Rainey told a group of Centralia College drama students in 1982, as reported in The Chronicle. "One day she said I was going to be in her one-act play. I didn't have the guts enough at the time to tell her I wouldn't do it."
Rainey graduated from Centralia High School in 1927, then graduated from Centralia College in 1930.
Rainey appeared in six plays at Centralia College and became a founding member of its drama department, according to a 1982 edition of The Chronicle.
Rainey told Centralia College drama students in 1982 that became hooked on acting after he saw a production of Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" in Seattle with a drama class, according to The Chronicle.
"After the play I was ecstatic. I couldn't stop talking about how wonderful it was. The other students told me to keep quiet. It was then that I realized I cared more about acting than they did," Rainey said.
He went on to study theater at Cornish School of the Allied Arts (now Cornish College of the Arts) in Seattle, and worked in regional theater companies and in local radio.
Before he was able to make a full-time living as an actor he held a variety of other jobs, including logger, lineman, fruit picker, fisherman and clam digger.
In 1939, he made his Broadway debut in Dostoevski's ”Possessed.”
He served off Oregon with the U.S. Coast Guard in World War II, and after the war made his movie debut with an uncredited role in the 1949 James Cagney picture ”White Heat.”
Rainey also repeatedly played presidents, ranging from Abraham Lincoln in the 1976 miniseries ”Captains and the Kings” to President McNeil in TV's ”Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.”
His stage work included understudy to Fredric March in the 1950s Broadway production of ”Long Day's Journey Into Night,” and he was in a 1972 Los Angeles production of ”The Crucible.”
His Shakespearean roles included the lead in a touring production of "King Lear," which, as he told Centralia College drama students in 1982, was his favorite role.
In addition to his son James, Rainey is survived by his wife, Sheila; another son, Robert; a daughter, Kathleen, and five grandchildren.
