Gregory Gaye
Encyclopedia
Gregory Gaye was a Russian-American actor. The son of an actor, he was born Gregory De Gay in Petrograd, now known as St. Petersburg.
He was a cadet in the Russian
navy and began his stage career in Europe
and in the Orient
before going to the United States after the Russian Revolution in 1917. He appeared in small roles in over a hundred movies.
silent movie
Tempest. His first credited role was as Prince Ordinsky in the Will Rogers
comedy They Had to See Paris
in 1929. Gaye appeared in three of Rogers' movies including; Young As You Feel and Handy Andy.
Later in 1929, Gaye received a bit part in the John Ford
film The Black Watch
starring Victor McLaglen
(John Wayne
and Randolph Scott
also had bit parts in this movie). In 1930, Gaye received a good role as Baslikoff, a suave violinist, chasing Gloria Swanson
in the romance comedy What a Widow! Later that year, he appeared as Vologuine in the Victor Fleming
film Renegades
with Myrna Loy
and Bela Lugosi
. In 1932, Gaye played Rudolph Kammerling in the comedy Once in a Lifetime about a Hollywood studio during the transition from silents to talkies.
In 1934, Gaye played Mr. Kolinoff in Warner Bros.
's British Agent
starring Leslie Howard
. Two years later, Gaye received a good role as Baron Kurt Von Obersdorf in Dodsworth
starring Walter Huston
and Mary Astor
. Later that year, again playing an aristocrat, as Count Raul Du Rienne in Under Your Spell
. Also in 1936, he received another good role as Enrico Borelli in the mystery Charlie Chan at the Opera
starring Boris Karloff
.
In 1937, Gaye portrayed a pianist
named Dmitri 'Didi' Shekoladnikoff in the comedy Mama Steps Out starring Guy Kibbee
. Next, Gaye plays a German Captain Freymann in Lancer Spy
starring George Sanders
and Peter Lorre
. Gaye continued to play aristocrats like Count Frederic Brekenski in Warner Bros.'s Tovarich
starring Claudette Colbert
, Charles Boyer
and Basil Rathbone
. The following year, Gaye played another aristocratic count in Love, Honor and Behave starring Priscilla Lane. Later that year, Gaye received the part of Popoff in the M-G-M's comedy Too Hot to Handle
starring Clark Gable
and Myrna Loy.
Gaye, in a role he was getting used too, played Count Georges De Remi in Paris Honeymoon starring Bing Crosby
in 1939. Later that year, he played Vitray in 20th Century Fox
's The Three Musketeers
starring Don Ameche
. Next that year, Gaye received a good part as exiled Count Alexis Rakonin who is forced to work as a waiter in a French hotel in M-G-M's Oscar-nominated classic Ninotchka
starring Greta Garbo
in the title role and Melvyn Douglas
. He spies on the three Russians (Sig Rugmann, Alexander Granach
and Felix Bressart
) and reports about what they have to Ina Claire
's character.
As World War II raged in Europe, Gaye's parts started to move away from aristocrats and toward Nazis. In 1941, Gaye played Von Mueller in They Dare Not Love starring George Brent
and Paul Lukas
. The movie takes place in Austria during the war. Next, he played a waiter in I Wake Up Screaming
starring Betty Grable
and Victor Mature
. Next he played Becker in the war drama Flight Lieutenant
starring Pat O'Brien
and Glen Ford.
In 1942, Gaye played a Nazi spy and saboteur named Feldon in Columbia's spy serial Secret Code. Next he played a Nazi named Karl in the comedy Fall In.
Later in 1942, at age 41, he landed a small role in Casablanca
as an official of Hitler's Reichsbank
. In the movie he tries to gain entrance to the back-room casino, but is stopped by Abdul (Dan Seymour
). He tells Rick, "I have been in every gambling room between Honolulu and Berlin, and if you think I'm going to be kept out of a saloon like this, you're very much mistaken." Rick tells him, "your cash is good at the bar." He responds, "What? Do you know who I am?" To which Rick replies, "I do, you're lucky the bar is open to you." Gaye angrily responds, "This is outrageous! I shall report it to the Angrif" and storms away.
After Casablanca, Gaye received many small, and mostly uncredited, roles throughout the 1940s and 1950s. In 1944, he received a bit part as a Russian correspondent Peter Voroshevski, who again is stopped at the door and not allowed in, in The Purple Heart
starring Dana Andrews
and Richard Conte
based on the captured pilots from the Doolittle Raid
over Tokyo. In the mystery Seven Doors to Death
, Gaye received a large part as Henry Gregor. Later in 1944, Gaye appeared in the spy thriller The Conspirators
.
In 1945, Gaye appeared in seven movies. One of them was a war drama Paris Underground
about two women trying to help downed Allied pilots escape Nazi occupied France. He also played the part of Joe Sapphire in a small crime drama Tiger Women. In another, he again plays a German banker, this time in Cornered
starring Dick Powell
.
After that year, the roles became scarcer. In 1946, Gaye received a role in a small mystery Passkey to Danger. The following year, Gaye played a book forger in the mystery The Trespasser
starring Dale Evens. Next he received a bit part as a Maitre d'hotel in the comedy The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
starring Cary Grant
.
Gaye continued to receive parts into the 1950s. He got a small role in Cargo to Capetown starring Broderick Crawford
. He also received a part in Republic's sci-fi serial Flying Disc Man from Mars
(it was released as a feature film called Missile Monsters in 1958). Gaye appeared in the adventure film Mask of the Avenger starring Anthony Quinn
. This was followed with an appearance in the thriller Peking Express
. Next was a part as Ali in Columbia
's The Magic Carpet starring Lucille Ball
. In 1952, Gaye appeared as Paul Shushaldin in Raoul Walsh
's historical adventure The World in His Arms
starring Gregory Peck
and Ann Blyth
. The following year, Gaye appeared in Savage Mutiny starring Johnny Weissmuller
(one of two movie they appeared in together). Later, he got a small role in South Sea Woman
starring Burt Lancaster
and Virginia Mayo
. In 1955, Gaye portrayed an ex-Nazi mad scientist who teams up with a mobster to bring dead gangsters to life by using radioactivity so the mobster can enact revenge in Columbia's "B" sci-fi horror movie Creature with the Atom Brain
. Gaye appeared in Kelly and Me starring Van Johnson
in 1957 and the following year as Vladimir Klinkoff in Auntie Mame
starring Rosalind Russell
.
In 1960, he played a casino owner named Freeman in Ocean's Eleven
starring Frank Sinatra
, Dean Martin
and Sammy Davis Jr. The following year, he played Joan Blackman's father, Elvis Presley
's co-star in Blue Hawaii
.
In 1962, portrayed a salesman in Vincente Minnelli
's drama The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse starring Glenn Ford, Paul Lukas and Charles Boyer. Later that year, Gaye appeared as General Erwin Rommel
in Hitler starring Richard Basehart
in the title role. The next year, Gaye played a Russian reporter in The Prize starring Paul Newman
and Edward G. Robinson
.
It would be three years before Gaye received another role. This time he had a small role portraying the Soviet U.N. ambassador
in Batman
in 1966. Three years after that in 1969, he received his next part, a small uncredited role in the Alfred Hitchcock
thriller Topaz
.
Gaye didn't appear in any more movies until the late 1970s. He appeared in a couple of television movies before, at age 79, he did his last movie which was the science fiction
movie Meteor
where he had a small role as the Soviet Premier in 1979.
Gaye was also in television. In 1953, he played the evil Ruler who tries to destroy the earth in the television series Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe
. Between 1954 and 1970, Gaye appeared as a guest in a number of television shows, including five guest appearances on The F.B.I.
.
who played Commandant Eric Lassard in the Police Academy movies.
He was a cadet in the Russian
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
navy and began his stage career in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and in the Orient
Orient
The Orient means "the East." It is a traditional designation for anything that belongs to the Eastern world or the Far East, in relation to Europe. In English it is a metonym that means various parts of Asia.- Derivation :...
before going to the United States after the Russian Revolution in 1917. He appeared in small roles in over a hundred movies.
Roles
His first was a bit part in the 1928 John BarrymoreJohn Barrymore
John Sidney Blyth , better known as John Barrymore, was an acclaimed American actor. He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III...
silent movie
Silent Movie
Silent Movie is a 1976 satirical comedy film co-written, directed by, and starring Mel Brooks, and released by 20th Century Fox on June 17, 1976...
Tempest. His first credited role was as Prince Ordinsky in the Will Rogers
Will Rogers
William "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s....
comedy They Had to See Paris
They Had to See Paris
They Had to See Paris is a 1929 American comedy film directed by Frank Borzage and starring Will Rogers, Irene Rich and Marguerite Churchill. A wealthy American oil tycoon travels to Paris with his family at his wife's request, despite the fact he hates the French.Rogers starred in a similar film...
in 1929. Gaye appeared in three of Rogers' movies including; Young As You Feel and Handy Andy.
Later in 1929, Gaye received a bit part in the John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
film The Black Watch
The Black Watch
The Black Watch is a 1929 American early epic adventure drama film directed by John Ford and written by James Kevin McGuinness based on the novel King of the Khyber Rifles by Talbot Mundy. The film starred Victor McLaglen...
starring Victor McLaglen
Victor McLaglen
Victor Andrew de Bier Everleigh McLaglen was an English boxer and World War I veteran who became a successful film actor.Towards the end of his life he was naturalised as a U.S. citizen.-Early life:...
(John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
and Randolph Scott
Randolph Scott
Randolph Scott was an American film actor whose career spanned from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of genres, including social dramas, crime dramas, comedies, musicals , adventure tales, war films, and even a few...
also had bit parts in this movie). In 1930, Gaye received a good role as Baslikoff, a suave violinist, chasing Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson was an American actress, singer and producer. She was one of the most prominent stars during the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille, made dozens of silents and was nominated for the first Academy Award in the...
in the romance comedy What a Widow! Later that year, he appeared as Vologuine in the Victor Fleming
Victor Fleming
Victor Lonzo Fleming was an American film director, cinematographer, and producer. His most popular films were The Wizard of Oz , and Gone with the Wind , for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director.-Life and career:Fleming was born in La Canada, California, the son of Elizabeth Evaleen ...
film Renegades
Renegades (1930 film)
Renegades is a 1930 film by Victor Fleming about four French legionnaires in North Africa who are betrayed by a woman. It stars Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy...
with Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles...
and Bela Lugosi
Béla Lugosi
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his...
. In 1932, Gaye played Rudolph Kammerling in the comedy Once in a Lifetime about a Hollywood studio during the transition from silents to talkies.
In 1934, Gaye played Mr. Kolinoff in Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
's British Agent
British Agent
British Agent is a 1934 espionage film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Leslie Howard and Kay Francis. It is based on Memoirs of a British Agent, the 1932 autobiography of R. H. Bruce Lockhart, who had spent a number of years working for the British Secret Service...
starring Leslie Howard
Leslie Howard (actor)
Leslie Howard was an English stage and film actor, director, and producer. Among his best-known roles was Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind and roles in Berkeley Square , Of Human Bondage , The Scarlet Pimpernel , The Petrified Forest , Pygmalion , Intermezzo , Pimpernel Smith...
. Two years later, Gaye received a good role as Baron Kurt Von Obersdorf in Dodsworth
Dodsworth
Dodsworth is a satirical novel by American writer Sinclair Lewis first published by Harcourt Brace & Company in March 1929. Its subject, the differences between US and European intellect, manners, and morals, is one that frequently appears in the works of Henry James.-Plot summary:Samual 'Sam'...
starring Walter Huston
Walter Huston
Walter Thomas Huston was a Canadian-born American actor. He was the father of actor and director John Huston and the grandfather of actress Anjelica Huston and actor Danny Huston.-Life and career:...
and Mary Astor
Mary Astor
Mary Astor was an American actress. Most remembered for her role as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, Astor began her long motion picture career as a teenager in the silent movies of the early 1920s.She eventually made a successful transition to talkies, but almost...
. Later that year, again playing an aristocrat, as Count Raul Du Rienne in Under Your Spell
Under Your Spell (film)
Under Your Spell is a 1936 American romantic comedy film with music directed by Otto Preminger. The screenplay by Frances Hyland and Saul Elkins is based on a story by Sy Bartlett and Bernice Mason.-Plot:...
. Also in 1936, he received another good role as Enrico Borelli in the mystery Charlie Chan at the Opera
Charlie Chan at the Opera
Charlie Chan at the Opera is considered by many to be the best Warner Oland Charlie Chan film, probably due to the co-acting of Boris Karloff. This is the 13th film starring Oland as Chan and produced by Fox in 1936.- Plot :...
starring Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
.
In 1937, Gaye portrayed a pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
named Dmitri 'Didi' Shekoladnikoff in the comedy Mama Steps Out starring Guy Kibbee
Guy Kibbee
Guy Bridges Kibbee was an American stage and film actor.Born in El Paso, Texas, Kibbee began his entertainment career on Mississippi riverboats and eventually became a successful Broadway actor...
. Next, Gaye plays a German Captain Freymann in Lancer Spy
Lancer Spy
Lancer Spy is a 1937 film about an Englishman who impersonates a German officer, receiving fame upon arriving in Germany. A female German spy is instructed to check on him but falls in love with him instead.-Cast:...
starring George Sanders
George Sanders
George Sanders was a British actor.George Sanders may also refer to:*George Sanders , Victoria Cross recipient in World War I...
and Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...
. Gaye continued to play aristocrats like Count Frederic Brekenski in Warner Bros.'s Tovarich
Tovarich (film)
Tovarich is a 1937 American comedy film directed by Anatole Litvak, based on the 1935 play by Robert E. Sherwood, which in turn was based on the 1933 French play Tovaritsch by Jacques Deval. It was produced by Litvak through Warner Bros., with Robert Lord as associate producer and Hal B. Wallis...
starring Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert was a French-born American-based actress of stage and film.Born in Paris, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures...
, Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer was a French actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found success in movies during the 1930s. His memorable performances were among the era's most highly praised romantic dramas,...
and Basil Rathbone
Basil Rathbone
Sir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...
. The following year, Gaye played another aristocratic count in Love, Honor and Behave starring Priscilla Lane. Later that year, Gaye received the part of Popoff in the M-G-M's comedy Too Hot to Handle
Too Hot to Handle (1938 film)
Too Hot to Handle is a 1938 film about a newsreel reporter, the aviatrix he is attracted to, and his fierce competitor, played by Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, and Walter Pidgeon respectively...
starring Clark Gable
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...
and Myrna Loy.
Gaye, in a role he was getting used too, played Count Georges De Remi in Paris Honeymoon starring Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
in 1939. Later that year, he played Vitray in 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
's The Three Musketeers
The Three Musketeers
The Three Musketeers is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, first serialized in March–July 1844. Set in the 17th century, it recounts the adventures of a young man named d'Artagnan after he leaves home to travel to Paris, to join the Musketeers of the Guard...
starring Don Ameche
Don Ameche
Don Ameche was an Academy Award winning American actor with a career spanning almost sixty years.-Personal life:...
. Next that year, Gaye received a good part as exiled Count Alexis Rakonin who is forced to work as a waiter in a French hotel in M-G-M's Oscar-nominated classic Ninotchka
Ninotchka
Ninotchka is a 1939 American film made for Metro Goldwyn Mayer by producer and director Ernst Lubitsch which stars Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas. It was written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch, based on a screen story by Melchior Lengyel. Ninotchka is Greta Garbo's first full...
starring Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...
in the title role and Melvyn Douglas
Melvyn Douglas
Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg , better known as Melvyn Douglas, was an American actor.Coming to prominence in the 1930s as a suave leading man , Douglas later transitioned into more mature and fatherly roles as in his Academy Award-winning performances in Hud...
. He spies on the three Russians (Sig Rugmann, Alexander Granach
Alexander Granach
Alexander Granach was a popular German actor in the 1920s and 1930s.- Biography :Granach was born Jessaja Granach in Werbowitz to Jewish parents and rose to theatrical prominence at the Volksbühne in Berlin...
and Felix Bressart
Felix Bressart
Felix Bressart was a German-American actor of stage and screen.Felix Bressart was born in East Prussia, Germany and was already a very experienced stage actor when he had his film debut in 1928. He started off as a supporting actor, e.g...
) and reports about what they have to Ina Claire
Ina Claire
Ina Claire was an American stage and film actress.-Career:Born Ina Fagan in 1893 in Washington, D.C., Claire began her career appearing in vaudeville...
's character.
As World War II raged in Europe, Gaye's parts started to move away from aristocrats and toward Nazis. In 1941, Gaye played Von Mueller in They Dare Not Love starring George Brent
George Brent
George Brent was an Irish film and television actor in American cinema.-Early life:He was born George Brendan Nolan in Raharabeg, County Roscommon on the opposite bank of the River Shannon from the town of Shannonbridge, County Offaly, Ireland, the son of a British Army officer.During the Irish...
and Paul Lukas
Paul Lukas
Paul Lukas was an Austrian-Hungarian-born actor.-Biography:Born Pál Lukács in Budapest, he arrived in Hollywood in 1927 after a successful stage and film career in Hungary, Germany and Austria where he worked with Max Reinhardt. He made his stage debut in Budapest in 1916 and his film debut in 1917...
. The movie takes place in Austria during the war. Next, he played a waiter in I Wake Up Screaming
I Wake Up Screaming
I Wake Up Screaming is a 1941 film noir. It is based on the novel of the same name by Steve Fisher, who co-wrote the screenplay with Dwight Taylor...
starring Betty Grable
Betty Grable
Elizabeth Ruth "Betty" Grable was an American actress, dancer and singer.Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the LIFE magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World"...
and Victor Mature
Victor Mature
Victor John Mature was an American stage, film and television actor.-Early life:Mature was born in Louisville, Kentucky to an Italian-speaking father from the town Pinzolo, in the Italian part of the former County of Tyrol , Marcello Gelindo Maturi, later Marcellus George Mature, a cutler,...
. Next he played Becker in the war drama Flight Lieutenant
Flight Lieutenant (film)
Flight Lieutenant is a 1942 film starring Pat O'Brien as Sam Doyle, a disgraced commercial pilot who works to regain the respect of his son against the backdrop of World War II.-External links:*...
starring Pat O'Brien
Pat O'Brien (actor)
Pat O’Brien was an American film actor with more than one hundred screen credits.-Early life:O’Brien was born William Joseph Patrick O’Brien to an Irish-American Catholic family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He served as an altar boy at Gesu Church while growing up near 13th and Clybourn streets...
and Glen Ford.
In 1942, Gaye played a Nazi spy and saboteur named Feldon in Columbia's spy serial Secret Code. Next he played a Nazi named Karl in the comedy Fall In.
Later in 1942, at age 41, he landed a small role in Casablanca
Casablanca (film)
Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid, and featuring Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Dooley Wilson. Set during World War II, it focuses on a man torn between, in...
as an official of Hitler's Reichsbank
Reichsbank
The Reichsbank was the central bank of Germany from 1876 until 1945. It was founded on 1 January 1876 . The Reichsbank was a privately owned central bank of Prussia, under close control by the Reich government. Its first president was Hermann von Dechend...
. In the movie he tries to gain entrance to the back-room casino, but is stopped by Abdul (Dan Seymour
Dan Seymour
Dan Seymour was a character actor who frequently played villains in Warner Bros. films. He appeared in several Humphrey Bogart films, including Casablanca, Key Largo, and To Have and Have Not....
). He tells Rick, "I have been in every gambling room between Honolulu and Berlin, and if you think I'm going to be kept out of a saloon like this, you're very much mistaken." Rick tells him, "your cash is good at the bar." He responds, "What? Do you know who I am?" To which Rick replies, "I do, you're lucky the bar is open to you." Gaye angrily responds, "This is outrageous! I shall report it to the Angrif" and storms away.
After Casablanca, Gaye received many small, and mostly uncredited, roles throughout the 1940s and 1950s. In 1944, he received a bit part as a Russian correspondent Peter Voroshevski, who again is stopped at the door and not allowed in, in The Purple Heart
The Purple Heart
The Purple Heart is a 1944 American war film directed by Lewis Milestone.It is a dramatization of the trial of a number of US airmen by the Japanese during the Second World War...
starring Dana Andrews
Dana Andrews
Dana Andrews was an American film actor. He was one of Hollywood's major stars of the 1940s, and continued acting, though generally in less prestigious roles, into the 1980s.-Early life:...
and Richard Conte
Richard Conte
Richard Conte was an American actor. He appeared in numerous films from the 1940s through 1970s, including I'll Cry Tomorrow and The Godfather.-Life and career:...
based on the captured pilots from the Doolittle Raid
Doolittle Raid
The Doolittle Raid, on 18 April 1942, was the first air raid by the United States to strike the Japanese Home Islands during World War II. By demonstrating that Japan itself was vulnerable to American air attack, it provided a vital morale boost and opportunity for U.S. retaliation after the...
over Tokyo. In the mystery Seven Doors to Death
Seven Doors to Death
Seven Doors to Death is a 1944 American film directed by Elmer Clifton.The film is also known as Vanishing Corpses .- Cast :*Chick Chandler as Jimmy McMillan*June Clyde as Mary Rawling*George Meeker as Charles Eaton...
, Gaye received a large part as Henry Gregor. Later in 1944, Gaye appeared in the spy thriller The Conspirators
The Conspirators
The Conspirators is a 1944 film directed by Jean Negulesco. It stars Hedy Lamarr and Paul Henreid.-Cast:*Hedy Lamarr as Irene Von Mohr*Paul Henreid as Vincent Van Der Lyn*Sydney Greenstreet as Ricardo Quintanilla*Peter Lorre as Jan Bernazsky...
.
In 1945, Gaye appeared in seven movies. One of them was a war drama Paris Underground
Paris Underground (film)
Paris Underground is a 1945 film directed by Gregory Ratoff and based on the book by Etta Shiber.It starred Constance Bennett and Gracie Fields as an American and an Englishwoman trapped in Paris when Nazi Germany invades in 1940, who rescue British airmen shot down in France and help them escape...
about two women trying to help downed Allied pilots escape Nazi occupied France. He also played the part of Joe Sapphire in a small crime drama Tiger Women. In another, he again plays a German banker, this time in Cornered
Cornered (film)
Cornered is a film noir starring Dick Powell and directed by Edward Dmytryk. This is the second teaming of Powell and Dmytryk .Many scenes shot by cinematographer Harry J. Wild and Dmytryk stand out as classic film noir...
starring Dick Powell
Dick Powell
Richard Ewing "Dick" Powell was an American singer, actor, producer, director and studio boss.Despite the same last name he was not related to William Powell, Eleanor Powell or Jane Powell.-Biography:...
.
After that year, the roles became scarcer. In 1946, Gaye received a role in a small mystery Passkey to Danger. The following year, Gaye played a book forger in the mystery The Trespasser
The Trespasser
The Trespasser is an American film directed and written by Edmund Goulding, starring Gloria Swanson, Robert Ames, Purnell Pratt, Henry B...
starring Dale Evens. Next he received a bit part as a Maitre d'hotel in the comedy The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer is a 1947 American screwball comedy film directed by Irving Reis. The screenplay was written by Sidney Sheldon. The film stars Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, and Shirley Temple in a story about a teenager's crush on an older man. The film was a critical success...
starring Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
.
Gaye continued to receive parts into the 1950s. He got a small role in Cargo to Capetown starring Broderick Crawford
Broderick Crawford
Broderick Crawford was an Academy Award-winning American stage, film, radio and TV actor, often cast in tough-guy roles and best known for his starring role in the television series "Highway Patrol."-Early life:...
. He also received a part in Republic's sci-fi serial Flying Disc Man from Mars
Flying Disc Man from Mars
Flying Disc Man from Mars is a Republic film serial. This is considered a weak example of the serial medium, even compared to other post-World War II serials.-Plot:...
(it was released as a feature film called Missile Monsters in 1958). Gaye appeared in the adventure film Mask of the Avenger starring Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn
Antonio Rodolfo Quinn-Oaxaca , more commonly known as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican American actor, as well as a painter and writer...
. This was followed with an appearance in the thriller Peking Express
Peking Express
Peking Express is a Dutch/Flemish reality game show that follows a series of couples as they hitchhike to or from Beijing . The series has already gone through five seasons. In The Netherlands it is screened by Net 5 and in Belgium by VT4. A German version was shown in 2004...
. Next was a part as Ali in Columbia
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
's The Magic Carpet starring Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
. In 1952, Gaye appeared as Paul Shushaldin in Raoul Walsh
Raoul Walsh
Raoul Walsh was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh...
's historical adventure The World in His Arms
The World in His Arms
The World in His Arms is a 1952 seafaring adventure film made by Universal International Pictures. It was directed by Raoul Walsh and produced byAaron Rosenberg from a screenplay by Borden Chase and Horace McCoy, based on the novel by Rex Beach...
starring Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...
and Ann Blyth
Ann Blyth
Ann Marie Blyth is an American actress and singer, often cast in Hollywood musicals, but also successful in dramatic roles. Her performance as Veda Pierce in the 1945 film Mildred Pierce was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.-Life and career:Blyth was born in Mount Kisco,...
. The following year, Gaye appeared in Savage Mutiny starring Johnny Weissmuller
Johnny Weissmuller
Johnny Weissmuller was an Austro-Hungarian-born American swimmer and actor best known for playing Tarzan in movies. Weissmuller was one of the world's best swimmers in the 1920s, winning five Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal. He won fifty-two US National Championships and set sixty-seven...
(one of two movie they appeared in together). Later, he got a small role in South Sea Woman
South Sea Woman
South Sea Woman is a 1953 action-comedy-drama film directed by Arthur Lubin and starring Burt Lancaster, Virginia Mayo and Chuck Connors.Jeanine Basinger's and Jeremy Arnold's book The World War II Combat Film – Anatomy of a Genre calls the film a significant mixture of genres:...
starring Burt Lancaster
Burt Lancaster
Burton Stephen "Burt" Lancaster was an American film actor noted for his athletic physique and distinctive smile...
and Virginia Mayo
Virginia Mayo
Virginia Mayo was an American film actress.After a short career in vaudeville, Mayo progressed to films and during the 1940s established herself as a supporting player in such films as The Best Years of Our Lives and White Heat .Mayo remained an A-list actress into the mid-'50s, but then went...
. In 1955, Gaye portrayed an ex-Nazi mad scientist who teams up with a mobster to bring dead gangsters to life by using radioactivity so the mobster can enact revenge in Columbia's "B" sci-fi horror movie Creature with the Atom Brain
Creature with the Atom Brain (1955 film)
Creature with the Atom Brain was a 1955 B-movie zombie film from Clover Productions, directed by Edward L. Cahn from a screenplay by Curt Siodmak and distributed by Columbia Pictures as the bottom half of a double bill with It Came from Beneath the Sea...
. Gaye appeared in Kelly and Me starring Van Johnson
Van Johnson
Van Johnson was an American film and television actor and dancer who was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios during and after World War II....
in 1957 and the following year as Vladimir Klinkoff in Auntie Mame
Auntie Mame
Auntie Mame is a 1955 novel by Patrick Dennis that chronicles the madcap adventures of a boy, Patrick, growing up as the ward of his deceased father's eccentric sister, Mame Dennis. The book is a work of fiction inspired by the author's eccentric aunt, Marion Tanner, whose life and outlook in many...
starring Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame...
.
In 1960, he played a casino owner named Freeman in Ocean's Eleven
Ocean's Eleven (1960 film)
Ocean's 11 is a 1960 heist film directed by Lewis Milestone and starring five Rat Packers: Peter Lawford, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Joey Bishop....
starring Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
and Sammy Davis Jr. The following year, he played Joan Blackman's father, Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
's co-star in Blue Hawaii
Blue Hawaii
Blue Hawaii is a 1961 musical film set in the state of Hawaii and starring Elvis Presley. The screenplay by Hal Kanter was nominated by the Writers Guild of America in 1962 in the category of Best Written American Musical. The movie opened at no...
.
In 1962, portrayed a salesman in Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli was an American stage director and film director, famous for directing such classic movie musicals as Meet Me in St. Louis, The Band Wagon, and An American in Paris. In addition to having directed some of the most famous and well-remembered musicals of his time, Minnelli made...
's drama The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse starring Glenn Ford, Paul Lukas and Charles Boyer. Later that year, Gaye appeared as General Erwin Rommel
Erwin Rommel
Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel , popularly known as the Desert Fox , was a German Field Marshal of World War II. He won the respect of both his own troops and the enemies he fought....
in Hitler starring Richard Basehart
Richard Basehart
John Richard Basehart was an American actor. He starred in the 1960s television science fiction drama Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, in the role of Admiral Harriman Nelson.-Career:...
in the title role. The next year, Gaye played a Russian reporter in The Prize starring Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
and Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo...
.
It would be three years before Gaye received another role. This time he had a small role portraying the Soviet U.N. ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
in Batman
Batman (1966 film)
Batman, often promoted as Batman: The Movie, is a 1966 film based on the Batman television series, and the first full-length theatrical adaptation of the DC Comics character of the same name. Released by 20th Century Fox, the film starred Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin. The film was...
in 1966. Three years after that in 1969, he received his next part, a small uncredited role in the Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
thriller Topaz
Topaz (1969 film)
Topaz is a 1969 suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is a Cold War and spy story, adapted from the book of the same name by Leon Uris and closely based on the 1962 Sapphire Affair involving French SDECE spy Philippe Thyraud de Vosjoli who "ha[d] played a considerable part in helping...
.
Gaye didn't appear in any more movies until the late 1970s. He appeared in a couple of television movies before, at age 79, he did his last movie which was the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
movie Meteor
Meteor (film)
Meteor is a 1979 science fiction Technicolor disaster film in which scientists detect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth and struggle with international, cold war politics in their efforts to prevent disaster. The movie starred Sean Connery and Natalie Wood.It was directed by Ronald Neame...
where he had a small role as the Soviet Premier in 1979.
Gaye was also in television. In 1953, he played the evil Ruler who tries to destroy the earth in the television series Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe
Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe
Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe is a science fiction television series or serial. It consists of twelve 25-minute episodes. The series was filmed and intended to be broadcast as a television limited series but, due to contract restrictions, it was originally released in theaters as a...
. Between 1954 and 1970, Gaye appeared as a guest in a number of television shows, including five guest appearances on The F.B.I.
The F.B.I.
The F.B.I. is an American television series that was broadcast on ABC from 1965 to 1974. It was sponsored by the Ford Motor Company, and the characters almost always drove Ford vehicles in the series - indeed, this was a key point of Mad magazine's July 1971 satire of the series .-Synopsis:Produced...
.
Death
Gaye died in 1993 in Studio City, California. He was cremated and his ashes are held privately. Gaye is the uncle of actor George GaynesGeorge Gaynes
George Gaynes is a Finnish-born American actor of stage, screen and television.He may be best known as Commandant Eric Lassard in the Police Academy series, and to television fans as the curmudgeonly Henry Warnimont on the NBC series Punky Brewster, in which his wife, Allyn Ann McLerie,...
who played Commandant Eric Lassard in the Police Academy movies.