Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos

Nicholas Ray: Quick Facts

Written and fact-checked by
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Information Architects maintain a master list of the topics included in the corpus of  EncyclopĂŚdia Britannica, and create and manage the relationships between them.
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts

Also Known As Raymond Nicholas Kienzle
Born August 7, 1911 • Wisconsin
Died June 16, 1979 (aged 67) • New York City • New York
Notable Works “55 Days at Peking” • “Bigger than Life” • “Hot Blood” • “Johnny Guitar” • “Party Girl” • “Rebel Without a Cause” • “The Lusty Men” • “The Savage Innocents” • “The True Story of Jesse James” • “They Live by Night” • “Wind Across the Everglades”

Photos

Director Nicholas Ray, right, leans in to talk with James Dean, center, and Natalie Wood, left, who sits with a script on the set of Rebel Without a Cause.
Scene from Rebel Without a Cause with James Dean as Jim Stark reclining on a bench, Sal Mineo as Plato seated beside him, and Natalie Wood as Judy gently touching Jim's head.
Charlton Heston as Major Matt Lewis and David Niven as Sir Arthur Robertson talk while holding food in a scene from the film 55 Days at Peking.
Lavish film set depicting historic Beijing with bridges, water, crowds, and smoke rising, from the 1963 movie 55 Days at Peking directed by Nicholas Ray.
James Dean as Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause, wearing a white T-shirt and reaching forward with both arms against a dark background.
See All Images →
default image
Michael Cimino
American director
American director Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
American director
Mankiewicz, Joseph L.
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
American filmmaker
Bernardo Bertolucci in 2013, wearing a navy shirt and gray jacket, posing in front of a maroon backdrop.
Bernardo Bertolucci
Italian director
default image
Harold Ramis
American actor, writer, and director
default image
James Ivory
American director
default image
Maggie Gyllenhaal
American actress
default image
Joel Coen
American filmmaker
default image
Ethan Coen
American filmmaker
Steven Spielberg wearing a tuxedo and bow tie, smiling at the camera on the red carpet at the Cannes International Film Festival.
Steven Spielberg
American film director and producer
Woody Allen speaking into a microphone with hands raised beside his face during a press conference, against a red background.
Woody Allen
American director, writer, and actor
Orson Welles
Orson Welles
American actor, director, and writer
Martin Scorsese smiling in a tuxedo and bow tie, holding an Oscar statuette at the Academy Awards, with a gold Oscar statue in the background.
Martin Scorsese
American filmmaker
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
John Huston
American director, writer, and actor
William Wyler
William Wyler
German-born American director
Billy Wilder poses in a suit and hat, leaning against a streetlamp with a sign reading Sunset Blvd. in a promotional photo for the film Sunset Boulevard.
Billy Wilder
Austrian-born American director and producer
Francis Ford Coppola, with a beard, sits on a camera dolly surrounded by crew and actors on the set of The Godfather: Part II, with storefronts in the background.
Francis Ford Coppola
American director and screenwriter
George Stevens
George Stevens
American director
Otto Preminger
Otto Preminger
American filmmaker
Elia Kazan stands on a docked ship set with arms outstretched, directing a scene for Panic in the Streets in New Orleans, with crew members and rigging visible behind him.
Elia Kazan
American director and author