Charles Ray
Born: 1891-03-15 in Jacksonville, Illinois, USA
Died: 1943-11-23
Known For: Acting
Biography
From Wikipedia Charles Edgar Ray (March 15, 1891 – November 23, 1943) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter. Ray rose to fame during the mid-1910s portraying young wholesome hicks in silent comedy films. Ray was born in Jacksonville, Illinois and moved to Springfield as a child where he attended elementary school. He then moved to Arizona for a time before finally relocating to Los Angeles where he finished his education. He initially began his career on the stage before working for director Thomas H. Ince as a film extra in December 1912. He appeared in several bit parts before moving on to supporting roles. Ray's break came in 1915 when he appeared opposite Frank Keenan in the historical war drama The Coward. Ray's popularity increased after appearing in a series of films which cast him in juvenile roles, primarily young hicks or "country bumpkins" that foiled the plans of thieves or con men. In March 1917, he signed with Paramount Pictures and resumed working with director Thomas H. Ince. By 1920, he was earning a reported $11,000 a week. Around this time, he left Paramount after studio head Adolph Zukor refused to give him a pay raise. Zukor later wrote in his autobiography The Public Is Never Wrong, that Ray's ego had gotten out of hand and that Ray "...was headed for trouble and did not care to be with him when he found it." After leaving Paramount, Ray formed his own production company, Charles Ray Productions, and also used his fortune to purchase a studio in Los Angeles where he began producing and shooting his own films. On November 23, 1943, Ray died of a mouth and throat infection at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles for which he had been hospitalized six weeks prior. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Charles Ray has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6355 Hollywood Boulevard.
Filmography
1961
- The Legend of Rudolph Valentino as Self (archive footage)
1943
- Slightly Dangerous as Opera patron (uncredited)
1942
- Mrs. Miniver as Man getting on Bus (uncredited)
- Rio Rita as Hotel Guest (uncredited)
- The Mad Martindales as Barbershop Customer (uncredited)
1941
- The Lady from Cheyenne as Bit Role
- Appointment for Love as Butler (uncredited)
- The Man Who Lost Himself as (uncredited)
1936
- Hollywood Boulevard as Charlie Smith - Assistant Director
1935
- Just My Luck as Homer Crow
- Welcome Home as Andrew Carr
1934
- Ticket to a Crime as Courtney Mallory
- By Your Leave as Leonard Purcell
- School for Girls as Duke
- Ladies Should Listen as Henri
- The Camera Speaks as Self (archive footage)
1931
- The House That Shadows Built as (archive footage)
- Stars of Yesterday as Self
1928
- The Count of Ten as Johnny McKinney
- The Garden of Eden as Richard Dupont
1927
- Getting Gertie's Garter as Ken Walrick
- Vanity as Lt. Lloyd Van Courtland
- Nobody's Widow as Honorable John Clayton
- The American as Bill Smith
1926
- The Fire Brigade as Terry O'Neil
- Sweet Adeline as Ben Wilson
- Paris as Jerry
- The Auction Block as Bob Wharton
1925
- Some Pun'kins as Lem Blossom
- Percy as Percival Rogeen
- Bright Lights as Tom Corbin
1924
- Dynamite Smith as Gladstone Smith
1923
- The Courtship of Miles Standish as John Alden
- The Girl I Loved as John Middleton
1922
- Smudge as Stephen Stanton
- A Tailor-Made Man as John Paul Bart
- Alias Julius Caesar as Billy Barnes
- Gas, Oil and Water as George Oliver Watson
- The Deuce of Spades as Amos
1921
- Scrap Iron as John Steel
- The Old Swimmin' Hole as Ezra Hull
- Two Minutes to Go as Chester Burnett
1920
- Peaceful Valley as Hosiah Howe
- An Old Fashioned Boy as David Warrington
- 45 Minutes from Broadway as Kid Burns
- A Village Sleuth as William Wells
- Homer Comes Home as Homer Cavender
- Paris Green as Luther Green
- Alarm Clock Andy as Andrew Gray
1919
- Crooked Straight as Ben Trimble
- The Sheriff's Son as Royal Beaudry
- The Egg Crate Wallop as Jim Kelly
- Hay Foot, Straw Foot as Ulysses S. Grant Briggs
- Red Hot Dollars as Tod Burke
- The Girl Dodger as Cuthbert Trotman
- Greased Lightning as Andy Fletcher
- Bill Henry as Bill Henry Jenkins
- The Busher as Ben Harding
1918
- The Claws of the Hun as John Stanton
- The Law of the North as Alain de Montcalm
- His Own Home Town as Jimmy Duncan
- A Nine O'Clock Town as David Clary
- The Family Skeleton as Billy Bates
- Staking His Life as Frank Hamilton
- The Hired Man as Ezry Hollins
- String Beans as Toby Watkins
- Playing the Game as Larry Prentiss
1917
- Skinner's Dress Suit
- The Son of His Father as Gordon Carbhoy
- Back of the Man as Larry Thomas
- The Clodhopper as Everett Nelson
- His Mother's Boy as Matthew Denton
- The Millionaire Vagrant as Steven Du Peyster
- Sudden Jim as James Ashe, Jr.
- The Weaker Sex as Jack Harding
- The Pinch Hitter as Joel Parker
1916
- A Corner in Colleens as Richard Taylor
- Home as Bob Wheaton
- The Honorable Algy as The Honorable Algy
- Peggy as Colin Cameron
- The Wolf Woman as Rex Walden
- Honor Thy Name
- Plain Jane as Mr. 'John Sophomore Adams'
- The Deserter as Lieutenant Parker
- The Dividend as Frank Steele
1915
- The Conversion of Frosty Blake as Reverend Horace Brightray
- The Cup of Life as John Ward
- In the Tennessee Hills as Jim Carson
- The Lure of Woman as Captain Lane
- The Coward as Frank Winslow
- The Forbidden Adventure as Cecil Weatherby
- The Grudge as Dick Wayne
- The Renegade as Captain Marley
1914
- For Her Brother's Sake as John Frye - the Brother
- The City of Darkness as Donald Warner - the Governor's Brother
- The Gangsters and the Girl as Detective John Stone
1913
- The Buried Past as Tom Winters - the Lover
- The Quakeress as John Hart - the Schoolmaster
- Old Mammy's Secret Code as David
- The Transgressor as Jim
- For Mother's Sake as Jim
- The Grey Sentinel as Hal Peters
- The Boomerang as Lt. Calhoun