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)
Also Known As
Movie Appearances
Girl Crazy
as 'Rags'
1943
Du Barry Was a Lady
as Charlie / Dauphin
1943
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood
as Self
1945
Her Highness and the Bellboy
as Albert Weever
1945
The Canterville Ghost
as Big Harry Waters
1944
The Hoodlum Saint
as Fishface
1946
Whistling in the Dark
as Sylvester
1941
Whistling in Dixie
as Chester Conway / Sylvester 'Lester' Conway
1942
Whistling in Brooklyn
as Chester Conway
1943
Meet the People
as Mr. Smith
1944
Born to Sing
as 'Grunt'
1942
Maisie Gets Her Man
as Ears Cofflin
1942
Panama Hattie
as Rags (as 'Rags' Ragland)
1942
3 Men in White
as Hobart Genet
1944
Anchors Aweigh
as Police Sergeant
1945
Somewhere I'll Find You
as Charlie
1942
The War Against Mrs. Hadley
as Louie
1942
Sunday Punch
as 'Killer' Connolly
1942
Ringside Maisie
as Vic
1941
Hats and Dogs
1938