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IMDbPro

Fay Wray(1907-2004)

  • Actress
  • Writer
  • Camera and Electrical Department
IMDbProStarmeterTop 5,000171
Fay Wray
Middle-aged dentist Biff Grimes reminisces about his unrequited love for beautiful Virginia Brush and her husband Hugo, his ex-friend, who betrayed him.
Play trailer2:24
One Sunday Afternoon (1933)
4 Videos
99+ Photos
Canadian-born Fay Wray was brought up in Los Angeles and entered films at an early age. She was barely in her teens when she started working as an extra. She began her career as a heroine in westerns at Universal during the silent era. In 1926 the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers selected 13 young starlets it deemed most likely to succeed in pictures. Fay was chosen as one of these starlets, along with Janet Gaynor and Mary Astor. Fame would indeed come to Fay when she played another heroine in Erich von Stroheim's Häämarssi (1928). She continued playing leads in a number of films, such as the good-bad girl in Pimeimmässä New Yorkissa (1929). By the early 1930s she was at Paramount working with Gary Cooper and Jack Holt in a number of average films, such as Master of Men (1933). She also appeared in such horror films as Doctor X (1932) and The Vampire Bat (1933). In 1933 Fay was approached by producer Merian C. Cooper, who told her that he had a part for her in a picture in which she would be working with a tall, dark leading man. What he didn't tell her was that her "tall, dark leading man" was a giant gorilla, and the picture turned out to be the classic King Kong (1933). Perhaps no one in the history of pictures could scream more dramatically than Fay, and she really put on a show in "Kong". Her character provided a combination of sex appeal, vulnerability and lung capacity as she was stalked by the giant beast all the way to the top of the Empire State Building. That was as far as Fay would rise, however, as this was, after all, just another horror movie. After "Kong", she began a slow decline that put her into low-budget action films by the mid '30s. In 1939 her 11-year marriage to screenwriter John Monk Saunders ended in divorce, and her career was almost finished. In 1942 she remarried and retired from the screen, forever to be remembered as the "beauty who killed the beast" in "King Kong". However, in 1953 she made a comeback, playing mature character roles, and also appeared on television as Catherine, Natalie Wood's mother, in The Pride of the Family (1953). She continued to appear in films until 1958 and television into the 1960s.
BornSeptember 15, 1907
DiedAugust 8, 2004(96)
BornSeptember 15, 1907
DiedAugust 8, 2004(96)
IMDbProStarmeterTop 5,000171
  • Awards
    • 4 wins & 1 nomination

Photos492

Gary Cooper and Fay Wray in Kadotettujen legiona (1928)
Hoot Gibson and Fay Wray in The Man in the Saddle (1926)
Phillips Holmes and Fay Wray in Pointed Heels (1929)
David Worth and Fay Wray in Not Exactly Gentlemen (1931)
Fay Wray in Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
Fay Wray in Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray in Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
Fay Wray in Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
Fay Wray in Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
Fay Wray in Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
Fay Wray in Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
Allen Vincent and Fay Wray in Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)

Known for:

Fay Wray and King Kong in King Kong (1933)
King Kong
7.9
  • Ann Darrow
  • 1933
Zaroffin koirat (1932)
Zaroffin koirat
7.1
  • Eve
  • 1932
Lionel Atwill, Lee Tracy, and Fay Wray in Doctor X (1932)
Doctor X
6.4
  • Joanne Xavier
  • 1932
Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
Mystery of the Wax Museum
6.8
  • Charlotte Duncan
  • 1933

Credits

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IMDbPro

Actress

  • Gideon's Trumpet (1980)
    Gideon's Trumpet
    7.1
    TV Movie
    • Edna Curtis
    • 1980
  • Raymond Burr in Perry Mason yllättää (1957)
    Perry Mason yllättää
    8.3
    TV Series
    • Mignon Germaine
    • Lorna Thomas
    • Ethel Harrison
    • 1958–1965
  • Tähtiteatteri (1963)
    Tähtiteatteri
    7.6
    TV Series
    • Mrs. White
    • 1965
  • Angela Lansbury and Tuesday Weld in Yhdestoista hetki (1962)
    Yhdestoista hetki
    7.8
    TV Series
    • Mrs. Brubaker
    • 1964
  • John McIntire in Wagon Train (1957)
    Wagon Train
    7.5
    TV Series
    • Mrs. Edwards
    • 1962
  • Ronald Reagan in Se parhaiten nauraa... (1953)
    Se parhaiten nauraa...
    6.9
    TV Series
    • Mrs. Bassett
    • Mrs. Turner
    • 1957–1961
  • Walter Brennan, Richard Crenna, and Kathleen Nolan in The Real McCoys (1957)
    The Real McCoys
    7.6
    TV Series
    • Fay Wray (as Miss Fay Wray)
    • 1961
  • The Islanders (1960)
    The Islanders
    6.2
    TV Series
    • Mrs. Staunton
    • 1960
  • Robert Conrad, Anthony Eisley, Poncie Ponce, and Connie Stevens in Hawaiian Eye (1959)
    Hawaiian Eye
    7.7
    TV Series
    • Amelia Goodwin
    • 1960
  • Edd Byrnes, Roger Smith, and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. in Yksityisetsivät (1958)
    Yksityisetsivät
    7.7
    TV Series
    • Clara Moore
    • 1960
  • "Eighty Yard Run, The" (Playhouse 90) Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. 1957 CBS
    Playhouse 90
    8.4
    TV Series
    • Tula Marsh
    • 1959
  • The David Niven Show (1959)
    The David Niven Show
    8.3
    TV Series
    • Allison
    • 1959
  • Alfred Hitchcock in Alfred Hitchcock esittää (1955)
    Alfred Hitchcock esittää
    8.5
    TV Series
    • Mrs. Nelson
    • Mrs. Renshaw
    • 1958–1959
  • Molly Bee, Judi Meredith, and John Saxon in Kesäistä rakkautta (1958)
    Kesäistä rakkautta
    6.2
    • Beth Daley
    • 1958
  • Hal Baylor, Hans Conried, and Chuck Hicks in Schlitz Playhouse of Stars (1951)
    Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
    7.6
    TV Series
    • 1958

Writer

  • Louise Allbritton, Susanna Foster, Patric Knowles, Donald O'Connor, and Peggy Ryan in This Is the Life (1944)
    This Is the Life
    6.6
    • play: Agatha is 22
    • 1944

Camera and Electrical Department

  • Frank Capran amerikkalainen unelma (1997)
    Frank Capran amerikkalainen unelma
    7.4
    TV Movie
    • still photographer: courtesy of
    • 1997

Videos4

Trailer
Trailer 2:24
Trailer
Doctor X Official Trailer
Trailer 2:11
Doctor X Official Trailer
Official Trailer
Trailer 1:59
Official Trailer
Restoration Preview
Trailer 3:32
Restoration Preview

Personal details

Edit
  • Alternative name
    • Miss Fay Wray
  • Height
    • 1.60 m
  • Born
    • September 15, 1907
    • Cardston, Alberta, Canada
  • Died
    • August 8, 2004
    • Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA(natural causes)
  • Spouses
      Dr. Sanford Fallows RothenbergAugust 6, 1971 - January 18, 1991 (his death)
  • Children
      Susan Riskin
  • Parents
      Joseph Heber Wray
  • Relatives
    • Amy Serna(Niece or Nephew)
  • Other works
    Stage: Appeared (as "Nikki"; Broadway debut) in "Nikki" on Broaway. Musical comedy. Material by John Monk Saunders (based on his short stories "Nikki and Her War Birds," his novel "A Single Lady" and his film The Last Flight (1931)). Music by Philip Charig. Lyrics by James Dyrenforth [final Broadway credit]. Musical Direction by Jules Lenzberg. Music orchestrated by Louis Katzman. Scenic Design by P. Dodd Ackerman, James Morcom and Karle O. Amend. Costume Design by Bergdorf Goodman, Samuel Lorber, Stein & Blaine, Faye Graham and Edith Faggen. Directed by William B. Friedlander. Longacre Theatre (moved to George M. Cohan's Theatre from 19 Oct 1931 to close): 29 Sep 1931-31 Oct 1931 (39 performances). Cast: Alexandra Alexander (as "Ensemble"), Rodolfo Badaloni (as "Benj"), Julia Barron (as "Specialty"), Charles Bath (as "Ensemble"), Maxine Bennett (as "Chorus"), John Brooke (as "Francis, The Washout"), Elizabeth Brown (as "Ensemble"), Cora Burlar (as "Ensemble"), Gertrude Byrnell (as "Chorus"), Frank Chapman (as "Specialty"), Anna Criena (as "Ensemble"), Ruth Cunliffe (as "Chorus"), Jean De Koven (as "Ensemble"), Adele Dixon (as "Chorus"), Manuel Duarte (as "Ensemble"), Natalie Dunhan (as "Ensemble"), Mimi Elsasser (as "Ensemble"), Eugenie Erganow (as "Ensemble"), Marjorie Fenton (as "Ensemble"), Albert Fontaine (as "Ensemble"), Louis Jean Heydt (as "Willard Crouch" / "Wiffie"), Page Innes (as "Specialty"), Hunter Kaufman (as "Ensemble"), Sandra Laxer (as "Chorus"), Cary Grant )credited as Archie Leach; as "Cary Lockwood"), Sharon Lloyd (as "Chorus"), Jean Love (as "Chorus"), Agnes Marshall (as "Show Girl"), Rosalie McCallion (as "Chorus"), Modesca & Michael (as "Specialty"), Douglass Montgomery (as "Shepard Lambert"), Martin Muriel (as "Ensemble"), Harriett Murray (as "Chorus"), Lillian Okun (as "Ensemble"), Lidia Ordinsky (as "Ensemble"), Anna Ouzonoff (as "Ensemble"), Marcel Rousseau (as "Specialty"), Mimi Ruskin (as "Chorus"), Ali Sellier (as "Specialty"), Bobbie Sheehan (as "Chorus"), Toni Soral (as "Chorus"), Peggy Stebbins (as "Show Girl"), John Stellato (as "Ensemble"), Louis Sterner (as "Specialty"), Bobbi Tremain (as "Kiss-Me-Quick" [Specialty]), Helen Tschirgi (as "Chorus"), Fania Tuli (as "Ensemble"), Alva Vaughn (as "Show Girl"), Nathaniel Wagner (as "William Talbot" / "Bill"), George Wald (as "Ensemble"), Marjorie Younger (as "Show Girl"). Produced by Harrison Hall.
  • Publicity listings
    • 1 Biographical Movie
    • 5 Print Biographies
    • 3 Interviews
    • 25 Articles
    • 4 Pictorials
    • 3 Magazine Cover Photos

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    On August 10, 2004, two days after her death, the lights on the Empire State Building in New York City (scene of the climax from her most popular film, King Kong (1933), were dimmed for 15 minutes in her memory.
  • Quotes
    At the premiere of King Kong (1933) I wasn't too impressed. I thought there was too much screaming... I didn't realize then that King Kong and I were going to be together for the rest of our lives, and longer...
  • Trademark
    The role of Ann Darrow in the original King Kong
  • Nicknames
    • The Queen of Scream
    • The Queen of the Bs
  • Salary
    • King Kong
      (1933)
      $10,000 .00

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