Before entering the film business, Rapf worked in vaudeville putting together traveling minstrel shows.
Father of Matthew Rapf, producer Maurice Rapf.
Nicknamed the "anteater" because of his pronounced curved proboscis.
One of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)
One of the original top executives of the newly formed Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer super studio in 1924, where he would remain for the remainder of his life. Rapf held the title of Production Supervisor in addition to acting as a line producer as well as one of Irving Thalberg's inner circle of supervisors. At the end of the reign of Louis B. Mayer, Rapf remained a Mayer loyalist and an enemy of MGM head Dore Schary.