# Fay Wray

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 the first "scream queen".
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.

## Life and career
### Early life

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. She was one of six children and was a granddaughter of LDS pioneer Daniel Webster Jones. Her ancestors came from England, Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Wales.
Her family returned to the United States a few years after she was born; they moved to Salt Lake City in 1912 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.

### Early acting career

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. 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.
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".

### Horror films and King Kong

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.
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. 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 2024 dollars) to portray. The film was a commercial success and Wray was reportedly proud that the film saved RKO from bankruptcy.

### Later career

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, 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 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. Interstingly, Wray also co-starred with Perry Mason star Raymond Burr in the 1957 noir film release "Crime of Passion."
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. 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.
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.
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, 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.

## Personal life

Wray married three times – to writers John Monk Saunders and Robert Riskin and the neurosurgeon Sanford Rothenberg (January 28, 1919 – January 4, 1991). She had three children: Susan Saunders, Victoria Riskin, and Robert Riskin Jr.
After returning to the US after finishing The Clairvoyant she became a naturalized citizen of the United States in May 1935.

## Death

Wray died in her sleep of natural causes on the night of August 8, 2004, in her apartment on Fifth Avenue Manhattan. She is interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.
Two days after her death, the lights of the Empire State Building were lowered for 15 minutes in her memory.

## Honors

In 1989, Wray was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award. 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.

## Filmography
### Features

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

### Short subjects

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

### Partial Television Credits

| 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" |
| 1959 | 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" |
| 1965 | Perry Mason | Mignon Germaine | Episode: "The Case of the Fatal Fetish" |

## Cultural references

* 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".
* 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); 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.