Ray Walston

America has lost another consummate actor in the passing of Ray Walston (Jan. 3). The man was blessed with outstanding talent, an ability to get inside a character as if he was actually born the person he was portraying.

I had the good fortune, in the early 1950s, to follow Ray playing Luther Billis in the London company of “South Pacific” with Mary Martin. And of all the Billises in all the many productions of that landmark show, it was Ray who was chosen to play the part in the movie version.

Ray and I first met several years earlier in New York when we both were cast in Jose Ferrer’s production of the European play “The Insect Comedy.” Ray was playing one of the principal roles and, during rehearsals at the City Center Theater, when we lowly ants weren’t onstage, some of us sat spellbound in the auditorium watching Ray rehearse his scenes. He was every bit as wonderful then as he proved to be 50 years later.

FREDD WAYNE

Santa Monica