Allene Ray

Allene Ray (born Allene Ray Burch; January 2, 1901 – May 5, 1979) was an American film actress.

Early years Born in Devine, Texas, Ray grew up on her father's ranch with her four sisters and two brothers. She was learning to ride by age 3, and by age 20 she had become "an accomplished horsewoman." The Miller-Ray partnership ended abruptly in 1929, when the new talking-picture technology revealed that Ray's high, piping voice didn't fit her adventurous screen personality.

Allene Ray did make a few talking pictures, playing undemanding ingenue roles in only five more films: the first talking B-Western feature Overland Bound (1929), the first talking Western serial The Indians Are Coming (1930), Westward Bound (1930), Gun Cargo (filmed in 1930, unreleased until 1949), and The Phantom (1931).

Personal life On July 20, 1925, Ray married film producer Larry Wheeler in Tijuana, Mexico. After she left the film business in 1931, Ray worked as a seamstress and a fitter in Temple City, California, after which she enrolled in a real-estate school and passed a test to become a broker. She worked with her husband, who had also left motion pictures for a career in real estate.

In 1940, they moved to Temple City, California, and remained married until his death in 1958. She continued as a realtor until she retired in 1965. She died from cancer in 1979, aged 78, in Temple City.

Partial filmography

Your Friend and Mine (1923) Times Have Changed (1923) The Way of a Man (1924) The Fortieth Door (1924) Ten Scars Make a Man (1924) Galloping Hoofs (1924) Sunken Silver (1925) Play Ball (1925) The Green Archer (1925) Snowed In (1926) The House Without a Key (1926) Melting Millions (1927) Hawk of the Hills (1927) The Man Without a Face (1928) The Yellow Cameo (1928) The Terrible People (1928) Overland Bound (1929) The Black Book (1929) The Indians Are Coming (1930) Westward Bound (1930) The Phantom (1931)