Gravel-voiced, thick-set former Navy frogman who was running for constable of Crockett, CA, when he drove his brother to an audition for the film "Saturday's Hero" (1951) and was hired instead by director David Miller. Early in Ray's career he starred in romantic leads, as one of the reminiscing lovers in George Cukor's "The Marrying Kind" (1951) and opposite Rita Hayworth in "Miss Sadie Thompson" (1953). In comic roles, Ray was the none-too-bright boxer in Cukor's "Pat and Mike" (1952) and an escaped convict in Michael Curtiz's "We're No Angels" (1955). By the mid-50s Ray was typecast as a hot-blooded, gung-ho character in action films and as GIs in "Battle Cry" (1955), "Men in War" (1957) and his last major film, "The Green Berets" (1968) with John Wayne.