Rags Ragland

Biography

Rags Ragland was a boxer, then a burlesque comedian and then a Broadway performer before ending up in Hollywood to repeat his stage role as the boisterous sailor in Panama Hattie (1942), in which Ann Sothern played on film the part that had been played on Broadway by Ethel Merman. Ragland, typecast as a good-natured oaf with a knack for fracturing the English language, had as his sole movie employer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, in some two dozen of whose lighter vehicles he appeared, in the company of such MGM luminaries as Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Judy Garland and Gene Kelly. Date of Birth 23 August 1905, Louisville, Kentucky Date of Death 20 August 1946, Los Angeles, California (uremic poisoning)

Movies & TV Shows

1. Anchors Aweigh (1945) — Police Sergeant
2. The Canterville Ghost (1944) — Big Harry Waters
3. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood (1945) — Self
4. Girl Crazy (1943) — 'Rags'
5. Du Barry Was a Lady (1943) — Charlie / Dauphin
6. Whistling in the Dark (1941) — Sylvester
7. Somewhere I'll Find You (1942) — Charlie
8. 3 Men in White (1944) — Hobart Genet
9. Her Highness and the Bellboy (1945) — Albert Weever
10. The War Against Mrs. Hadley (1942) — Louie
11. The Hoodlum Saint (1946) — Fishface
12. Meet the People (1944) — Mr. Smith
13. Born to Sing (1942) — 'Grunt'
14. Ringside Maisie (1941) — Vic
15. Whistling in Brooklyn (1943) — Chester Conway
16. Whistling in Dixie (1942) — Chester Conway / Sylvester 'Lester' Conway
17. Sunday Punch (1942) — 'Killer' Connolly
18. Maisie Gets Her Man (1942) — Ears Cofflin
19. Panama Hattie (1942) — Rags (as 'Rags' Ragland)
20. Hats and Dogs (1938) — Rags