Ben Wright(1915-1989)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Ben Wright was born May 5, 1915, to an English mother and an American
father in London, England, UK. At 16, he entered the Royal Academy of
Dramatic Arts where classmates included such future stars as Ida Lupino.
Upon graduating, he acted in several West End stage productions. When
WWII broke out, he enlisted and served in the Kings Royal Rifle Corps.
He came to America in 1946 to attend a cousin's wedding and settled in
Hollywood. He began his American acting career in radio, establishing
himself as a master of dialects with such roles as Hey Boy, the Chinese
servant, on "Have Gun, Will Travel" with John Dehner. His talent for
dialects also kept him busy in the many WWII-related films and TV shows
of the 1950s and '60s wherein he played countless Germans and Frenchmen
as well as a variety of Englishmen for which he ensured the dialects
were accurate depending on which part of England they were from. After
years of radio, TV, stage and film work, he entered semi-retirement in
the late 1970s, accepting occasional voice work and small guest
appearances on TV. On June 16, 1989, after completing his last role,
providing the voice of Grimsby in Disney's The Little Mermaid (1989), he entered St.
Joseph's Hospital in Burbank for quadruple bypass surgery from which he
never recovered. He died of heart failure July 2, 1989.
