When it was discovered that Ann Willis Ratray could not save herself from the illnesses that had befallen her in previous years, her dedicated acting student, who was prevented from visiting the COVID-19 pandemic, asked what they could do.
“Write it down,” said his son Luke. That’s what they did with a flood of emotional letters honoring him for launching their careers and inspiring their lives.
“Thank you for teaching me to move,” wrote one young star. “I love you forever.”
Her husband, actor Peter Ratray, sat on the edge of her bed and read aloud to her the many tributes of her last days.
“She changed the course of many lives,” she said in announcing Ann’s death on June 9 at her New York City home with her family and friends around her. He is 81 years old.
Born in Cranston, Rhode Island, on November 14, 1939, Ann Louise Willis was the daughter of a commercial actress, George C. Willis, and his wife, Evelyn. He has seven siblings and the family has financial problems.
She found her way out of poverty when she was named Miss Rhode Island in 1958 and attended the Miss America pageant. She won the title of Miss Congeniality and used her award money to study, first at the Rhode Island School of Design and then at the prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.
Acting was her calling, and her first lead role in 1964 took her to the Allenbury Playhouse in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where she collaborated on “Separate Rooms” opposite the handsome actor who would become her husband. Peter Ratray and I would have celebrated their 55th anniversary this week.
In 1968, he appeared on Broadway with Angela Lansbury in the popular musical “Mame.” The tour company took him to San Francisco and Los Angeles. At the end of the degree, they and Peter decided to try their luck in Hollywood, where they spent the next nine years working in television and theater and making many friends. There they welcomed two sons: Luke, who happens to be a good photographer, and Devin, a well-known actor.
While in Los Angeles, the Ratrays screened the movie “Last Train to Hollywood” with singers Jeannette McDonald and Nelson Eddy.
In 1975, with the boy Luke, they traveled the country for 10 months with Tab Hunter in the comedy “Here Lies Jeremy Troy.”
Two years later, when Peter Ratray won a famous role in the daytime television drama “Another World,” the family returned to New York, where they would stay. In 1981, Ann Ratray returned to Broadway with a revival of George Candard Shaw’s “Candida” with Joanne Woodward.
The point changed in 1990 when his son Devin played Buzz, Macaulay Culkin’s brother, in the movie “Home Alone.” As Devin’s acting coach, Ratray saw his next run. She stands out as the most sought-after young artist theater teacher in New York and has inspired a generation of students who have earned fame and accolades. Casting directors seek you out for new talent.
His students include Merritt Wever, who won Emmy Awards for “Nurse Jackie” and “Godless”; YaYa DaCosta (“Chicago Med”); Kaitlyn Nichol (“Black”); and David Alvarez, who can be seen in Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” along with another Ratray student, Corey Stoll, who has appeared on various television shows and played Ernest Hemingway on “Midnight in Paris.” by Woody Allen.
In her first start, Ratray was a consultant in 2003 on the Broadway play “Bobbi Boland” with Farrah Fawcett, speaking with an elderly Miss America.
Ratray is survived by her husband, her two children, her sister Sue Zoglio, brothers David Willis and Douglas Willis, and a grandson, Riley Ratray.
Deutsch is a retired Associated Press writer and Times special writer.
–
