Rags Ragland
Born: 1905-08-23
• Louisville, Kentucky, USA
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)
Filmography
The Hoodlum Saint
Her Highness and the Bellboy
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood
Anchors Aweigh
The Canterville Ghost
Meet the People
3 Men in White
Whistling in Brooklyn
Girl Crazy
Du Barry Was a Lady
Whistling in Dixie
Panama Hattie
Somewhere I'll Find You
The War Against Mrs. Hadley
Maisie Gets Her Man
Sunday Punch
Born to Sing
Whistling in the Dark
Ringside Maisie
Hats and Dogs