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Vina Fay Wray (September 15, 1907 – August 8, 2004) was a Canadian–American actress.
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Early life
Wray was born on a ranch near Cardston, Alberta, Canada. Her family moved to the United States when she was three. Although Wray's autobiography discusses her Mormon parentage and makes it clear that she was culturally Mormon, she was apparently never baptized as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Wray's family lived in predominantly Mormon communities in Alberta, Arizona and Salt Lake City, Utah before settling in Los Angeles, California, where she got her first film work in Hal Roach comedy shorts and in low-budget westerns in the mid 1920s.
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Career
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Wray gained media attention when she was selected as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1926, which landed her a contract at Paramount Pictures.
In 1928, director Erich von Stroheim cast Wray as the main female lead in his troubled production of The Wedding March, which sent Hollywood in a buzz for its high budget and production values. It was a financial failure, but it gave Wray her first lead role.
She is best remembered for her role as Ann Darrow, the blonde seductress of a gigantic, prehistoric gorilla in the classic horror/adventure film King Kong (1933). She wore a blonde wig over her naturally dark hair for the role. There have been claims the screams emanated from actress Julie Haydon, and dubbed to Wray, but that has been disputed.
Wray also appeared in over a hundred other films, mostly in the 1930s, earning her the nickname "Queen of the B's" after appearing in a string of horror movies before and after King Kong. During the 1940s and '50's, as her popularity dwindled, Wray became a noted character actress on stage and screen.
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Personal life
Wray was married three times.
She had three children (not four as is sometimes misreported):
Her autobiography, On the Other Hand (ISBN 0-312-02265-4), was published in 1988.
For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Wray was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6349 Hollywood Blvd. She received a posthumous star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto on June 5, 2005.
A small park near Lee's Creek on Main Street in Cardston, Alberta, is named Fay Wray Park in her honor. The small sign at the edge of the park on Main Street has a silhouette of King Kong on it.
Wray died at her apartment in Manhattan, New York at the age of 96 of natural causes on August 8, 2004, and was interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.
In May 2006, Wray became one of the first four entertainers to ever be honored by Canada Post by being featured on a postage stamp.
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Trivia
Peter Jackson had approached her about doing a cameo in his 2005 remake of King Kong, but she died before she could do so. Originally, she was to walk up to Kong's body in the film's final scene, and deliver the famous line "It was beauty killed the beast." After her death, the line reverted to Carl Denham (Jack Black) who says it in the original film.
She is referred to in the new King Kong remake: Carl Denham needs to find an actress quickly, and suggests 'Fay' as a possibility. However, he is told that she is doing a picture with RKO, the producers of the original film. To which Denham replies "Cooper, huh? I might have known." referring to the director Merian C. Cooper.
In memory of her death, the Empire State Building went into complete darkness for 15 minutes in her memory.
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Filmography
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See also
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