Ray Etheridge's life began in Los Angeles, but his childhood took a dramatic turn when his parents moved to a small rural town in Oregon when he was in the sixth grade. The family purchased an old "General Store" which would become a hub for Ray's entrepreneurial spirit. To earn money, Ray helped neighbors with farm chores, and by the time he was 14, he had saved enough to open a 16mm mini-theatre in a room above the store, complete with a projection booth and real theatre seats. His mother's gift of an 8mm camera from Sears sparked his passion for filmmaking, and he soon upgraded to a 16mm Bolex camera.
Ray's academic pursuits took him to the University of Oregon for a year, before he graduated from the Southern California Film Institute. He began his career in the film industry working in sales and distribution for companies like Universal Pictures, Cinema National, and Filmtreat International. However, he soon discovered that his true calling was in creating movies, rather than selling them.
A twist of fate led Ray to land a job cutting news film for the ABC station in Portland, Oregon, KATU, where he worked his way up from editor to cameraman, a position he held for 12 years. In 1985, Ray went freelance, purchasing camera gear and following available work to television stations in Colorado, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee, and California, as well as a bureau in Honduras.
In 1988, Ray returned to Los Angeles, where he worked extensively with the Telemundo Network and KWHY-TV, serving as Director of Photography on numerous programs and commercials. During this period, he produced five direct-to-video productions under his own Golden West Films banner. Telemundo then brought Ray to Miami in 1996 to shoot "Edicion Especial", an entertainment program that took him to exotic locations throughout the Caribbean, central, and south America.
Ray's next assignment was as Chief Photographer for the new show "Esta Manana" on Telemundo. In recent years, he has been freelancing, working on music videos, commercials, industrials, and TV programs. Ray has been a member of the International Cinematographers Guild since 1975 and the National Press Photographers Association since 1998.
