The younger brother of director
Leo McCarey, Ray McCarey entered the film
business in the mid-'20s as a prop boy, working his way up to assistant
director, screenwriter and then director. In the early 1930s he joined
Hal Roach Studios, where he directed several Our Gang and
Stan Laurel and
Oliver Hardy comedies, then moved on to Columbia, where he helmed several of
The Three Stooges shorts. McCarey worked in all genres and many studios, from
musicals at Republic to westerns at Columbia, but most of his output
was routine and he never achieved the stature of his famous older
brother.