✎ About Bill Raisch

Bill Raisch was born on April 19, 2005 in North Bergen, New Jersey, United States, is Actor. Raisch was born of German immigrant parents in New Jersey in 1905. After graduating from high school, Raisch took a job at a construction site hauling cement. When he wasn't working, he lifted weights at Sig Klein's Gym in New York City. Raisch was noticed by a society girl looking for a dancing partner and he escorted her to various parties as her date and dancing partner. Raisch came to the attention of Marilyn Miller the star of Ziegfield Follies. She introduced him to Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., who signed Raisch up for his dance troupe. In the late 1920s Raisch danced for Ziegfield at the New Amsterdam Roof Theater where he got to work with Maurice Chevalier making his first American stage appearance and he also appeared in the stage musical "Whoopee" starring Eddie Cantor. While he was dancing in New York, Raisch, coming home from work one evening, was attacked by five muggers on the street. Although he was worked over, Raisch took them on and beat them all up single-handedly. The next day, a newspaper ran a picture of Raisch with the headline, "Don't Say Dancers Are Sissies". While still in New York, Raisch met and married his wife, Ziegfeld dancer Adele Smith. During World War II, Raisch served in the U.S. Navy where he was badly wounded in early 1945 fighting a shipboard fire in which he was so badly burned he lost his right arm. With his stage career over, Raisch moved to Los Angeles in 1946 where Ben Hecht had a part for him in the movie Specter of the Rose (1946). In 1952, Raisch became a stand-in for Burt Lancaster where he appeared as a double for the famous actor and later appeared as a one-armed man in Lonely Are the Brave (1962). Here Raisch was noticed and offered the recurring role on the TV Series The Fugitive (1963) - Fred Johnson, the One-Armed Man, which David Janssen's character Dr. Richard Kimble hounds throughout the series. However, Raisch was hired just for his looks, not his acting ability. His very first speaking role was mainly limited to a handful of episodes with short lines and speeches. Because of the show's popularity, Raisch was so recognizable as the One-Armed Man that it was almost impossible for him to get work on other shows. So, producer Quinn Martin put Raisch on a retainer, giving him a degree of security. After "The Fugitive" series ended in 1967, Raisch, fed up with typecast TV and movie offers, rarely worked, although his popularity of the One-Armed Man never diminished. Bill Raisch died from lung cancer in a hospital in Santa Monica in July 1984 at the age of 79.
Bill Raisch is a member of Actor

💰 Net worth: Under Review

Some Bill Raisch images

Biography/Timeline

1930

A Dancer who worked for Ziegfeld Follies in the 1930s, he lost his right arm while serving in World War II. He played bit parts in several movies including a 1953 appearance in the ending of The War Of The Worlds where he is in a crowd scene after the first martian machine crashes. His most memorable film role was in a famous fight scene with Kirk Douglas in Lonely are the Brave (1962). Raisch's best remembered role, however, was in the 1963–1967 TV series The Fugitive, in which he played "The One-Armed Man" (who frequently went by the alias Fred Johnson) who was the real killer of the wife of Dr. Richard Kimble, played by David Janssen.

1984

After The Fugitive ended, Raisch was scarcely seen on TV or the media again as he focused on his career as an acting Teacher. He died of lung cancer in 1984 in Santa Monica, California, at age 79.

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1905 births 1984 deaths American amputees American people of German descent American male television actors Deaths from cancer in California Deaths from lung cancer People from North Bergen, New Jersey United States Navy sailors Burials at Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery, Santa Monica 20th-century American male actors