John Wray

John Wray

Birth : 1887-02-13, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Death : 1940-04-05

History

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. John Wray (13 February 1887 - 5 April 1940) was an American character actor of stage and screen. Wray was one of the many Broadway actors to descend on Hollywood in the aftermath of the sound revolution, and quickly made an indelible impression on the era in a variety of substantial character roles, such as the Arnold Rothstein-like gangster in The Czar of Broadway (1930); Himmelstoss, the sadistic drill instructor in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930); and as the contortionist the Frog in the remake of The Miracle Man (1932), in the role previously played by Lon Chaney in the 1919 original. During this period he was one of the many actors mentioned for the title role in Dracula (1931). Wray's roles grew increasingly smaller as the decade progressed but he was very visible as the starving farmer threatening to kill Gary Cooper in Frank Capra's classic Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and as the warden in Fritz Lang's You Only Live Once (1937). Other films include Doctor X (1932), I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), Frisco Kid (1935), Poor Little Rich Girl (1936), Boys Town (1938), Each Dawn I Die (1939), The Cat and the Canary (1939) and Gone with the Wind (1939). Description above from the Wikipedia article John Wray(actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Profile

John Wray

Movies

The Doctor Takes a Wife
Joe - Farmer
A best-selling author of women's issues and a medical academic find it is to their mutual advantage to falsely claim that they are married.
The Man from Dakota
Mr. Carpenter
A frontier scout, a Boston officer and a Russian girl escape with a map past Confederates.
Swiss Family Robinson
Ramsey
A family setting out for a new life across the sea is shipwrecked on a deserted island. The family members collaborate to create a home for themselves in the jungle environment.
Know Your Money
Bowers the Printer
This MGM Crime Does Not Pay series short tells the fictitious story of a bill counterfeiting ring and explores the government's attempt to curb counterfeiting.
Remember the Night
Hank
When Jack, an assistant District Attorney, takes Lee, a shoplifter caught in the act, home with him for Christmas, the unexpected happens and love blossoms.
Gone with the Wind
Prison Gang Overseer (uncredited)
The spoiled daughter of a Georgia plantation owner conducts a tumultuous romance with a cynical profiteer during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era.
The Amazing Mr. Williams
Stanley
Kenny Williams, a lieutenant on the homicide squad, is engaged to Maxine Carroll, the Mayor's secretary. Or isn't he rather married with his job? For each time he has a date with his longtime fiancée, he is prevented from keeping it by his devotion to duty. Maxine, in desperation, decides to take action and bring Kenny to the altar. Who will win, Maxine's curves or the glorious fight against crime?
The Cat and the Canary
Hendricks
Ten years after the death of millionaire Cyrus Norman, his will is to be read out to his six relatives, including Joyce Norman and Wally Campbell. Organized by Norman's lawyer, Crosby, the six meet at Norman's eerie New Orleans Gothic mansion. During the reading, the superstitious housekeeper declares that someone will be dead by midnight. Wally fears for Joyce when she is declared the sole inheritor, but all are alarmed when Crosby turns up dead.
Blackmail
Convict Diggs
A fugitive from a chain gang becomes an oil-well firefighter and meets the man who framed him.
Golden Boy
Chocolate Drop's Manager
Despite his talent as a musician, a city boy decides to become a boxer. He's successful as a fighter — much to the dismay of his parents. When gangsters try to by a piece of him, he begins to have second thoughts.
Smuggled Cargo
Chris Hays
When a sudden cold snap hits the Imperial Valley in California, orange growers fear that frost will kill their crops. Orange Growers Association president John Clayton assures his fellow farmers that he will help them obtain the oil needed to keep warming fires burning.
Winter Carnival
Poultry Truck Driver
A divorced glamour girl keeps warm with a professor amid sports and romance at Dartmouth College's Winter Carnival.
Each Dawn I Die
Pete Kassock
A corrupt D.A. with governatorial ambitions is annoyed by an investigative reporter's criticism of his criminal activities and decides to frame the reporter for manslaughter in order to silence him.
Almost a Gentleman
'Crack' Williams
Saving a dog from the pound gets a man mixed up in murder.
Risky Business
Silas
Radio commentator Dan Clifford takes desperate chances to save the life of a young girl who has been kidnapped.
Pacific Liner
Metcalfe
An outbreak of cholera threatens a luxury liner in this surprisingly low-budget melodrama from RKO. En route from Shanghai to San Francisco, chief engineer Crusher McKay (Victor McLaglen) and shipboard doctor Tony Craig (Chester Morris) become rivals for the attention of nurse Ann Grayson (Wendy Barrie). A Chinese stowaway, meanwhile, infects the stokehold with cholera and it is left to Crusher to keep the engines at full throttle until reaching harbor. But morale sinks to an all-time low when Crusher himself is stricken and the overworked men threaten with mutiny. Tony attempts to keep the stokers in check but the situation is growing more dangerous by the minute when a heroic Crusher rises from his sickbed. Leaving their previous petty squabbles behind, Tony and Crusher manage to guide the ship safely to harbor, where the doc and Ann rekindle their romance.
A Man to Remember
Tom Johnson
On the day of his funeral, a dedicated smalltown doctor is remembered by his neighbors and patients.
Crime Takes a Holiday
Howell
A district attorney uses psychology to expose a criminal gang by publicizing the prosecution of an innocent man.
Boys Town
Weasel (uncredited)
Devout but iron-willed Father Flanagan leads a community called Boys Town, a different sort of juvenile detention facility where, instead of being treated as underage criminals, the boys are shepherded into making themselves better people. But hard-nosed petty thief and pool shark Whitey Marsh, the impulsive and violent younger brother of an imprisoned murderer, might be too much for the good father's tough-love system.
Spawn of the North
Dr. Sparks
Two Alaskan salmon fisherman find their friendship at risk when one aligns with Russian fish pirates and the other aligns with local vigilantes.
Tenth Avenue Kid
Joe Turner
In this drama, a 12-year-old boy becomes an orphan after seeing a detective shoot his father. Later the detective feels bad and offers to become his friend, but his intentions are not entirely honorable as the detective really wants to know the location of the loot his father stashed during a robbery.
Professor Beware
Head Lawyer
Egyptologist, Dean Lambert, accused of car-theft, skips bail and begins a cross-country trek to join a group in New York headed for Egypt. With the police close on his trail he gets in and out of scrapes along the way.
Gangs of New York
Maddock
An undercover cop infiltrates a powerful New York based crime syndicate.
Making the Headlines
Herbert Sandford
Angry, because he is making too many headlines with his gang-busting activities, the police chief transfers Lt. Lewis Nagel to the sleepy suburban town of Fairview, where he is followed by reporter Steve Withers because he knows Nagel will find a story.
What Price Safety!
J. Z. Wray
Racketeers muscle in on construction business, use inferior materials, make big profits and endanger the public safety.
The Black Doll
Walling
Nicholas Rood, dishonest mine owner, finds a Black Doll on his desk and knows that vengeance is about to overtake him for murdering his former partner. He is knifed as he talks to his daughter Marian. She summons her fiancé Nick Halstead, a private detective. He finds that six people had a motive for the murder; Rood's sister Mrs. Laura Leland; her son Rex; Rood's associates Mallison and Walling; Esteban, a servant and Dr. Giddings. Sheriff Renick and his deputy Red get the clues all mixed up, but Nick finally narrows the search down to one suspect...
The Women Men Marry
Brother Nameless
A newsman (George Murphy) with a no-good wife (Claire Dodd) exposes a religious racket with a newswoman (Josephine Hutchinson) who loves him.
The Devil Is Driving
Joe Peters
In the fine tradition of And Sudden Death, Columbia's The Devil is Driving tabulates the dangers of drunken driving in an exciting, unabashedly melodramatic fashion. In his first true portrayal of a "little creep," Elisha Cook Jr. stars as Tony, the spoiled-rotten son of the wealthy and influential Mr. Stevens.
Circus Girl
Roebling
A jealous trapeze star decides he must eliminate his romantic rival.
Outcast
Hank Simmerson
A physician in a small town suddenly finds himself the object of vilification and persecution when one of his patients commits suicide.
You Only Live Once
Warden Wheeler
Based partially on the story of Bonnie and Clyde, Eddie Taylor is an ex-convict who cannot get a break after being released from prison. When he is framed for murder, Taylor is forced to flee with his wife Joan Graham and baby. While escaping prison after being sentenced to death, Taylor becomes a real murderer, condemning himself and Joan to a life of crime and death on the road.
We Who Are About to Die
Jerry Daley
John Thompson is kidnapped by mobsters after quitting his job. Then he is arrested, tried, and sentenced to death for murders they committed. A suspicious detective thinks he is innocent and works to save his life.
A Man Betrayed
Sparks
A businessman during the Great Depression discovers that his partners are crooked con-men, and he tries to make things right for the stockholders, but gets framed.
Valiant Is the Word for Carrie
George Darnley
Carrie Snyder is a prostitute, who is forced out of the fictional southern town of Crebillon, after forming a friendship with a young boy named Paul, whose dying mother is unable to protest against her son visiting such a woman. After Carrie has left town Paul runs away from his abusive father, and meets a girl named Lady who has run away from a burning trainwreck, not wanting to go back to the people she was with. Carrie comes back for Paul and ends up taking Paul and Lady to New York with her.
The President's Mystery
Shane
The screenplay for this mystery is based upon a story suggested to Liberty Magazine by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It is the tale of a prominent lawyer who shocks his snooty friends, family and colleagues by abruptly abandoning his successful practice and his wife to find true happiness. He soon falls in love with another woman and continues to keep a low profile until he learns that his first wife stands accused of murdering him
The Devil Is a Sissy
Priest
A well-bred young English lad living in lower Manhattan tries to gain acceptance from his not-so-well-bred peers at school.
Sworn Enemy
Lang, a Gangster
A law student poses as a fight promoter to catch a notorious gangster.
Poor Little Rich Girl
Flagin
Cossetted and bored, Barbara Barry is finally sent off to school by her busy if doting widowed soap manufacturer father. When her nurse is injured en route, Barbara finds herself alone in town, ending up as part of radio song-and-dance act Dolan and Dolan sponsored by a rival soap company.
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Farmer
Longfellow Deeds lives in a small town, leading a small town kind of life. When a relative dies and leaves Deeds a fortune, Longfellow moves to the big city where he becomes an instant target for everyone. Deeds outwits them all until Babe Bennett comes along. When small-town boy meets big-city girl anything can, and does, happen.
Ladies Love Danger
Fox comedy about an adventurous young woman
Frisco Kid
The Weasel
After a roustabout sailor avoids being shanghaied in 1850s San Francisco, his audacity helps him rise to a position of power in the vice industry of the infamous Barbary Coast.
Bad Boy
Fred Larkin
An unemployed loafer who spends his time playing pool decides he's ready to look for a job so he can secure his girlfriend's parents' approval for their marriage.
Atlantic Adventure
Mitts Coster
When reporter Dan Miller is once again late to meet his girl friend, Helen Murdock, because he is working on a story, Helen breaks up with him. Later, in an effort to reconcile with her, Dan misses an appointment with the district attorney, and is fired when his editor learns that the district attorney was murdered in Dan's absence. The man suspected of the crime, Mitts Coster, is rumored to be traveling to Europe aboard an ocean liner. While Dan's friend, photographer Snapper McGillicuddy, fetches Helen to the boat, under the pretense that Dan is leaving town to forget her, Dan searches the ship for Mitts, whom he does not recognize. When Helen arrives, Dan feigns illness, and she admits her love for him. When Helen learns of Dan's ruse, however, she angrily hits him with a package that a passenger gave her when she boarded the ship. The package contains a passport for Dorothy Madden, who greatly resembles Helen, and $2,000 dollars.
Stranded
Mike Gibbons
A Traveler's Aid worker who delights in solving people's problems gets mixed up with gangsters.
Men Without Names
Sam Hammond
A G-man woos a newswoman and corners bank robbers with a hostage in a factory.
The Great Hotel Murder
Feets Moore
Crime novelist Roger Blackwood competes with hotel house detective Andy McCabe in solving a murder by poisoning at a medical convention.
I Am a Thief
Antonio Poricci
A man dodges jewel thieves while carrying a fortune in diamonds on the Orient Express.
I'll Fix It
Fletcher
A power-broker ward-heeler, Bill Grimes, wields more power than the elected politicians and has no problem in getting matters-of-the-city handled in which ever way is best for his needs. But when he tries to fix his adored kid brother's place on the school football team, he meets his match in school-teacher Anne Barry.
The Captain Hates the Sea
Mr. Jeddock
Alcoholic newspaperman Steve Bramley boards the San Capador for a restful cruise, hoping to quit drinking and begin writing a book. Also on board are Steve's friend Schulte, a private detective hoping to nab criminal Danny Checkett with a fortune in stolen bonds. Steve begins drinking, all the while observing the various stories of other passengers on board, several of whom turn out not to be who they seem to be.
Embarrassing Moments
Slug
Jerry Randolph is an inveterate and obnoxious practical joker. Things take a serious turn when it looks as though Jerry's latest prank has resulted in the death of his best friend.
Fifteen Wives
Jason Getty
Shortly after his arrival from South America to New York, Steven Humbolt is found dead in his apartment at the Savoia Hotel. Inspector Decker Dawes investigates the case and although the cause of death is described as apoplexy, Dawes is convinced it as murder, especially after he learns that Humbolt had been married fifteen times.
The Defense Rests
Michael Cooney
A sleazy lawyer's female assistant sets out to end his cheating ways.
Most Precious Thing in Life
Carter
An unwed mother watches as her illegitimate son is raised by others. Director Lambert Hillyer's 1934 drama stars Jean Arthur, Richard Cromwell, Donald Cook, Anita Louise, Jane Darwell, Mary Forbes and Ward Bond.
Green Eyes
Inspector Crofton
The owner of a large mansion in the country throws a costume party for some of his friends. However, the party turns sour when he is found stabbed to death in a closet. The police and a guest try to discover who committed the murder.
The Crosby Case
Willie McGuire
Former lovers get together to clear themselves when the police suspect them of murder.
Bombay Mail
Giovanni Martini
In India, a police inspector investigates a murder that took place on a train between Calcutta and Bombay.
The Big Shakedown
Higgins
Former bootlegger Dutch Barnes pressures neighborhood druggist Jimmy Morrell into making cut-rate knockoff toiletry, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical products.
Lone Cowboy
Bill O'Neal
After Tonight
Mitika, the Gypsy Contact
When war is declared in 1914, glamorous Russian Carla Vanirska manages to get to Vienna from Luxembourg, with the help of Captain Rudolph Ritter of the Austrian army. Meanwhile, Ritter is assigned to detect the identity of a spy.
The Match King
Foreman of Janitors
Unscrupulous Chicago janitor Paul Kroll uses deceit to fund a return trip to his homeland of Sweden. There, via ongoing continuing deceit and manipulation, he gradually attains a monopoly on the matchstick market in several countries and becomes an influential international figure. Based on the true story of Ivar Kreuger.
Central Park
Robert Smiley
Two destitute New Yorkers meet cute in Central Park and then separate and independently get tangled up with some gangsters only to be reunited again in the end.
The Death Kiss
Detective Lieut. Sheehan
When a movie actor is shot and killed during production, the true feelings about the actor begin to surface. As the studio heads worry about negative publicity, one of the writers tags along as the killing is investigated and clues begin to surface.
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
Nordine (uncredited)
A World War I veteran’s dreams of becoming a master architect evaporate in the cold light of economic realities. Things get even worse when he’s falsely convicted of a crime and sent to work on a chain gang.
Doctor X
Dr. Haines
A wisecracking New York reporter intrudes on a research scientist's quest to unmask The Moon Killer.
Miss Pinkerton
Hugo
Scion of the once-rich Mitchell family, Herbert Wynn is found shot to death. Nurse Adams, bored by hospital routine, is recruited by the police to ferret out clues as she tends to Wynn's elderly aunt Julia. Jokingly given the 'rank' of Miss Pinkerson, after the famous detective agency, Adams probes into the mystery, but not before a second death.
The Rich Are Always with Us
Clark Davis
A wealthy couple's marriage is falling apart due to the man's infidelity. The wife's male friend has long loved her and sees his big opportunity.
The Miracle Man
The Frog
A gang of crooks evade the police by moving their operations to a small town. There the gang's leader, John Madison, encounters a faith healer and uses him to scam the gullible public of funds for a supposed chapel. But when a real healing takes place, a change comes over the gang.
The Mouthpiece
Mr. Barton
A prosecutor quits his job and becomes a defense attorney when he finds out that a man he got convicted and executed was actually innocent.
High Pressure
Jimmy Moore
Gar Evans is a con artist, who pretends to be the owner of a "Golden Gate Artificial Rubber Company", and he is looking for investors. Finding them is relatively easy, but it becomes difficult when those want to see the inventor of the synthetic rubber...
The Woman from Monte Carlo
Cmdr. Brambourg
On the eve of WW-I the French Navy ship Lafayette returns to its Toulon base for one night. There is no shore leave, although wives are permitted to come to a party. The strain of command on the older captain and his new, young wife is very great.
Safe in Hell
Eagan
To avoid the rigors of the law, Gilda flees New Orleans and hides on a Caribbean island where the worst criminals can ask for asylum. Besieged by the scum of the earth, Gilda will soon find out that she has found refuge in hell.
Silence
Harry Silvers
A gray-haired convict, within the shadows of the gallows, tells his story to the prison chaplain beginning twenty years earlier when he was sent to prison for a crime he did not commit.
Quick Millions
Additional Dialogue
A truck driver "too lazy to work and too nervous to steal" gets mixed up in racketeering. Naturally his underhanded business practices make him a pillar of the community.
Quick Millions
Kenneth Stone
A truck driver "too lazy to work and too nervous to steal" gets mixed up in racketeering. Naturally his underhanded business practices make him a pillar of the community.
The Czar of Broadway
Morton Bradstreet
Mort Bradley, New York political boss and underworld czar, controls not only the city's most popular nightclub but also much of the press; however, the managing editor of the Times is determined to expose him. Jay Grant, a San Francisco reporter, is assigned to investigate Mort, who believes Jay to be a country boy and is delighted to see him fall in love with Connie Colton, of whom Mort has tired. Dismayed to learn that Jay is a reporter, Mort plans to have his gunman, Francis, kill him, but both Mort and Francis are shot by rival gangsters. Jay, believing that Mort will recover, rushes to the newspaper with an exposé, but while writing it he learns of Mort's death and decides their friendship would not permit him to submit the story. He leaves his paper and embarks on a new life with Connie.
All Quiet on the Western Front
Himmelstoss
When a group of idealistic young men join the German Army during World War, they are assigned to the Western Front, where their patriotism is destroyed by the harsh realities of combat.
New York Nights
Joe Prividi
Show girl Jill Deverne is married to song writer Fred Deverne, and everyone is involved in the Broadway night life and endless parties. Jill is being pursued by a gangster, and she leaves her husband after he spends the night with a floozie. Jill ends up as the gangster's moll, but she soon gets tired of the lifestyle.