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

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):

  • Susan Saunders
  • Victoria Riskin
  • Robert Riskin Jr.

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

  • Peter Jackson had approached her about doing a cameo in his 2005 remake of King Kong, but she died before she could do so. Originally, she was to walk up to Kong's body in the film's final scene, and deliver the famous line "It was beauty killed the beast." After her death, the line reverted back to Carl Denham (Jack Black) who says it in the original film.
  • She is referred to in the new King Kong remake: Carl Denham needs to find an actress quickly, and suggests 'Fay' as a possibility. However, he is told that she is making a film with "Cooper" for RKO. Merian C. Cooper was the director of the original film, produced for RKO.
  • She is the granddaughter of Mormon pioneer Daniel Webster Jones.
  • Referred to in the opening and closing sequences of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and is portrayed as the role model of Tim Curry's character Frank N Furter (Whatever happened to Fay Wray?)
  • After her death, the Empire State Building went into complete darkness for 15 minutes in her memory, and in memory of her role in "King Kong."

Filmography

See also

External links

1907 births | 2004 deaths | American actors | American film actors | American silent film actors | Hollywood Walk of Fame | Canada's Walk of Fame | Entertainers who died in their 90s | People from Alberta | Canadian Americans | Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery | Scottish Canadians | Canadian Americans

Fay Wray | Fay Wray | Fay Wray | Fay Wray | Рэй, Фэй | Fay Wray | Fay Wray

 

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