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Fay Wray

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Fay Wray (September 15, 1907 – August 8, 2004) was a Canadian–American actress.

Contents

Early life

Wray was born Vina Fay Wray on a ranch near Cardston, Alberta, Canada. Her family moved to the United States when she was three. Although Wray's autobiography discusses her Mormon parentage and makes it clear that she was culturally Mormon, she was apparently never baptized as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Wray's family lived in predominantly Mormon communities in Alberta, Arizona and Salt Lake City, Utah before settling in Los Angeles, California, where she got her first film work in Hal Roach comedy shorts and in low-budget westerns in the early 1920s.

Career

Wray gained media attention when she was selected as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1926, which landed her a contract at Paramount Pictures.

In 1928, director Erich von Stroheim cast Wray as the main female lead in his troubled production of The Wedding March, which sent Hollywood in a buzz for its high budget and production values. It was a financial failure, but it gave Wray her first lead role. He also was romantically interested in the lovely Wray, and arranged a rendezvous in Hollywood, but she changed her mind and never showed.

She is best remembered for her role as Ann Darrow, the blonde seductress of a gigantic, prehistoric gorilla in the classic horror/adventure film King Kong (1933). She wore a blonde wig over her naturally dark hair for the role. There have been claims the screams emanated from actress Julie Haydon, and dubbed to Wray, but that has been disputed.

Wray also appeared in over a hundred other films, mostly in the 1930s, including The Four Feathers (1929), Doctor X (1932), The Most Dangerous Game (1932 in film), The Vampire Bat (1933 in film), and Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933). She also appeared in Viva Villa (1934) with Wallace Beery, The Texan, The Conquering Horde, and One Sunday Afternoon. Later in her career, Wray appeared in Small Town Girl, Tammy and the Bachelor, and Summer Love.

Personal Life

Wray was married three times. She had three children (not four as is sometimes misreported): Her autobiography, On the Other Hand (ISBN 0312022654), was published in 1988.

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Fay Wray has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6349 Hollywood Blvd. She received a posthumous star 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, is 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.

Wray died at her apartment in Manhattan, New York at the age of 96 of natural causes on August 8, 2004, and was interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.

In May 2006, Wray became one of the first four entertainers to ever be honored by Canada Post by being featured on a postage stamp.

Trivia

Filmography

See also

External links

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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