Villain of the Month: Ray Teal
Ray Teal was probably one of the nicest guys around. How do I know this? Simple, he always played mean and bigoted bad guys in the movies. A professional musician, Teal worked his way through college playing saxophone and eventually formed his own band in the twenties, which he led until he entered film in the late thirties, playing an orchestra leader in Sweetheart of the Navy (1937) and Western Jamboree (1938).
Yet it was his casting as a henchman in Republic’s Zorro Rides Again (1937) that would show his true talent lay in villainy for most film makers and audiences. A lot of his career would be made up playing bad guys in westerns like Viva Cisco Kid (1940), Billy the Kid (1941) and Apache Trail (1942). He would also appear in more serials, having substantial parts in Adventures of Red Ryder (1940) and Captain Midnight (1942), while garnering small roles in The Green Hornet Strikes Again (1940), Don Winslow of the Navy (1941), Overland Mail (1942) and Raiders of Ghost City (1944).
When not badgering western heroes, Teal could be spotted in small roles at bigger studios, most notably as a bigoted loudmouth who gets punched out by Dana Andrews in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) and as the only judge willing to be sympathetic to the Nazi war criminals in Judgment at Nuremburg (1961). Most of the fifties and sixties was spent appearing on TV in everything from The Lone Ranger and Maverick to I Dream of Jeanie and Green Acres. During this time he also garnered his most famous role, the recurring part of affable Sheriff Coffee on Bonanza, appearing in over 90 episodes between 1960 and 1972.
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