Fay Wray

Fay Wray
1942 studio publicity portrait
Born	Vina Fay Wray (1907-09-15)September 15, 1907 Cardston, Alberta, Canada
Died	August 8, 2004(2004-08-08) (aged 96) New York City, U.S.
Resting place	Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1923–1980
Spouses	John Monk Saunders ​ ​ (m. 1928; div. 1939)​ Robert Riskin ​ ​ (m. 1942; died 1955)​ Sanford Rothenberg ​ ​ (m. 1971; died 1991)​
Children	3, including Victoria Riskin

Vina Fay Wray (September 15, 1907 – August 8, 2004) was a Canadian-American actress best known for starring as Ann Darrow in the 1933 film King Kong. Through an acting career that spanned nearly six decades, Wray attained international recognition as an actress in horror films. She has been dubbed ^{[by whom?]} one of the early "scream queens". ^{[citation needed]}

After appearing in minor film roles, Wray gained media attention after being selected as one of the "WAMPAS Baby Stars" in 1926. This led to her being contracted to Paramount Pictures as a teenager, where she made more than a dozen feature films. After leaving Paramount, she signed deals with various film companies, being cast in her first horror film roles, in addition to many other types of roles, including in The Bowery (1933) and Viva Villa! (1934), both of which starred Wallace Beery. For RKO Radio Pictures, Inc., Wray starred in the film she is most identified with, King Kong (1933). After the success of King Kong, she made numerous appearances in both film and television, retiring in 1980.

Wray was born on a ranch near Cardston, Alberta, to parents who were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elvina Marguerite Jones, who was from Salt Lake City, Utah, and Joseph Heber Wray, who was from Kingston upon Hull, England.^[1] She was one of six children^[2] and was a granddaughter of LDS pioneer Daniel Webster Jones. Her ancestors came from England, Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Wales.^{[citation needed]}

Her family returned to the United States a few years after she was born; they moved to Salt Lake City in 1912^[3] and moved to Lark, Utah, in 1914. In 1919, the Wray family returned to Salt Lake City, and then relocated to Hollywood, where Fay attended Hollywood High School.^{[citation needed]}

In 1923, Wray appeared in her first film at the age of 16, when she landed a role in a short historical film sponsored by a local newspaper.^[4] In the 1920s, Wray appeared in the silent film The Coast Patrol (1925), as well as uncredited bit parts at the Hal Roach Studios.

In 1926, the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers selected Wray as one of the "WAMPAS Baby Stars", a group of women whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom. She was at the time under contract to Universal Studios, mostly co-starring in low-budget Westerns opposite Buck Jones.^{[citation needed]}

The following year, Wray was signed to a contract with Paramount Pictures. In 1926, director Erich von Stroheim cast her as the main female lead in his film The Wedding March, released by Paramount two years later. While the film was noted for its high budget and production values, it was a financial failure. It also gave Wray her first lead role. Wray stayed with Paramount to make more than a dozen films and made the transition from silent films to "talkies".^[5]

After leaving Paramount, Wray signed with other film studios. Under these deals, Wray was cast in several horror films, including Doctor X (1932) and Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933). However, her best known films were produced under her deal with RKO Radio Pictures. Her first film with RKO was The Most Dangerous Game (1932), co-starring Joel McCrea. The production was filmed at night on the same jungle sets that were being used for King Kong during the day, and with Wray and Robert Armstrong starring in both movies.^{[citation needed]}

The Most Dangerous Game was followed by the release of Wray's best remembered film, King Kong. According to Wray, Jean Harlow had been RKO's original choice, but because MGM put Harlow under exclusive contract during the pre-production phase of the film, she became unavailable.^[6] Wray was approached by director Merian C. Cooper to play the blonde captive of King Kong; the role of Ann Darrow for which she was paid $10,000 ($200,000 in 2023 dollars) to portray.^[7] The film was a commercial success and Wray was reportedly proud that the film saved RKO from bankruptcy.^[8]

Wray continued to star in films, including The Richest Girl in the World, but by the early 1940s, her appearances became less frequent. She retired in 1942 after her second marriage but due to financial exigencies she soon resumed her acting career,^[7] and over the next three decades, Wray appeared in several films and appeared frequently on television. Wray portrayed Catherine Morrison in the 1953–54 sitcom The Pride of the Family ^[9] with Natalie Wood playing her daughter. Wray appeared in Queen Bee and The Cobweb, both released in 1955.

Wray appeared in three episodes of Perry Mason: "The Case of the Prodigal Parent" (1958); "The Case of the Watery Witness" (1959), as murder victim Lorna Thomas; and "The Case of the Fatal Fetish" (1965), as voodoo practitioner Mignon Germaine. In 1959, Wray was cast as Tula Marsh in the episode "The Second Happiest Day" of Playhouse 90. Other roles around this time were in the episodes "Dip in the Pool" (1958) and "The Morning After" of CBS's Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In 1960, she appeared as Clara in an episode of 77 Sunset Strip, "Who Killed Cock Robin?" Another 1960 role was that of Mrs. Staunton, with Gigi Perreau as her daughter, in the episode "Flight from Terror" of The Islanders.

Wray appeared in a 1961 episode of The Real McCoys titled "Theatre in the Barn". In 1963, she played Mrs. Brubaker in The Eleventh Hour episode "You're So Smart, Why Can't You Be Good?". She ended her acting career with the 1980 made-for-television film Gideon's Trumpet.

In 1988, she published her autobiography On the Other Hand.^[10] In her later years, Wray continued to make public appearances. In 1991, she was crowned Queen of the Beaux Arts Ball, presiding with King Herbert Huncke.^[11]

She was approached by James Cameron to play the part of Rose Dawson Calvert for his blockbuster Titanic (1997) with Kate Winslet to play her younger self, but she turned down the role, which was subsequently portrayed by Gloria Stuart in an Oscar-nominated performance. She was a special guest at the 70th Academy Awards, where the show's host Billy Crystal introduced her as the "Beauty who charmed the Beast." She was the only 1920s Hollywood actress in attendance that evening. On October 3, 1998, she appeared at the Pine Bluff Film Festival, which showed The Wedding March with live orchestral accompaniment.^{[citation needed]}

In January 2003, the 95-year-old Wray appeared at the 2003 Palm Beach International Film Festival to celebrate the Rick McKay documentary film Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There, where she was honored with a "Legend in Film" award. In her later years, she visited the Empire State Building frequently; in 1991, she was a guest of honor at the building's 60th anniversary, and in May 2004,^[12] she made one of her last public appearances at the ESB. Her final public appearance was at the premiere of the documentary film Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There in June 2004. ^[13]

Wray married three times – to writers John Monk Saunders and Robert Riskin and the neurosurgeon Sanford Rothenberg (January 28, 1919 – January 4, 1991).^[14] She had three children: Susan Saunders, Victoria Riskin, and Robert Riskin Jr.^[15][16]

After returning to the US after finishing The Clairvoyant she became a naturalized citizen of the United States in May 1935.^[17]

Wray died in her sleep of natural causes on the night of August 8, 2004, in her apartment on Fifth Avenue Manhattan.^[18][19] She is interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.^[20]

Two days after her death, the lights of the Empire State Building were lowered for 15 minutes in her memory.^[21]

In 1989, Wray was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award.^[22] Wray was honored with a Legend in Film award at the 2003 Palm Beach International Film Festival. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Wray was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6349 Hollywood Blvd. She received a star posthumously on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto on June 5, 2005. A small park near Lee's Creek on Main Street in Cardston, Alberta, her birthplace, was named Fay Wray Park in her honor. The small sign at the edge of the park on Main Street has a silhouette of King Kong on it, remembering her role in King Kong. A large oil portrait of Wray by Alberta artist Neil Boyle is on display in the Empress Theatre in Fort Macleod, Alberta. In May 2006, Wray became one of the first four entertainers to be honored by Canada Post by being featured on a postage stamp.^{[citation needed]}

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1925	The Coast Patrol	Beth Slocum
	A Lover's Oath		Uncredited; lost film
	Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ	Slave Girl	Unconfirmed, uncredited
1926	The Man in the Saddle	Pauline Stewart	lost film
	The Wild Horse Stampede	Jessie Hayden
	Lazy Lightning	Lila Rogers
1927	Loco Luck	Molly Vernon
	A One Man Game	Roberta
	Spurs and Saddles	Mildred Orth
1928	The Legion of the Condemned	Christine Charteris	lost film
	The Street of Sin	Elizabeth	lost film
	The First Kiss	Anna Lee	lost film
	The Wedding March	Mitzi / Mitzerl Schrammell
1929	The Four Feathers	Ethne Eustace
	Thunderbolt	Ritzie
	Pointed Heels	Lora Nixon
1930	Behind the Make-Up	Marie Gardoni
	Paramount on Parade	Sweetheart (Dream Girl)	Filmed partly in Technicolor
	The Texan	Consuelo
	The Border Legion	Joan Randall
	The Sea God	Daisy
	The Honeymoon	Mitzi	Unreleased
	Captain Thunder	Ynez
1931	Stub Man
	Dirigible	Helen Pierce
	The Conquering Horde	Taisie Lockhart
	Not Exactly Gentlemen	Lee Carleton
	The Finger Points	Marcia Collins
	The Lawyer's Secret	Kay Roberts
	The Unholy Garden	Camille de Jonghe
1932	Stowaway	Mary Foster
	Doctor X	Joanne Xavier	Filmed in Technicolor
	The Most Dangerous Game	Eve Trowbridge
1933	The Vampire Bat	Ruth Bertin
	Mystery of the Wax Museum	Charlotte Duncan	Filmed in Technicolor
	King Kong	Ann Darrow
	Below the Sea	Diana
	Ann Carver's Profession	Ann Carver Graham
	The Woman I Stole	Vida Carew
	Shanghai Madness	Wildeth Christie
	The Big Brain	Cynthia Glennon
	One Sunday Afternoon	Virginia Brush
	The Bowery	Lucy Calhoun
	Master of Men	Kay Walling
1934	Madame Spy	Marie Franck
	The Countess of Monte Cristo	Janet Krueger
	Once to Every Woman	Mary Fanshane
	Viva Villa!	Teresa
	Black Moon	Gail Hamilton
	The Affairs of Cellini	Angela
	The Richest Girl in the World	Sylvia Lockwood
	Cheating Cheaters	Nan Brockton
	Woman in the Dark	Louise Loring
	Mills of the Gods	Jean Hastings
1935	The Clairvoyant	Rene	US title: The Evil Mind
	Bulldog Jack	Ann Manders
	Come Out of the Pantry	Hilda Beach-Howard
	White Lies	Joan Mitchell
1936	When Knights Were Bold	Lady Rowena
	Roaming Lady	Joyce Reid
	They Met in a Taxi	Mary Trenton
1937	It Happened in Hollywood	Gloria Gay
	Murder in Greenwich Village	Kay Cabot aka Lucky
1938	The Jury's Secret	Linda Ware
	Smashing the Spy Ring	Eleanor Dunlap
1939	Navy Secrets	Carol Mathews – Posing as Carol Evans
1940	Wildcat Bus	Ted Dawson
1941	Adam Had Four Sons	Molly Stoddard
	Melody for Three	Mary Stanley
1942	Not a Ladies' Man	Hester Hunter
1944	This Is the Life	—	Based on a play by Wray and Sinclair Lewis
1953	Treasure of the Golden Condor	Annette, Marquise de St. Malo
	Small Town Girl	Mrs. Kimbell
1955	The Cobweb	Edna Devanal
	Queen Bee	Sue McKinnon
1956	Hell on Frisco Bay	Kay Stanley
	Rock, Pretty Baby	Beth Daley
1957	Crime of Passion	Alice Pope
	Tammy and the Bachelor	Mrs. Brent
1958	Summer Love	Beth Daley
	Dragstrip Riot	Norma Martin / Mrs. Martin
1962	Wagon Train	Mrs. Edward's, The Cole Crawford Story
1980	Gideon's Trumpet	Edna Curtis
1997	Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's	Herself	Documentary
2003	Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There	Herself	Documentary

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1923	Gasoline Love
	Speed Bugs
1924	Just A Good Guy	Girl Getting Into Car
1925	Sure-Mike	Salesgirl at Department Store
	What Price Goofy	Concerned Girl with Perfume	Uncredited
	Isn't Life Terrible?	Potential Pen-Buyer	Uncredited
	Thundering Landlords	The Wife
	Chasing the Chaser	Nursemaid
	Madame Sans Jane
	No Father to Guide Him	Beach House Cashier	Uncredited
	Unfriendly Enemies	The Girl
	Your Own Back Yard	Woman in Quarrelsome Couple
	Moonlight and Noses	Miss Sniff, the Professor's Daughter
	Should Sailors Marry?	Herself
1926	WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1926	Herself
	One Wild Time
	Don Key (A Son of a Burro)
	Don't Shoot	Nancy Burton
	The Saddle Tramp
	The Show Cowpuncher
1927	A Trip Through the Paramount Studio	Herself
1931	The Slippery Pearls	Herself
1932	Hollywood on Parade	Herself

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1953	Cavalcade of America	Mrs. Jefferson Davis	Episode: "One Nation Indivisible"
1953-1954	The Pride of the Family	Catherine Morrison	27 episodes
1958	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Mrs. Renshaw	Episode: "Dip in the Pool"
1959	Playhouse 90	Tula Marsh	Episode: "The Second Happiest Day"
	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Mrs. Nelson	Episode: "The Morning After"
1962	Wagon Train	Mrs. Edwards	Episode: "The Cole Crawford Story"
1964	The Eleventh Hour	Mrs. Brubaker	Episode: "You're So Smart, Why Can't You Be Good?"
1965	Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre	Mrs. White	Episode: "Double Jeopardy"
	Perry Mason	Mignon Germaine	Episode: "The Case of the Fatal Fetish"

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• In The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Fay Wray is referenced by name in two songs. At the beginning of the movie, "Science Fiction/Double Feature" contains "Then something went wrong / For Fay Wray and King Kong / They got caught in a celluloid jam", and near the end extraterrestrial transvestite mad scientist Frank N. Furter sings in the song, "Don't Dream It": "Whatever happened to Fay Wray? / That delicate satin-draped frame / As it clung to her thigh / How I started to cry / 'Cause I wanted to be dressed just the same".^[23]
• Mentioned in the chorus of the Jimmy Ray song, "Are You Jimmy Ray?"
• Type O Negative, on their album Bloody Kisses, has a track titled "Fay Wray Come Out to Play."
• Mentioned repeatedly in Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow.
• Fay Wray is briefly mentioned in the Bruce Cockburn song "Mama Just Wants to Barrelhouse All Night Long" on the 1973 Night Vision album in its second verse: "I hear the city singing like a siren choir / Some fool tried to set this town on fire / TV preacher screams 'come on along' / I feel like Fay Wray face to face with King Kong / But Mama just wants to barrelhouse all night long."
• Fay Wray has been mentioned in the Peanuts comic strip a couple of times, mostly involving characters Snoopy and Woodstock in reenacting the iconic scenes from King Kong. The first one was in a September 11, 1976 strip with Snoopy playing as King Kong while holding Woodstock as Ann Darrow (with a brief mention of her co-star Bruce Cabot);^[24] and in an August 29, 1976 Sunday strip format where Snoopy is dreaming that his nose is the Empire State Building and Woodstock, as King Kong, is climbing atop of it in real time. Waking up from it, Snoopy complains afterwards that "Fay Wray didn't even show up" in it.^[25]

• Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood

• Fay Wray at IMDb
• Fay Wray at AllMovie
• Fay Wray at the TCM Movie Database
• Fay Wray at the Internet Broadway Database
• Fay Wray at Northern Stars website
• Fay Wray speaking at UCLA 11/18/1970