Walt Gorney, a talented character actor, was born on April 12, 1912, in Vienna, Austria, and later moved to the United States with his family at the tender age of ten.
The family settled in Massachusetts, where Gorney grew up with at least three younger siblings.
In 1946, he made the decision to relocate to an apartment in Greenwich Village, New York City, where he would go on to spend the majority of his life.
Throughout his acting career, Gorney appeared in a limited number of films, typically cast in minor roles as bums or average working-class individuals.
His unique physical appearance, which included a lean and stringy build, a gaunt face, a croaky voice, and an intense off-center screen presence, made him an ideal candidate for the role of local town eccentric and grim prophet of doom, Crazy Ralph, in the horror classic Friday the 13th (1980).
Gorney reprised his role as Crazy Ralph in Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) and provided the opening narration for Friday the 13th: The New Blood (1988).
In addition to his sparse film credits, Gorney enjoyed a long and respectable career on stage, with a membership in the theatrical group the Provincetown Players in the early 1950s.
He played the role of Juan in the world premiere of "If Five Years Pass" and portrayed the part of Allen in "The Male Animal".
Gorney also appeared in the Broadway plays "Scratch" and "Trelawny of the Wells", as well as Off-Broadway stage productions "The Misanthrope", "Measure for Measure", and "Crystal and the Fox".
Sadly, Walt Gorney passed away at the age of 91 after a long illness at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City on March 5, 2004.
