Bill Ray

In 1964 he joined the Life magazine staff working out of the Beverly Hills bureau. Here he covered top movie stars, including Natalie Wood and Ingrid Bergman, as well as the Alaska earthquake, the richest man in Japan, and the Vietnam War, with many cover stories. From the Paris bureaus in 1968 to 1971, he covered everything from Paris fashion to Jackie Kennedy's wedding to Aristotle Onassis, travel in Turkey, and wildlife in Ethiopia. After Life ceased weekly publication in 1972, Ray photographed many patent models for a book The Art of Invention; and his photographs appeared in numerous major publications, including Smithsonian Magazine, Archeology, and Fortune. Ray has also photographed 46 covers for Newsweek. His first pictures appeared in Life magazine in 1958, and he became a staff photographer in 1964. During this time he covered a group of disgruntled Detroit families who drove to Alaska to homestead, known as the 59ers, the national visit of Nikita Kruschev, Elvis Presley leaving for Germany, Marilyn Monroe singing "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy, and countless celebrities of the times.