Birthday profile

Ray Guy (humorist)

Ray Guy, Canadian journalist and author (died 2013)

Born
April 22, 1939
Died
May 14, 2013
Zodiac sign
Taurus
Birth year
1939

About Ray Guy (humorist)

Ray Guy (22 April 1939 – 14 May 2013) was a Canadian journalist and humourist, best known for his satirical newspaper and magazine columns. He was born in Come By Chance, Newfoundland, to George Hynes Guy and Alice Louisa Adams, but was raised and schooled in Arnold's Cove, the community that was to provide fodder for many of his columns. Guy studied journalism at Ryerson Institute of Technology (now Toronto Metropolitan University). After graduation, he wrote for the St. John's Evening Telegram 1963–1974, and his columns also appeared in magazines such as Atlantic Insight, where he won the Canadian National Magazine Awards Toronto-Dominion Bank Award For Humour in 1980 and 1987, and the Newfoundland Quarterly. His output included political satire and humorous essays on Newfoundland outport life. His columns in the Evening Telegram often criticised the policies and ridiculed the excesses of Premier Joseph Smallwood, during a time where political opposition to Smallwood was ineffectual. In 1977, he received the Stephen Leacock Award for his collection That Far Greater Bay (1976). In 1979, Gordon Pinsent created Up at Ours, a half-hour CBC St. John's television series that starred Mary Walsh as the owner of a boarding house and Ray Guy as the principal boarder. In 1985, Walsh appeared in and directed a stage play written by Guy, Young Triffie's Been Made Away With, which Walsh directed as a film in 2006, promoted in some markets under the shorter title Young Triffie. Guy also appeared as a commentator on the CBC St. John's news program Here & Now. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2001. Ray Guy died of cancer on 14 May 2013. He was 74 years old.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Ray Guy (humorist) timeline

  1. In 1979, Gordon Pinsent created Up at Ours, a half-hour CBC St.
  2. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2001.

The world when Ray Guy (humorist) was born

Ray Guy (humorist) was born in 1939. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1939

  • #1 song"Over the Rainbow" – Judy Garland
  • Top movieGone with the Wind
  • Best-selling bookThe Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentLou Gehrig delivers his "Luckiest Man" farewell speech
  • Top headlineGermany invades Poland — World War II begins
  • Technology milestoneFirst regular television broadcasts in the US (NBC)
  • Defining fadThe Wizard of Oz mania
  • Notable inventionNylon stockings
  • World population2.30 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
  • Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
  • U.S. population130.9M

1939 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Ray Guy (humorist)'s birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19392026
Gas$0.19$3.45/gal
Average home$5,200$435,000
Average income$2,900$67,500
Minimum wage$0.30$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.25$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population130.9M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.