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)

Known For

Anchors Aweigh

as Police Sergeant

The Canterville Ghost

as Big Harry Waters

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood

as Self

Girl Crazy

as 'Rags'

Du Barry Was a Lady

as Charlie / Dauphin

Whistling in the Dark

as Sylvester

Somewhere I'll Find You

as Charlie

3 Men in White

as Hobart Genet

Her Highness and the Bellboy

as Albert Weever

The Hoodlum Saint

as Fishface