Rasey was born in
Glasgow, Montana, on August 22, 1921. He taught himself to play the trumpet as a child. He moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1937, where he began playing professionally with such band leaders as
Sonny Dunham,
Ozzie Nelson and
Alvino Rey. He reportedly turned down
MGM’s initial offer to join their
film studio orchestra because he wanted his contract to stipulate that he would not be required to work Saturdays, when he attended track meets, and that he could go on leave during the 1952 Summer
Olympics. Rasey was a first-call trumpet player for
MGM and other studio orchestras from 1949 until the early 1970s. He played trumpet for many film soundtracks, including
An American in Paris,
Ben-Hur,
Bye Bye Birdie,
Cleopatra,
Gigi,
How the West Was Won,
My Fair Lady, ''
Singin' in the Rain, Spartacus and West Side Story. One of his most memorable performances was in the film All the Fine Young Cannibals'' (1960) where he provided the music for Robert Wagner's trumpet-player character Chad Bixby. Rasey's other films included
Taxi Driver,
High Anxiety and
Pennies From Heaven. Rasey is known for his solo in composer
Jerry Goldsmith's
Oscar-nominated score for
Roman Polanski's 1974 film
Chinatown. He also played on many
scores for television and radio, and in live orchestras throughout Los Angeles. Rasey was an active
session musician and performed on many albums in the
1950s and
1960s, including those of
Frank Sinatra,
Nat King Cole,
Mel Tormé,
Doris Day,
Frankie Laine,
Judy Garland, and
the Monkees. He lived in
Southern California, where he taught privately into his old age. His pupils included
Arturo Sandoval and
Jack Sheldon. He died in Los Angeles on September 26, 2011, at the Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills Medical Center, from a heart disorder. ==Legacy==