Raynor was a man of many talents. He studied Public Relations at Boston University, music and chant at the New England
Conservatory, ballet at the Boston Conservatory, acting at Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio in New York City, and he was even a
trained clown.
His favorite profession was that of an opera tenor, but he was also a theater actor, and played in a lot of films, both operatic
and not – notably small roles in Stanley Kubrick's Paths of glory (1957) and John Hough's Brass target (1978).
Small roles were also his usual fare in opera, although he sang Énée at Covent Garden, Cavaradossi in Boston, or Loge,
Siegmund, Siegfried and Bacchus in San Francisco. Typically, though, he would impersonate roles like Junker Spärlich (Die
lustigen Weiber von Windsor), Kedril (Z mrtvého domu), Bardolfo or Spalanzani.
For many years, he lived in Salzburg and then in Munich, where he taught voice, body language and improvisation at the Academy of
Music. Other than that, he performed as
Clown "Rusty" for more than 20 years, and was busy as a stage director in opera, drama, musical, or managed summer festivals in
Germany.
Later on, he returned to the United States to become a professor at the Hartford Music Conservatory. In his old age, he suffered
from Parkinson's disease.
Reference and picture source
