Ray Ray
USA- Childhood and Early Life
- A Multifaceted Career
- Acting
- Directing, Writing, and Producing
- Accolades and Recognition
- Personal Life
- His height is 6 feet 2 inches (187 cm).
Childhood and Early Life
Raymond Wilkes McKinnon was born on November 15, 1957, to Dorothy and Raymond McKinnon in Adel, Georgia, USA. His father was a car dealer. His mother may have passed on her love of the stage to him, having performed in shows that toured the East Coast in her youth. Young Ray showed little interest in theater, with his mother recalling in an interview that he was "more interested in sports: tennis, basketball, baseball." He enjoyed riding around the backroads in his 1973 Plymouth Duster. Even while studying theater at Valdosta State University, McKinnon considered a career in journalism to hone his writing skills.
A Multifaceted Career
After graduating in 1981, McKinnon moved to Atlanta, working as a night clerk in a hotel while auditioning for roles in plays.
Acting
Ray McKinnon's filmography includes over 90 film and television roles, with many also crediting him as director and writer. His first credited role came as a minor police officer in the 1989 film Driving Miss Daisy. After its release, he secured an agent who encouraged him to move to Hollywood. He took his carpet-cleaning equipment on the drive to California, initially using it to support himself.
McKinnon's characters are often unconventional and memorable, such as Lincoln Potter in the critically acclaimed Sons of Anarchy or Reverend H.W. Smith in HBO's award-winning western Deadwood. He has also appeared in notable television shows like NYPD Blue, The X-Files, Matlock, and Designing Women. His big-screen credits include roles in A Perfect World, Mud, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Bugsy, Apollo 13, and Ford v Ferrari. In 2017, he appeared in two episodes of the AMC horror drama Fear the Walking Dead as Proctor John, and in 2019, he played Wayne McCullough Sr. in the comedy series Wayne.
Directing, Writing, and Producing
Beyond his prolific work in front of the camera, McKinnon has had notable achievements as a writer, director, and producer. His directorial debut, The Accountant (2002), which he also wrote and starred in, won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.
McKinnon's feature film Crystal, starring Lisa Blount and Billy Bob Thornton, was selected for the Dramatic Competition at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in 2004.
Together with his wife and actor Walton Goggins, he founded the independent production company Ginny Mule Pictures.
Accolades and Recognition
Throughout his career, Ray McKinnon has been nominated for and won numerous prestigious awards and festival honors. The Accountant, in addition to its Oscar, received awards from the Austin Film Festival and Atlanta Film Festival in 2002, and the Washington DC Independent Film Festival in 2022. The film Randy and the Mob, featuring McKinnon, earned honors at the Nashville Film Festival in 2007. He received an Independent Spirit Award in 2014 for Best Ensemble Cast in the film Mud.
In 2015, McKinnon's television drama Rectify was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award. The protagonist Enniel Holden's search for meaning reflected McKinnon's own life journey.
"I'm just trying to figure out why I'm on this planet and why bad things happen to good people," McKinnon said in an interview with Bloomberg.
Personal Life
McKinnon was married to Lisa Blount, an American actress and producer, from 1998 until her death in 2010. Blount was involved in her husband's creative projects, serving as executive producer on The Accountant. She suffered from a rare blood disorder for many years and underwent several surgeries. Her sudden death from the illness prompted Ray to leave a film shoot in Atlanta and return home immediately. The actor now resides in Little Rock, Arkansas. Details of his personal life are kept private, and he is rarely photographed for tabloids.
His height is 6 feet 2 inches (187 cm).
Present DayOn March 28, 2024, the thriller Hired Gun: The Last Ride, directed by Michael Keaton, premiered in Russia. Keaton plays the lead role of John Knox, a professional hitman diagnosed with a rapidly progressing, terminal form of dementia. Ray McKinnon appears in a supporting role as Thomas Munsey, Knox's sidekick.
