Fay Wray (1907 - )

• actress
• born September 15, 1907, Alberta
• raised in Los Angeles
• began haunting studio casting offices in her teens and landed occasional parts in films from 1923
• soared to sudden stardom in 1928 as a result of her casting in the lead feminine role in Erich von Stroheim's The Wedding March (1928)
• subsequently starred in many other productions, opposite such leading men as Gary Cooper, Ronald Colman, Fredric March, and William Powell
• best known for her role in King Kong (1933), as the frightened girl carried by Kong to the top of the Empire State Building
• from the mid-30s, Wray was primarily cast in low-budget action pictures
• first husband (1928 -1939) was playwright-screenwriter John Monk Saunders
• retired from the screen in 1942 after her marriage to screenwriter Robert Riskin
• made a comeback in the 50s in character parts after Riskin's death
• retired again in 1958
• has written a number of plays and stories
• quotes:
  • They told me I was going to have the tallest, darkest, leading man in Hollywood.
  • At the premiere of King Kong I wasn't too impressed. I thought there was too much screaming ... I didn't realize then that King Kong and I were going to be together for the rest of our lives, and longer ...
• autobiography On the other hand: a life story (1989)
• filmography

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