SEP: Did you get along with Patricia Neal?īG: Over the years, they awarded Robert Wise for his accomplishments. I don’t know if he made a move on her, but I did notice he gave her an awful lot of attention. He was forever getting her a chair or coffee. Kid actors had to have a parent or guardian on set all the time. I remember he was very solicitous to my mother. There was nothing untoward about him at all. SEP: What was it like to work with Michael Rennie (Klaatu)?īG: He was an established professional and he acted that way. That movie doesn’t work as well as it does if the audience doesn’t buy your friendship with and humanizing effect on Klaatu. SEP: Unlike your role in The Day the Earth Stood Still. She was in a situation where she yelled, ‘Fire.’ My part was being an obnoxious little kid, which was very easy for me. SEP: What was your favorite acting experience to that time?īG: Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff. Being on movie sets, you get used to peculiar things peculiar is kind of regular. I didn’t have a particular fascination with science fiction. That had to be a dream film for a 13-year-old.īG: It really wasn’t. SEP: The Day the Earth Stood Still has a spaceman, an indestructible robot and flying saucer. We ran into each other on a regular basis. Gary Gray, who was no relation, was a year older than me. They were cattle calls and everybody would show up in their cowboy outfits or whatever. SEP: Were there any child stars you were up against for the role?īG: You did see the same people over and over again at auditions. Robert Wise made the call and I started work. I don’t think we did any testing on that one. SEP: Do you consider Day the Earth Stood Still your big break? Do you remember anything about the audition?īG: It was the biggest part that I had to that time period, but it was just another interview. When I got to the point where I got lines to read, the only acting instruction I ever got was not to be ‘ready,’ as in ‘don’t sound like you’re reading.’ That was good advice. In the early days, they were all bit roles. Illustration of Bobby and Klaatu on the cover of Filmfax magazine (courtesy Michael Stein, Filmfax, illustration by Harley Brown)īG: At five, I was up for pretty much anything. Bob Steele was a little guy and she was five-foot-three, so they matched up quite well. She got parts in westerns opposite Johnny Mack Brown, Bob Steele and Hoot Gibson. She was a dancer and was in Broadway plays. My mom said sure.īG: My mother was Beatrice Gray. We all got together and she said she could probably get me some work. SEP: Yours is the typical Hollywood discovery story: You were spotted by a talent agent as a young boy running up and down the aisles of a theater.īG: The agent was my mother’s agent. Saturday Evening Post: Can you believe Day the Earth Stood Still is 70-years-old?īilly Gray: (Laughs) The numbers go right over my head. To them, he told The Saturday Evening Post, it was just another job. Hoberman wrote in The New York Times in 2008, the year in which an ill-received remake starring Keanu Reeves was released.īut according to Gray, the actors could not anticipate the film would become a classic. Thanks to television broadcasts, it was “the best-loved science fiction film of the cold war era,” J. In 1995, it was inducted into the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry of America’s most “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” films. ( Wikimedia Commons / ABC Television)ĭirector Wise’s beloved sci-fi classic has been ranked among the top 10 greatest sci-films of the 20 th century by the American Film Institute. Requests for autographs, he says are “50/50” between Still and Best fans. Gray is also known for portraying Bud for six seasons (and reunion made-for-TV movies) on the iconic TV series Father Knows Best. Gray, 83, is the co-owner of BigRock Manufacturing, creators of and innovative guitar accessories. Klaatu will entrust to her his secret, as well as the three words that are sci-fi 101: “Klaatu barada nikto.” The scene from The Day the Earth Stood Still where Gort appears (uploaded to YouTube by Movieclips)īilly Gray was 13 years old when he was cast as Bobby, who unwittingly befriends Klaatu, hiding out from authorities in the boarding house where Bobby lives with his single mother (Patricia Neal).
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