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John Wray

John Wray

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).

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Movies Starring John Wray (76)

The Doctor Takes a Wife (1940)

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. ...

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Outside the Three-Mile Limit (1940)

Government Agent Conway, posing as a crew member of a ship, is investigating the flood of counterfeit money that seemingly is originating for a gambling ship, moored off-shore beyond the three-mile limit and operated by gangster Dave Reeves. ...

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The Man from Dakota (1940)

A frontier scout, a Boston officer and a Russian girl escape with a map past Confederates. ...

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Swiss Family Robinson (1940)

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. ...

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Know Your Money (1940)

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. ...

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Remember the Night (1940)

Unexpected love blossoms when an assistant district attorney agrees to take a recidivist shoplifter home so she doesn't have to spend Christmas alone in jail. ...

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Gone with the Wind (1939)

The spoiled daughter of a Georgia plantation owner conducts a tumultuous romance with a cynical profiteer during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era. ...

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The Amazing Mr. Williams (1939)

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 dut ...

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The Cat and the Canary (1939)

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 r ...

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Blackmail (1939)

A fugitive from a chain gang becomes an oil-well firefighter and meets the man who framed him. ...

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Golden Boy (1939)

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 buy a piece of him, he begins to have second thoughts. ...

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Smuggled Cargo (1939)

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 ...

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Each Dawn I Die (1939)

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. ...

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Winter Carnival (1939)

A divorced glamour girl keeps warm with a professor amid sports and romance at Dartmouth College's Winter Carnival. ...

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Almost a Gentleman (1939)

Saving a dog from the pound gets a man mixed up in murder. ...

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Risky Business (1939)

Radio commentator Dan Clifford takes desperate chances to save the life of a young girl who has been kidnapped. ...

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Pacific Liner (1939)

The S. S. Arcturus sails from Shanghai to San Francisco, and Dr. Jim Craig takes the post of ship's physician in order to be near Ann Grayson, the ship's nurse. Chief Engineer 'Crusher" McKay also has his eyes on Ann, and this brings an immediate conflict ...

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A Man to Remember (1938)

On the day of his funeral, a dedicated smalltown doctor is remembered by his neighbors and patients. ...

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Crime Takes a Holiday (1938)

A district attorney uses psychology to expose a criminal gang by publicizing the prosecution of an innocent man. ...

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Boys Town (1938)

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 p ...

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Spawn of the North (1938)

Two Alaskan salmon fisherman find their friendship at risk when one aligns with Russian fish pirates and the other aligns with local vigilantes. ...

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Tenth Avenue Kid (1938)

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 ...

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Professor Beware (1938)

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. ...

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Gangs of New York (1938)

An undercover cop infiltrates a powerful New York based crime syndicate. ...

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Making the Headlines (1938)

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. ...

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What Price Safety! (1938)

Racketeers muscle in on construction business, use inferior materials, make big profits and endanger the public safety. ...

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The Black Doll (1938)

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 detect ...

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The Women Men Marry (1937)

A newsman with a no-good wife exposes a religious racket with a newswoman who loves him. ...

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On Such a Night (1937)

When her husband is accused of murder, an actress tries to prove his innocence. ...

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The Devil Is Driving (1937)

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 spoile ...

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Circus Girl (1937)

A jealous trapeze star decides he must eliminate his romantic rival. ...

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Outcast (1937)

A physician in a small town suddenly finds himself the object of vilification and persecution when one of his patients commits suicide. ...

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You Only Live Once (1937)

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 ...

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We Who Are About to Die (1937)

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. ...

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A Man Betrayed (1936)

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. ...

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Valiant Is the Word for Carrie (1936)

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 ...

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The President's Mystery (1936)

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 ...

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The Devil Is a Sissy (1936)

A well-bred young English lad living in lower Manhattan tries to gain acceptance from his not-so-well-bred peers at school. ...

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Sworn Enemy (1936)

A law student poses as a fight promoter to catch a notorious gangster. ...

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A Son Comes Home (1936)

A mother experiences the torment of discovering that her own son is a killer. ...

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Poor Little Rich Girl (1936)

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 ...

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Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

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 al ...

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Frisco Kid (1935)

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. ...

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Bad Boy (1935)

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. ...

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Atlantic Adventure (1935)

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 wh ...

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Stranded (1935)

A Traveler's Aid worker who delights in solving people's problems gets mixed up with gangsters. ...

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Men Without Names (1935)

A G-man woos a newswoman and corners bank robbers with a hostage in a factory. ...

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Ladies Love Danger (1935)

A mystery-comedy with multiple backgrounds set in a back-stage and penthouse backgrounds finds actress Rita Witherspoon mistakenly entering the apartment of Ricardo Souchet, a rich bachelor. He immediately suspects her of a murder that has just been commit ...

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The Great Hotel Murder (1935)

Crime novelist Roger Blackwood competes with hotel house detective Andy McCabe in solving a murder by poisoning at a medical convention. ...

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I Am a Thief (1934)

A man dodges jewel thieves while carrying a fortune in diamonds on the Orient Express. ...

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I'll Fix It (1934)

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 ...

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The Captain Hates the Sea (1934)

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 ...

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Embarrassing Moments (1934)

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. ...

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The Defense Rests (1934)

A sleazy lawyer's female assistant sets out to end his cheating ways. ...

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Fifteen Wives (1934)

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 mur ...

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Green Eyes (1934)

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. ...

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Most Precious Thing in Life (1934)

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. ...

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The Crosby Case (1934)

Former lovers get together to clear themselves when the police suspect them of murder. ...

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The Big Shakedown (1934)

Former bootlegger Dutch Barnes pressures neighborhood druggist Jimmy Morrell into making cut-rate knockoff toiletry, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical products. ...

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Bombay Mail (1934)

In India, a police inspector investigates a murder that took place on a train between Calcutta and Bombay. ...

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Lone Cowboy (1933)

Young Scooter O'Neal, orphaned after his father's suicide, is sent out West to live with family friend Dobe Jones. Unaware of his father's fate Scooter longs to return to his home in Chicago especially after discovering Dobe is an embittered ranch hand hel ...

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After Tonight (1933)

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. ...

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The Match King (1932)

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 influen ...

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Central Park (1932)

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. ...

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The Death Kiss (1932)

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. ...

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I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)

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. ...

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Doctor X (1932)

A wisecracking New York reporter intrudes on a research scientist's quest to unmask The Moon Killer. ...

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Miss Pinkerton (1932)

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 Pinkerton, afte ...

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The Rich Are Always with Us (1932)

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. ...

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The Miracle Man (1932)

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 c ...

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The Mouthpiece (1932)

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. ...

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High Pressure (1932)

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... ...

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The Woman from Monte Carlo (1932)

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. ...

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Safe in Hell (1931)

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. ...

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Silence (1931)

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. ...

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Quick Millions (1931)

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. ...

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Movies Made By John Wray (1)

Quick Millions (1931)

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. ...

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