Fay Wray

September 15, 1907 - August 8, 2004

Born Vina Fay Wray in Cardston, Alberta, Canada

Visit Steve Hill's astonishing Fay Wray Pages!

See Internet Movie Database Filmography

A Lot of Favorite Memories of Fay Wray

• As "Mitzi Schrammell" in the silent classic The Wedding March (1928), starring and directed by Erich Von Stroheim.
  
  
• As "Ritzy" the moll in the early death-row sound film Thunderbolt (1929), directed by Josef Von Sternberg. Starring George Bancroft as the tough title character, with Richard Arlen and Tully Marshall.
  
  
• As "Ethne Eustace" in the part-sound (musical score and sound effects) version of the perennial classic British military adventure The Four Feathers (1929), directed by Lothar Menzies and the team of Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, four years before they produced and directed King Kong. With Richard Arlen, Clive Brook, William Powell, Theodore von Eltz, Noah Beery, Zack Williams and Noble Johnson.
  
  
• As "Helen Pierce," wife of the aviator hero in the South-Polar expedition adventure Dirigible (1931), directed by Frank Capra. Starring Jack Holt (airship commander) and Ralph Graves (flyer), with Hobart Bosworth, Roscoe Karns, Clarence Muse, Emmett Corrigan and, possibly, Boris Karloff (unconfirmed as a member of the expedition team).
  
  
• As "Joanne 'Joan' Xavier," heroine of the early Warner Bros. two-color-technicolor horror about a hideous and mysterious serial "Moon Killer," Doctor X (1932). Directed by Michael Curtiz, with a strong cast of suspicious characters including Lionel Atwill, Lee Tracy, Preston Foster, John Wray, Harry Beresford, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Robert Warwick, Willard Robertson and Thomas E. Jackson.
  
  
• As "Eve Trowbridge," tantalizing prey of a crazed hunter of men (and women) in The Most Dangerous Game (1932), based on the story by Richard Connell. Directed by Irving Pichel and Ernest B. Schoedsack (just before King Kong), and starring Leslie Banks (as cruel Count Zaroff) and Joel McCrea, with Robert Armstrong, Noble Johnson and Steve Clemente, with a possible bit (unconfirmed) by Lon Chaney Jr. Thrilling score by Max Steiner, warming up for even bigger thrills.
  
  
• As "Ruth Bertin" in the poverty row thriller The Vampire Bat (1933), directed by Frank Strayer. The high-calibre cast includes Lionel Atwill, Melvyn Douglas, Maude Eburne, George E. Stone, Dwight Frye (as village idiot Herman Gleib), Robert Frazer, Lionel Belmore, William V. Mong and Fern Emmett.
  
  
• As "Charlotte Duncan," screaming appropriately in the classic Warner Bros. two-color technicolor thriller, Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), directed by Michael Curtiz. Starring Lionel Atwill as the mad wax sculptor Ivan Igor, Glenda Farrell, Frank McHugh. Edwin Maxwell, Holmes Herbert, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Thomas E. Jackson, Matthew Betz, Otto Hoffman, Perry Ivins, Edward Keane and Guy Usher. Nicely remade in 3-D in 1953 as House of Wax, starring Vincent Price as the grotesquely scarred scuptor.
  
  
• Earning her cinematic immortality as the plucky heroine "Ann Darrow" in RKO's fabulous fantasy-adventure King Kong (1933), one of the greatest movies ever made. Directed and produced by Ernest B. Schoedsack and Merian C. Cooper (with David O. Selznick as executive producer). Brilliant stop-motion animation by Willis O'Brien, a legendary score by Max Steiner, and superb production values on every level. Strong support from an unbeatable cast including Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot, Frank Reicher, Sam Hardy, Steve Clemente, James Flavin, Roscoe Ates, Reginald Barlow, producers Cooper and Schoedsack (flying the plane that kills Kong), Dick Curtis, LeRoy Mason, Carlotta Monti, Gil Perkins, Madame Sul-Te-Wan, Jim Thorpe and Victor Wong.
  
  
• As "Teresa" in the romanticized biography of Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, Viva Villa! (1934), directed by Jack Conway (with uncredited assistance from Howard Hawks and William Wellman). Starring Wallace Beery, with a magnifico cast of familiar faces including Leo Carrillo, Donald Cook, Stuart Erwin, Henry B. Walthall, Joseph Schildkraut, Katherine DeMille, George E. Stone, Frank Puglia, Henry Armetta, Mischa Auer, Steve Clemente, Harry Cording, John Davidson, Nigel De Brulier, Brandon Hurst, Francis McDonald, Leonard Mudie and Tom Ricketts.
  
  
• As "Gail Hamilton" in the jungle horror Black Moon (1934), directed by Roy William Neill. With Jack Holt, Dorothy Burgess, Cora Sue Collins, Arnold Korff, Clarence Muse, Madame Sul-Te-Wan, Laurence Criner, Lumsden Hare, Henry Kolker and Robert Frazier.
  
  
• As "Rene," in a thriller about a music-hall mentalist who discovers he has frightening clairvoyant powers, The Evil Mind, (1934; original UK title: The Clairvoyant), directed by Maurice Elvey. Starring Claude Rains, with Mary Clare, Ben Field, Jane Baxter and Athole Stewart.
  
  
• As "Edna Devanal" in the psychiatric drama The Cobweb (1955), directed by Vincent Minelli. With a dream cast including Richard Widmark, Lauren Bacall, Charles Boyer, Gloria Grahame, Lillian Gish, John Kerr , Susan Strasberg, Oscar Levant, Tommy Rettig, Paul Stewart, Adele Jergens, Bert Freed, Oliver Blake, Olive Carey, Virginia Christine and Roy Barcroft.
  
  
• As "Beth Daley" in the juvenile delinquency drama Rock, Pretty Baby (1956), directed by Richard Bartlett. With Sal Mineo, John Saxon, Luana Patten, Edward Platt, Rod McKuen, Douglas Fowley and Shelley Fabares.
  
  
• In two half-hour episodes of the long-running TV mystery-horror anthology series Alfred Hitchcock Presents, hosted by Hitchcock:
  
  
  • As "Mrs. Renshaw" in "A Dip in the Pool" (June 1, 1958), based on a story by Roald Dahl, and directed by Alfred Hitchcock!
    
    
  • As "Mrs. Nelson" in "The Morning After" (January 11, 1959)
  
  
• In three episodes of the long-running TV courtroom series Perry Mason, based on characters created by Erle Stanley Gardner:
  
  
  • As "Ethel Harrison" in "The Case of the Prodigal Parent" (June 7, 1958)
    
    
  • As "Lorna Thomas" in "The Case of the Watery Witness" (October 10, 1959)
    
    
  • As "Mignon Germaine" in "The Case of the Fatal Fetish" (March 4, 1965)
  
  
• As "Mrs. Martin," hassled mother of a teenager (or is that redundant) in the hot rod drama Dragstrip Riot (1958), directed by David Bradley. With Yvonne Lime, Gary Clarke, Bob Turnbull, Connie Stevens and Carolyn Mitchell.
  
  
• As "Clara" in the "Who Killed Cock Robin?" episode of the Warner Bros. TV private-eye series 77 Sunset Strip (February 5, 1960).
  
  
• As "Amelia Goodwin" in "The Bequest of Arthur Goodwin" episode of the the Warner Bros. TV private-eye series Hawaiian Eye (March 9, 1960).
  
  
• As "Edna Curtis," landlady of a beleaguered convict fighting for his right to free legal counsel in the excellent "Hallmark Hall of Fame" television production Gideon's Trumpet (1980). Starring Henry Fonda in one of his last and finest performances, with José Ferrer, John Houseman, Sam Jaffe, Dean Jagger and Ford Rainey.

Last revised May 9 2021 by George "E-gor" Chastain.

Maintained by George "E-gor" Chastain (e-mail: egorschamber@gmail.com)