Fay Wray Filmography

Universal Horror

Actors: Kenneth Branagh, Forrest J. Ackerman, Turhan Bey, Ray Bradbury, Jim Curtis

Synopsis: Assembled by film historian Kevin Brownlow and narrated by actor Kenneth Branagh, this 90-minute special celebrates the classic horror films that emanated from Hollywood's Universal Studios. Beginning with such silent classics as The Phantom of the Opera and The Cat and the Canary, Universal went Read More

Gideon's Trumpet

Actors: Henry Fonda, John Houseman, José Ferrer, Fay Wray

Synopsis: In the tradition of his earlier work in Grapes of Wrath and Twelve Angry Men, Henry Fonda played another social-protest role in the Hallmark Hall of Fame TV presentation Gideon's Trumpet. Clarence Earl Gideon (Fonda) is a poor, ill-tempered Florida handyman who is arrested for petty larceny in Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Fatal Fetish

Synopsis: In her third and final Perry Mason appearance, Fay Wray is incongruously cast as voodoo dancer Mignon Germaine, the mother of DA Hamilton Burger's new assistant Larry (played by future talkshow host Gary Collins). Though Burger (William Talman) tries to warn Larry that the young man's girlfriend Read More

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Morning After

Synopsis: The mother (Jeanette Nolan) of teenager Sharon Trotter (Dorothy Provine) is appalled by the fact that Sharon is having an affair with a much older married man, Ben Nelson (Robert Alda). Worse still, Ben has been stringing Sharon along, promising that he will get a divorce from his wife (Fay Wray) Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Watery Witness

Synopsis: In her second Perry Mason appearance, onetime King Kong leading lady Fay Wrayis cast as fading movie star Lorna Thomas. Years earlier, Lorna had given up a daughter for adoption; now, one George Clark (John Bryant) appears, insisting that his wife Betty (Dusty Anders) is Lorna's long-long daughter Read More

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: A Dip in the Pool

Synopsis: Roald Dahl's classic short story A Dip in the Pool has been dramatized numerous times on both radio and TV, though never more memorably than in this episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. While taking an ocean voyage, chronic gambler William Botibol (Keenan Wynn) bets every penny to his name on a Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Prodigal Parent

Synopsis: Philip Larkin (Terry Becker) is murdered, and his stepfather Joseph Harrison (John Hoyt) is charged with the crime. A key piece of evidence for the prosecution is a home movie showing Larkin and Harrison quarrelling; could their argument have been about sexy Lorraine Stevens (Andra Martin), whom Read More

Summer Love

Actors: John Saxon, Molly Bee, Rod McKuen, Judi Meredith, Jill St. John, Fay Wray

Synopsis: Summer Love is a sequel to 1957's Rock Pretty Baby, with John Saxon repeating his role as aspiring musician Jim Daley. When his band is hired to perform at a summer resort, Jim falls in love with two girls: sweet Joan Wright (Judy Meredith) and not-so-sweet Erica Landis (Jill St. John). Meanwhile Read More

Dragstrip Riot

Actors: Yvonne Lime, Gary Clarke, Fay Wray, Connie Stevens

Synopsis: Teenager Rick Martin (Gary Clarke) promises his loving mom (Fay Wray) that he won't get into any fights any more-certainly no fights like the one that put him in jail a few months back. But Rick can't seem to stay out of trouble, especially when a bunch of motorcycle punks begin harrassing his Read More

Crime of Passion

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Sterling Hayden, Raymond Burr, Fay Wray, Royal Dano, Virginia Grey

Synopsis: Kathy Ferguson (Barbara Stanwyck) is a cynical newspaper columnist in San Francisco, handling women's advice -- by chance one day, the paper's city editor assigns her to cover the woman's angle on the arrival of a pair of L.A. police detectives, Capt. Manny Alidos (Royal Dano) and Lt. Bill Doyle (Sterling Hayden Read More

Tammy and the Bachelor

Actors: Debbie Reynolds, Walter Brennan, Leslie Nielsen, Mala Powers, Fay Wray, Sidney Blackmer

Synopsis: Debbie Reynolds stars as Tammy in this romantic comedy of a country girl living in the South who cares for pilot Peter Brent (Leslie Neilsen) after his plane crashes near her home. At the beckoning of mutual admiration, Peter soon invites her to his plantation where she charms the fancy-shmancy Read More

Come Next Spring

Actors: Ann Sheridan, Steve Cochran, Walter Brennan, Sherry Jackson, Richard Eyer

Synopsis: In this upbeat drama, a reformed father returns to the Arkansas farm of his estranged family after having spent too many years living in the fast lane. Included in the family are his mute daughter and his baby son, whom he'd never seen. The father is determined to set things right and immediately Read More

Rock, Pretty Baby

Actors: Sal Mineo, John Saxon, Luana Patten, Edward Platt, Fay Wray

Synopsis: A must-see for students of 1950s pop culture, Rock, Pretty Baby was Universal-International's earliest acknowledgement of the rock 'n' roll craze. John Saxon plays 18-year-old high schooler Jimmy Daley, who intends to pursue a musical career despite the objections of his physician father (Edward Read More

Hell on Frisco Bay

Actors: Alan Ladd, Edward G. Robinson, Joanne Dru, William Demarest, Paul Stewart, Fay Wray

Synopsis: Hell on Frisco Bay is a slam-bang return to the sort of gangster fare turned out by the yard at Warner Bros. in the 1930s. Alan Ladd plays ex-cop Steve Rollins, who serves five years on a manslaughter rap. Upon his release, Rollins dedicates himself to finding the real killer. He soon learns that Read More

Queen Bee

Actors: Joan Crawford, Barry Sullivan, Betsy Palmer, John Ireland, Lucy Marlow

Synopsis: Queen Bee offers a stinging portrait of a mad, manipulative woman and chronicles her downfall and that of those around her in this dark drama. On first meeting, Eva Phillips (portrayed with delicious viciousness by Joan Crawford) is the epitome of Southern graciousness and charm. She and her Read More

The Cobweb

Actors: Richard Widmark, Lauren Bacall, Charles Boyer, Gloria Grahame, Lillian Gish

Synopsis: William Gibson's novel The Cobweb was brought to the screen by MGM with an impressive, hand-picked cast. Richard Widmark plays the head of a posh psychiatric clinic. Widmark's wife Gloria Grahame jockeys for the honor of selecting new drapes for the hospital's library. One wouldn't think that such Read More

Small Town Girl

Actors: Jane Powell, Farley Granger, Ann Miller, S.Z. Sakall, Robert Keith, Bobby Van

Synopsis: A remake of the 1936 Janet Gaynor vehicle of the same name, Small Town Girl stars Jane Powell in the title role. Powell plays Cindy Kimball, daughter of village judge Gordon Kimball (Robert Keith). When wealthy playboy Rick Livingston (Farley Granger) is arrested for speeding, Judge Kimball Read More

Treasure of the Golden Condor

Actors: Cornel Wilde, Constance Smith, Finlay Currie, Walter Hampden, Anne Bancroft

Synopsis: Treasure of the Golden Condor is a Technicolor remake of 1942's Son of Fury; both films were based on the same novel by Edison Marshall. Cornel Wilde stars in the old Tyrone Power role as Jean-Paul, a Frenchman cheated of his birthright by his duplicitous uncle (George Macready). Retreating to Read More

This Is the Life

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Donald O'Connor, Susanna Foster, Peggy Ryan, Louise Allbritton, Patric Knowles

Synopsis: In this musical comedy, a soldier falls in love with a very young woman who in turn has a crush on an older, more sophisticated man. When the older gent goes to New York, she follows as does her younger suitor. While in the Big Apple, the soldier encounters the older man's ex-wife who is still in Read More

Not a Ladies Man

Melody for Three

Actors: Jean Hersholt, Fay Wray, Walter Woolf King, Schuyler Standish, Patsy Lee Parsons

Synopsis: For some reason or other, Melody for Three seems to be the most frequently revived of RKO Radio's "Dr. Christian." As ever, Jean Hersholt stars as Christian, kindly general practitioner of the town of River's End. In this one, Dr. Christian takes an avuncular interest in young Billy Stanley Read More

Adam Had Four Sons

Actors: Ingrid Bergman, Warner Baxter, Susan Hayward, Fay Wray, Richard Denning, June Lockhart

Synopsis: Ingrid Bergman stars in Adam Had Four Sons, her second American film appearance. Based on a novel by Charles Bonner, the story begins in the early twentieth century, when French governess Emilie Gallatin (Bergman) is hired to care for the four growing sons of wealthy Adam Stoddard (Warner Baxter). Read More

Wildcat Bus

Actors: Fay Wray, Paul Guilfoyle, Don Costello, Paul McGrath

Synopsis: Seven years after helping to rescue RKO Radio from bankruptcy as the heroine of King Kong, Fay Wray returned to the studio as star of the modest programmer Wildcat Bus. Wray is cast as Ted Dawson, whose father Charlie (Oscar O'Shea) runs a lucrative bus line. Before long, however, the Dawsons' Read More

Navy Secrets

Actors: Fay Wray, Grant Withers, Dewey Robinson, William Von Brincken, Craig Reynolds

Synopsis: A federal agent and a petty Naval officer are both investigating the theft of top-secret defense plans. Since neither one is aware that the other is working on the case, each considers the other to be the prime suspect. They end up getting romantic and catching the real spies. ~ Steve Huey, All Read More

Smashing the Spy Ring

Actors: Ralph Bellamy, Fay Wray, Regis Toomey, Walter Kingsford, Ann Doran

Synopsis: In this espionage drama, a G-man keeps an enemy spy from stealing highly classified plans for military equipment. While investigating he falls in love with a lovely woman whose brother, also an FBI agent was killed. Later the agent sneaks into enemy headquarters by feigning amnesia and pretending Read More

The Jury's Secret

Actors: Kent Taylor, Fay Wray, Jane Darwell, Nan Grey, Larry Blake

Synopsis: Universal ran into censorship problems with this farfetched but well-acted courtroom drama directed by silent screen veteran Edward Sloman. When corrupt tycoon Brandon Williams (Samuel S. Hinds) is found murdered, the obvious suspect is young William Sheldon (Larry Blake), who had publicly feuded Read More

It Happened in Hollywood

Actors: Richard Dix, Victor Kilian, Franklin Pangborn, Charles Arnt

Synopsis: By 1937, everyone was tired of films about silent stars who couldn't make the transition to talkies (and would be until Singin' in the Rain), but this Columbia comedy-drama still had its moments in spite of gross inaccuracies. Richard Dix is Western star Tim Bart, a screen hero who is adored by Read More

Murder in Greenwich Village

Actors: Richard Arlen, Fay Wray, Raymond Walburn, Wyn Cahoon, Scott Colton

Synopsis: In this romantic mystery, a defense attorney attempts to get his lovely client acquitted of murder charges. As he and the heiress look into the case they fall in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

When Knights Were Bold

Actors: Jack Buchanan, Fay Wray, Garry Marsh, Kate Cutler, Martita Hunt

Synopsis: After several years in India, Sir Guy De Vere (Jack Buchanan) returns to England where he has inherited his ancestral castle. His snobbish relatives, already disgusted by Sir Guy's cheek irreverence (and his insistence upon chumming around with the "common folk"), plot to wrest control of the Read More

Roaming Lady

Actors: Fay Wray, Ralph Bellamy, Thurston Hall, Edward Gargan, Roger Imhof

Synopsis: In this adventure, a wealthy socialite falls in love and decides to stow away on her would-be lover's airplane as it takes off for China where he has been sent on a mission by his father. Unfortunately, the two are captured by revolutionaries; in order to gain their freedom, the man must promise Read More

They Met in a Taxi

Actors: Chester Morris, Fay Wray, Lionel Stander, Raymond Walburn, Henry Mollison

Synopsis: In this comedy, a model finds herself inadvertently embroiled in the theft of a society woman's valuable pearl necklace after modeling a wedding dress in the aristocrat's home. The pearls are hooked onto the hem of her voluminous dress. Afterward the model quickly flees the crime scene by diving Read More

Bulldog Jack

Actors: Fay Wray, Jack Hulbert, Ralph Richardson, Claude Hulbert, Gibb McLaughlin, Paul Graetz

Synopsis: British musical comedy star Jack Hulbert plays an amateur sleuth who takes over for the "real" Bulldog Drummond (Atholl Fleming), who is sidelined by an injury. Hulbert's quarry is master criminal Ralph Richardson (who himself played Drummond in a 1934 film). To expedite his scheme to rob the Read More

White Lies

Actors: Walter Connolly, Fay Wray, Victor Jory, Leslie Fenton, Irene Hervey

Synopsis: Walter Connolly, Columbia's answer to Edward Arnold, is his usual bombastic self in White Lies. Connolly is cast as powerful publisher John Mitchell, whose pursuit of sensational headlines at the expense of all else takes a personal toll when his daughter Joan (Fay Wray) is implicated in a murder. Read More

Mills of the Gods

Actors: May Robson, Fay Wray, Victor Jory, Raymond Walburn, James "Doc" Blakely

Synopsis: After her success in Lady for a Day, elderly character actress May Robson was starred in a number of features. She's wonderfully irascible in this depression-era drama as widow Mary Hastings, who has been running the family steel business since the death of her husband forty years before. Her Read More

Come out of the Pantry

Actors: Jack Buchanan, Fay Wray, James Carew, Olive Blakeney, Fred Emney

Synopsis: Alice Duer Miller's 1921 play Come out of the Kitchen was filmed during the silent era with Marguerite Clark, then musicalized (and Americanized) by Paramount in 1930 as Honey with Nancy Carroll. A second musical version, with brand-new songs, surfaced five years later as Come Out of the Pantry. Read More

The Clairvoyant

Actors: Claude Rains, Fay Wray, Jane Baxter, Mary Clare, Ben Field, Athole Stewart

Synopsis: Claude Rains is a phony psychic who makes a good living fleecing the suckers with his wild prognostications. But after Rains is plagued by severe headaches, he discovers that he truly does have "visions". Suddenly his predictions begin to come true, and Rains is elevated to a position of Read More

Madame Spy

Actors: Fay Wray, Nils Asther, Edward Arnold, John Miljan, David Torrence

Synopsis: One of several variations of the "Mata Hari" and "Fraulein Doktor" legends, Universal's Madame Spy is set during WW I. Fay Wray stars as Maria, the wife of Austrian diplomat Captain Franck (Nils Asther). What Franck doesn't know is that Maria is a Russian secret agent, assigned to spy on her own Read More

The Affairs of Cellini

Actors: Constance Bennett, Fredric March, Frank Morgan, Fay Wray, Vince Barnett

Synopsis: The Affairs of Cellini is based on Edwin Justus Mayer's popular stage play The Firebrand, which in turn was based on the life and times of Renaissance artist/political reactionary Benvenuto Cellini. Fredric March plays the tempestuous, amorous Cellini, who spends as much time in swordplay with Read More

Once to Every Woman

Actors: Ralph Bellamy, Fay Wray, Walter Connolly, Mary Carlisle, Walter Byron

Synopsis: Columbia's Once to Every Woman was the first of A. J. Cronin's medical novels to be adapted for the screen. The drama of the piece hinges on the conflict between brilliant young surgeon Barclay (Ralph Bellamy) and crusty hospital head Dr. Selby (Walter Connolly). On another, less-crucial front Read More

The Richest Girl in the World

Actors: Miriam Hopkins, Henry Stephenson, Joel McCrea, Fay Wray, Reginald Denny

Synopsis: A witty Norman Krasna script distinguishes this airy romantic comedy. Millionairess Dorothy Hunter (Miriam Hopkins) is tired of finding out that her boyfriends love her for her money, and equally weary of losing eligible beaus who don't want to be considered fortune-hunters. That's why she trades Read More

Woman in the Dark

Actors: Fay Wray, Ralph Bellamy, Melvyn Douglas, Roscoe Ates, Reed Brown, Jr.

Synopsis: This drama was adapted from a minor story by Dashiell Hammett and chronicles the attempts of an ex-con to stay on the straight and narrow. It's difficult for he is volatile and tends to get into fistfights when riled. It is his explosive temper that got him put away for three years after he Read More

Cheating Cheaters

Actors: Fay Wray, Cesar Romero, Minna Gombell, Hugh O'Connell, Henry Armetta

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1919 and 1927, Max Marcin's stage success Cheating Cheaters made its talking-picture bow courtesy of Universal in 1934. Fay Wray stars as seductive Nan Brockton, seemingly in the employ of a gang of slick jewel thieves. The crooks disguise themselves as high-society types, as Read More

Viva Villa!

Actors: Wallace Beery, Leo Carrillo, Fay Wray, Donald Cook, Joseph Schildkraut, Stuart Erwin

Synopsis: A far from factual filmed biography of Mexican patriot Pancho Villa, Viva Villa! was written by lengendary screenwriter Ben Hecht. We first meet the young Villa when his father is beaten to death after protesting Diaz' seizure of the Mexican peons' land. Pancho exacts a temporary revenge by Read More

The Countess of Monte Cristo

Actors: Fay Wray, Paul Lukas, Reginald Owen, Patsy Kelly, Paul Page

Synopsis: One of the lesser-known directorial efforts of cinematographer Karl Freund, The Countess of Monte Cristo stars Fay Wray as the title character. A lowly extra in a Viennese movie studio, young Janet (Wray) gets fed up with her lot in life. Hoping to have one final fling before trudging off to the Read More

Black Moon

Actors: Jack Holt, Fay Wray, Dorothy Burgess, Cora Sue Collins, Arnold Korff

Synopsis: In this bizarre drama, a young wife and mother begins dabbling in voodoo and soon finds herself hopelessly entangled in practicing black arts. Meanwhile her poor husband finds himself powerless to stop her. The matter comes to a terrifying head when she begins participating in human sacrifices and Read More

The Big Brain

Actors: George E. Stone, Phillips Holmes, Fay Wray, Minna Gombell, Lillian Bond

Synopsis: Perennial sidekick George E. Stone is given the leading role in The Big Brain. Stone plays a small-town barber, short of stature but a giant in the world of stock promotion. As his bank account grows, Stone's ethics diminish, and soon he's playing fast and loose with other people's money. Read More

One Sunday Afternoon

Actors: Gary Cooper, Fay Wray, Neil Hamilton, Frances Fuller, Roscoe Karns

Synopsis: Gary Cooper is a small town dentist dissatisfied with his lot. Though married to the lovely and affectionate Frances Fuller, Cooper still carries a torch for his former sweetheart, Fay Wray. Years earlier, Cooper had lost Wray to his old friend Neil Hamilton, and is consumed with the desire to get Read More

Below the Sea

Actors: Ralph Bellamy, Fay Wray, Fredrik Vogeding, Trevor Bland, William J. Kelly

Synopsis: Ralph Bellamy is incongruously cast as a he-man deep sea diver in the Columbia meller Below the Sea. The plot is set in motion by former U boat commander Frederick Vogeding, who seeks out a fortune in gold and jewels which sank to the bottom of the sea during World War I. There's plenty of wet and Read More

Ann Carver's Profession

Actors: Fay Wray, Gene Raymond, Claire Dodd, Arthur Pierson

Synopsis: In this melodrama a superb female lawyer finds that her success has emasculated her husband, a rather average architect, who runs away from home and career to become a nightclub singer and save some shred of manly dignity. While working at the club, he falls in love with an alcoholic Read More

The Woman I Stole

Actors: Jack Holt, Fay Wray, Noah Beery, Sr., Raquel Torres, Donald Cook

Synopsis: In this adventure, a brave hero races across Middle-Eastern desert dunes to win the love his best friend's wife, the manager of an oil company. This naturally enrages the manager and he begins thinking his pal is out to destroy his business. Eventually the wronged manager learns that his seemingly Read More

The Bowery

Actors: Wallace Beery, George Raft, Jackie Cooper, Fay Wray, Pert Kelton

Synopsis: In this rough-and-tumble action comedy, Chuck Connors (Wallace Beery) and Steve Brodie (George Raft) are friendly rivals on New York's Bowery in the 1890s. Connors owns a fancy tavern and looks after a streetwise kid named Swipes McGurk (Jackie Cooper), while Brodie is a daredevil willing to do Read More

Shanghai Madness

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Fay Wray, Ralph Morgan, Eugene Pallette, Herbert Mundin

Synopsis: In this military adventure, a Navy lieutenant is stripped of his rank and booted out after he fires at communist ships in China. These circumstances make it almost impossible for him to find a job. He then ends up saving the life of a beautiful young socialite. The girl immediately likes him and Read More

Master of Men

Actors: Jack Holt, Fay Wray, Theodore Von Eltz, Walter Connolly, Berton Churchill

Synopsis: One of ten films that Fay Wray made in 1993 (including King Kong), Master of Men casts her as Kay Walling, a woman who is being ignored by her husband, Buck (played by Jack Holt). Buck owns a prosperous steel mill and they make a very good living, but he is ambitious and wants more. To this end Read More

The Mystery of the Wax Museum

Actors: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Glenda Farrell, Frank McHugh, Allen Vincent, Gavin Gordon

Synopsis: The Mystery of the Wax Museum begins in London in the 1920s. Lionel Atwill plays Ivan Igor, a brilliant sculptor who manages a wax museum. Regarding his historical creations as his friends, Igor refuses the entreaties of his business partner, Joe Worth (Edwin Maxwell), to turn his labor-of-love Read More

King Kong

Actors: Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot, Frank Reicher, Sam Hardy, Noble Johnson

Synopsis: "How would you like to star opposite the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood?" Enticed by these words, brunette leading lady Fay Wray dyed her hair blonde and accepted the role of Ann Darrow in King Kong -- and stayed with the project even after learning that her "leading man" was a 50-foot Read More

The Vampire Bat

Actors: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Melvyn Douglas, Maude Eburne, George E. Stone

Synopsis: Bloodsucking winged creatures who may take human shape appear to have returned after centuries of dormancy to the middle-European municipality of Kleinschloss in this atmospheric, low-budget thriller from small-scale Majestic Pictures, and the burgomaster (Lionel Belmore) demands answers. With Read More

Stowaway

The Most Dangerous Game

Actors: Joel McCrea, Fay Wray, Leslie Banks, Robert Armstrong, Steve Clemente

Synopsis: The first of many official and unofficial screen versions of Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game was put together by producer Willis O'Brien and directors Ernest B. Schoedsack and Irving Pichel in 1932.