- Born
- Died
- Birth nameAlexander Gillespie Raymond
- Alexander Gillespie Raymond was born on October 2, 1909 in New Rochelle, New York, to Beatrice Wallazz (Crossley) and Alexander Gillespie Raymond, a civil engineer and road builder, who encouraged his drawing from an early age. His sister, Beatrice, was the paternal grandmother of actors Matt Dillon and Kevin Dillon. He was of Irish, Scottish, and German descent.
Raymond studied art and illustration at the Grand Central School of Art in New York City. In the 1930s, he began a series of illustrating jobs "ghosting" such comic strips as "Tillie the Toiler" and "Blondie". In 1933, Raymond and writer Don Moore were asked to develop a comic strip to compete with the popular character "Buck Rogers". Their creation, "Flash Gordon", was an immediate success, spawning a number of Saturday morning serials, television series and feature films.
Raymond also created a strip with mystery writer Dashiell Hammett, "Secret Agent X-9", and worked on both strips simultaneously. During this period, Raymond's style improved dramatically, and his work was very influential on such future artists as Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson and Wayne Boring. Raymond left both strips in 1944, when he joined the United States Marine Corps. He served in the Pacific theatre during World War II, and left the Marines in 1946, with the rank of Major. After the war, Raymond developed one more comic strip, "Rip Kirby", about a detective/scientist. On September 6, 1956, Alex Raymond died at age 46 in an automobile accident in Westport, Conneticut.
- IMDb mini biography by: Mike Konczewski
- SpouseHelen Frances Williams(December 31, 1930 - September 6, 1956) (his death, 5 children)
- Best known for creating the science fiction adventure comic strip "Flash Gordon" for King Features Syndicate in 1934.
- Posthumously inducted into the Will Eisner Comics Hall of Fame (1996) and the Society Illustrators Hall of Fame (2014).
- Following his untimely demise, he was interred at St. John's Roman Catholic Cemetery in Darien, Fairfield County, Connecticut.
- Perished in a road accident on September 6, 1956, one month from what would have been his 47th birthday on October 2, 1956.
- I decided honestly that comic art is an art form in itself. It reflects the life and times more accurately and actually is more artistic than magazine illustration -- since it is entirely creative. An illustrator works with camera and models; a comic artist begins with a white sheet of paper and dreams up his own business -- he is playwright, director, editor, and artist at once.
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