King Kong, the film that Fay Wray is remembered for, marked the highest point of her career
WHEN King Kong first appeared on screen in 1933 he was made all the more terrifying to audiences by the vocal prowess of “scream queen” Fay Wray.
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WHEN King Kong finally appeared on screen, at about the 40-minute mark of the original 1933 film, audiences were mesmerised. But one thing that helped make this jerky, stop-motion gorilla seem truly terrifying was the reaction of the character Ann Darrow, the woman sacrificed to Kong. She looked up at the monster and screamed . It was a spine-rattling, bloodcurdling noise that added terror to what might have otherwise been an impressive special effect.
The only person at the premiere of the film who was not moved by the scream was the actor playing Darrow, Fay Wray, who thought “there was too much screaming”. She later came to realise that her screaming played an integral part in the impact of Kong and the success of the film. She also later came to realise that it was a role she would never get away from. As she put it: “I didn’t realise then that King Kong and I were going to be together for the rest of our lives, and longer ...”
But while it was her most famous role it was not her only role. Despite the perception that Wray was a one-film wonder, as an actor she made dozens of films before and after being paired with the giant ape.
Vina Fay Wray was born 110 years ago today on September 15, 1907, on a ranch in Alberta, Canada. She was one of six children born to Englishman Joseph Wray and his American-born wife Elvina. When Wray was young the family moved to Utah. After the parents divorced and Elvina lost a child in the influenza epidemic of 1919, the family moved to California, where Wray went to Hollywood High.
The booming film industry in Hollywood naturally attracted the beautiful, petite brunette and she started doing extra work as a teenager. At 16 she scored her first credited role in a short film titled Gasoline Love. But her first major role was as Beth, an innocent young girl drawn into a smuggling ring in the 1925 silent movie The Coast Patrol.
It led to more featured roles, with Universal Studios, mostly as the romantic interest in westerns. Paramount took over her contract in 1927 and got to show some of her acting skills in the 1928 silent film The Wedding March, playing opposite the great Erich von Stroheim, who also directed. Stroheim said “Fay has spirituality ... but she also has that very real sex appeal that takes hold of the hearts of men”. The film, which was considered too long and was split into two parts (the second part, The Honeymoon, has not survived) was a box office failure, but made her famous.
Wray married screenwriter John Monk Saunders in 1928 and they had one daughter, Susan, in 1936.
Wray survived the transition to talkies, but left Paramount in 1930 to work with various studios. She was already straying into horror films with the film, Doctor X, when she signed to RKO in 1932. In her first RKO film, The Most Dangerous Game, she was cast as a woman captured by a bloodthirsty Russian count who enjoyed hunting people. This was followed by The Vampire Bat, about a mad professor draining bodies of blood, and The Mystery of the Wax Museum about a homicidal owner of a waxworks.
Partly on the strength of her ability to react in sheer terror, Merian C. Cooper approached her about a part in his next film where she would be cast opposite a “tall, dark leading man”. The film was King Kong, and despite the fact that they were looking for a blonde, Cooper insisted Wray was the one. She agreed to wear a wig to play the part.
It was a difficult shoot, most of the time she was looking up at nothing to act terrified, and several times she nearly fell out of the giant Kong hand that hoisted her into the air. Although it looked like she was struggling to escape, she was just trying not to fall.
The movie opened in March 1933, making her more famous than ever. But it was a tough act to follow. There were still some good roles like Sylvia, the secretary who switches places with an heiress in The Richest Girl in the World (1934), but the quality of films thereafter were mostly on a decline.
She split from her husband in 1939 (he committed suicide in 1940) and, in 1942, she married award-winning playwright and screenwriter Robert Riskin. Riskin adopted her daughter Susan and the couple had two children, Robert and Victoria.
In the ’40s Wray took a break from acting to concentrate on her family, but returned in the 1952 film The Treasure of the Golden Condor. She worked consistently including in a recurring role in the TV series The Pride Of The Family, playing character roles.
Her last role was in a TV movie Gideon’s Trumpet in 1980. Peter Jackson asked her to play a cameo in his 2005 remake of King Kong, but she refused. She died in her sleep in 2004.
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