AKA Vina Fay Wray

Born: 15-Sep-1907
Birthplace: Cardston, Alberta, Canada
Died: 8-Aug-2004
Location of death: Manhattan, NY
Cause of death: unspecified
Remains: Buried, Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood, CA

Gender: Female
Religion: Mormon
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: King Kong

Fay Wray was born in Canada but raised in Arizona, then Utah, then Los Angeles. At 15 she landed a small role in her first movie, Gasoline Love (1923). Her big break was the female lead in the silent classic The Wedding March (1928), co-starring with early auteur Erich von Stroheim.

As Wray tells the story, she was offered a role opposite "the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood", and she hoped it was Clark Gable, but instead it was King Kong (1933). She played the giant gorilla's love interest, Ann Darrow. It was her most famous role, and made hers Hollywood's most famous scream for decades.

Wray retired from films in the 1940s, returning in the '50s to make not-so-classics like Tammy and the Bachelor (1957). Her last acting was a supporting role in Henry Fonda's 1980 TV movie, Gideon's Trumpet. In recent decades, she's written an autobiography, On the Other Hand, and a play, The Meadowlark.

Husband: John Monk Saunders (writer, m. 1928, div. 1939)
Husband: Robert Riskin (writer, m. 1942, d. 1955)
Husband: Sandy Rothenberg (neurosurgeon, m. 1960s, d. 1990s)

    High School: Hollywood High School, Hollywood, CA

    Canada's Walk of Fame 2005

    FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
    Broadway: The Golden Age (Apr-2003) · Herself
    Universal Horror (8-Oct-1998) · Herself
    Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's (Oct-1997) · Herself
    Gideon's Trumpet (30-Apr-1980)
    Summer Love (10-Mar-1958)
    Dragstrip Riot (Mar-1958)
    Tammy and the Bachelor (14-Jun-1957)
    Crime of Passion (9-Jan-1957)
    Rock, Pretty Baby (Dec-1956)
    Queen Bee (7-Nov-1955) · Sue McKinnon
    The Cobweb (7-Jun-1955)
    Hell on Frisco Bay (1955)
    Small Town Girl (10-Apr-1953)
    Treasure of the Golden Condor (4-Feb-1953)
    Adam Had Four Sons (27-Mar-1941)
    Melody for Three (1941)
    It Happened in Hollywood (7-Sep-1937)
    When Knights Were Bold (19-Feb-1936)
    Alias Bulldog Drummond (Apr-1935) · Ann Manders
    Woman in the Dark (9-Nov-1934)
    The Richest Girl in the World (21-Sep-1934)
    Black Moon (15-Jun-1934)
    The Affairs of Cellini (5-May-1934)
    Viva Villa! (10-Apr-1934) · Teresa
    The Clairvoyant (1934) · Rene
    The Bowery (7-Oct-1933) · Lucy Calhoun
    One Sunday Afternoon (1-Sep-1933) · Virginia Brush Barnstead
    Shanghai Madness (4-Aug-1933)
    Ann Carver's Profession (9-Jun-1933)
    King Kong (2-Mar-1933) · Ann Darrow
    Mystery of the Wax Museum (17-Feb-1933)
    The Vampire Bat (10-Jan-1933)
    The Most Dangerous Game (9-Sep-1932) · Eve Trowbridge
    Doctor X (3-Aug-1932)
    The Unholy Garden (28-Oct-1931)
    The Finger Points (11-Apr-1931) · Marcia Collins
    Dirigible (4-Apr-1931)
    The Texan (10-May-1930)
    Paramount on Parade (22-Apr-1930)
    Behind the Make-Up (11-Jan-1930)
    Thunderbolt (20-Jun-1929)
    The Four Feathers (Jun-1929)
    The Wedding March (6-Oct-1928)
    The Legion of the Condemned (10-Mar-1928)

Do you know something we don't?
Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile

Copyright ©2012 Soylent Communications