Ray Enright, born in Anderson, Indiana, came to Los Angeles with his family at the age of five. He attended Los Angeles High School and in 1913 started motion picture work as an assistant cutter at the Mack Sennett studio. He served in World War I as a member of the Signal Corps. After the war he returned to Hollywood and joined Thomas H. Ince as a cutter. In 1926 he started work for Warner Brothers as a cutter and two years later was made a director. The first film he directed was Tracked by the Police (1927), starring Rin Tin Tin.