Gene Raymond born 13 August 1908 (d. 1998)Gene Raymond, leading man of stage, film, and TV, singer, composer, writer, director, producer, decorated military pilot, and, for twenty-eight years, the first and only husband of singer Jeanette MacDonald.
A popular film actor in the 1930s and 40s, like many pre-war stars, his film career fell away after his military service but he enjoyed further success on television up until the 1970s, and was active behind the scenes in the industry with the Screen Actors Guild, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and other organisations.
Ten years after McDonald's death in 1965, he married for a second time and that marriage lasted until her death in 1995.
So, why is he here? A 2001 biography of Nelson Eddy and MacDonald, Sweethearts by Sharon Rich, says that Raymond had affairs with men during his marriage to MacDonald. The book includes documentation of Raymond being arrested on three occasions for sex with other men: a photo of Raymond's January 1938 arrest and booking number; a US Army nurse is named and quoted concerning the second arrest; while retired Scotland Yard detective Joe Sampson confirms the third arrest, which occurred in England during World War II.The book also claims that Louis B. Mayer engineered the marriage of MacDonald to Raymond - even though Mayer knew Raymond was bisexual - to prevent MacDonald from marrying Eddy. Mayer was concerned that a MacDonald-Eddy marriage would end in divorce, due to their temperaments, then he would lose his lucrative box office team. Also, Eddy wanted children and preferred MacDonald to at least semi-retire, which didn't please the studio mogul. While Mayer blessed the MacDonald-Raymond union, he had Raymond blacklisted following his 1938 arrest.
... but the marriage lasted.