Charles Ray
From Wikipedia Charles Edgar Ray (March 15, 1891 – November 23, 1943) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter. Ray rose to fame during the mid-1910s portraying young wholesome hicks in silent comedy films. Ray was born in Jacksonville, Illinois and moved to Springfield as a child where he attended elementary school. He then moved to Arizona for a time before finally relocating to Los Angeles where he finished his education. He initially began his career on the stage before working for director Thomas H. Ince as a film extra in December 1912. He appeared in several bit parts before moving on to supporting roles. Ray's break came in 1915 when he appeared opposite Frank Keenan in the historical war drama The Coward. Ray's popularity increased after appearing in a series of films which cast him in juvenile roles, primarily young hicks or "country bumpkins" that foiled the plans of thieves or con men. In March 1917, he signed with Paramount Pictures and resumed working with director Thomas H. Ince. By 1920, he was earning a reported $11,000 a week. Around this time, he left Paramount after studio head Adolph Zukor refused to give him a pay raise. Zukor later wrote in his autobiography The Public Is Never Wrong, that Ray's ego had gotten out of hand and that Ray "...was headed for trouble and did not care to be with him when he found it." After leaving Paramount, Ray formed his own production company, Charles Ray Productions, and also used his fortune to purchase a studio in Los Angeles where he began producing and shooting his own films. On November 23, 1943, Ray died of a mouth and throat infection at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles for which he had been hospitalized six weeks prior. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Charles Ray has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6355 Hollywood Boulevard.
Mrs. Miniver
as Man getting on Bus (uncredited)Middle-class housewife Kay Miniver deals with petty problems. She and her husband Clem watch her...
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Rio Rita
as Hotel Guest (uncredited)Doc and Wishey run into some Nazi-agents, who want to smuggle bombs into the USA from a Mexican...
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Ladies Should Listen
as Henri, the porterThe switchboard operator in an apartment building falls in love with a businessman who lives in...
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School for Girls
as DukeAfter being convicted of stealing some jewels, Annette Eldrige is sent to a reformatory...
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Appointment for Love
as Butler (uncredited)Charming Andre Cassil woos physician Jane Alexander and the two impulsively get married. The...
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The Man Who Lost Himself
as (uncredited)John Evans encounters his lookalike, Malcolm Scott. When Scott is killed in an accident, Evans...
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Hollywood Boulevard
as Charlie Smith - Assistant DirectorWith a full Hollywood background and settings but more an expose of scandal-and-gossip magazines...
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The Coward
as Frank WinslowSet during the American Civil War, Keenan stars as a Virginia colonel and Charles Ray as his...
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Welcome Home
as Andrew CarrA con artist attends a reunion in his hometown and discovers that his former classmates are...
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The Garden of Eden
as Richard DupontToni Le Brun, a beautiful Viennese singer, becomes the ward of the wardrobe mistress of a Monte...
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The House That Shadows Built
as (archive footage)The House That Shadows Built (1931) is a short feature, roughly 48 minutes long, from Paramount...
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Greased Lightning
as Andy FletcherAndy Fletcher is a blacksmith in a country village, but he dreams of racing automobiles. He gets...
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The Son of His Father
as Gordon CarbhoyA young man with little ambition is given an opportunity to set himself up in business by means...
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Bill Henry
as Bill Henry JenkinsBill Henry Jenkins is a country boy on the lookout for a good career. He faces numerous...
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Bright Lights
as Tom CorbinTom loves Patsy, but she lives in the city while he is every bit the country bumpkin. When an...
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Paris
as JerryThe power of love in the violent underground world of the Apaches in Paris in the early 20th...
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By Your Leave
as Leonard PurcellA bored couple facing middle-age succumbs to wandering eyes.
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The Mad Martindales
as Barbershop Customer (uncredited)A girl tries to pay the mortgage on a Nob Hill home and gets involved in selling her father's...
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The Quakeress
as John Hart - the SchoolmasterThe setting is an early American village, where a young Quaker woman, Priscilla, is in love with...
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Percy
as Percival RogeenWestern melodrama about a sheltered youth who makes his way out West by playing the fiddle.
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The Lady from Cheyenne
as Bit RoleFictionalized story of the 1869 adoption of women's suffrage in Wyoming Territory. In the...
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The American
as Bill SmithSeref, who returns to his country after many years in America, as a dollar billionaire with a...
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Dynamite Smith
as Gladstone SmithGladstone Smith, a fearful young reporter, gets on the wrong side of a murderous criminal and...
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Sweet Adeline
as Ben WilsonA shy and sensitive young man is disregarded by his parents and his older brother. Bill becomes...
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Slightly Dangerous
as Opera patron (uncredited)Small-town soda-jerk Peggy Evans quits her dead-end job and moves to New York where she invents...
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A Tailor-Made Man
as John Paul BartA tailor tries to pass himself off in high society by wearing some of his rich customer's clothes.
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His Mother's Boy
as Matthew DentonAfter his father dies amidst rumors that he was an oil swindler, Matthew Denton goes to Texas to...
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The Gangsters and the Girl
as Detective John StoneMolly Ashley, a child of the slums, is charged with being an accomplice to a shoplifter....
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The Legend of Rudolph Valentino
as Self (archive footage)A documentary of Hollywood's first great Latin Lover, the contradictions in his personal life,...
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Peggy
as Colin CameronThe heroine, Peggy Cameron, is a high-society debutante with a mind of her own. After making a...
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Just My Luck
as Homer CrowHomer Crow, fired from his laboratory job at the Dunn-Wright Rubber Company, is sure that his...
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The Conversion of Frosty Blake
as Reverend Horace BrightrayRev. Horace Brightray, pastor of a New England village church, is ordered by his physician to...
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The Sheriff's Son
as Royal BeaudrySheriff's son Royal Beaudry is thought a coward, even by the young woman he has his heart set...
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Ticket to a Crime
as Courtney MalloryAfter a jeweler hires a private detective to help him find $50,000 missing from his company, he...
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An Old Fashioned Boy
as David WarringtonDavid Warrington is an old-fashioned boy, not very familiar with modern girls. When the girl of...
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Getting Gertie's Garter
as Ken WalrickAttorney Ken Walrick, not quite realizing the difference between a garter and a bracelet, gives...
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The Girl I Loved
as John MiddletonJohn Middleton is distressed to learn that his family is taking in an orphan girl named Mary. He...
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The Fire Brigade
as Terry O'NeilTerry O'Neill is the youngest of a family of Irish firefighters. He falls in love with Helen...
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Homer Comes Home
as Homer CavenderNe'er-do-well Homer Cavender ventures to the city from Mainsville in an effort to find fame and...
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The Busher
as Ben HardingA young baseball pitcher in the bush leagues is discovered by a big-league manager and given his...
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The Camera Speaks
as Self (archive footage)In this short film, an elderly cameraman and his camera reminisce about their days shooting...
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The Clodhopper
as Everett NelsonEverett Nelson is a naive young farmboy. Following unjust treatment on the farm, he runs away to...
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Playing the Game
as Larry PrentissMillionaire Larry Prentiss inherits a ranch. He decides to visit his new property incognito and...
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Home
as Bob WheatonBessie Wheaton returns from Europe to find her nouveau riche family has adopted and magnified...
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The Boomerang
as Lt. CalhounVirginia Chester visits her Aunt Betty who resides near an army post. Lieut. Calhoun falls in...
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45 Minutes from Broadway
as Kid BurnsKid Burns vicariously enjoys life with his wealthy playboy pal. But complications ensue when Kid...
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The Wolf Woman
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The Pinch Hitter
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A Village Sleuth
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The Courtship of Miles Standish
as John AldenA dramatization of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem 'The Courtship of Miles Standish,' this is...
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The Renegade
as Captain MarleyA white slaver impersonates the heir to an English estate, but the rightful heir reappears and...
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The Deserter
as Lieutenant ParkerParker, an Army lieutenant at a Western outpost, falls in love with Barbara Taylor, daughter of...
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Alarm Clock Andy
as Andrew GrayAndy is a timid young man who lives his life completely in the power of his friends, his boss,...
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Old Mammy's Secret Code
as DavidJim Black, learning that his rival, David Durard, son of Colonel Durard, wealthy Southern...
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The Claws of the Hun
as John StantonAn American munitions manufacturer and his son become ensnarled with enemy agents from Germany...
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Honor Thy Name
as uncreditedThe pride of his aristocratic Southern family, a young man shatters his family's hopes by...
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In the Tennessee Hills
as Jim CarsonIn an impoverished Tennessee hill town, Jim cares for his dangerously ill mother in a run-down...
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The Weaker Sex
as Jack HardingJack Harding, a wealthy ne'er-do-well, becomes involved with a Broadway vamp. When she is...
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The Egg Crate Wallop
as Jim KellyAssistant to freight express agent Dave Haskell in the town of Pitt's Junction, Jim Kelly...
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Gas, Oil and Water
as George Oliver WatsonGeorge Watson may seem like a harmless gas-station attendant, but in reality he is a secret...
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Back of the Man
as Larry ThomasLarry Thomas works as a minor employee in a large insurance company. He loves Ellen Horton, who...
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The Auction Block
as Bob WhartonBob Wharton marries Lorelei Knight, a beauty contest winner. While on their honeymoon, Bob is...
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The Deuce of Spades
as AmosAmos, a Boston beanery owner inherits a restaurant out West and goes out to make his fortune....
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