Ray Bolger
Highest Rated: 100% That's Entertainment! III (1994)
Lowest Rated: 36% Babes in Toyland (1961)
Birthday: Jan 10, 1904
Birthplace: Not Available
The son of a house painter, American actor/dancer Ray Bolger grew up in a middle-class Boston neighborhood called Dorchester. Bolger knew what he wanted to do in life the moment he saw Broadway entertainer Fred Stone literally bounce on stage in a Boston production of Jack O'Lantern. "That moment opened up a whole new world for me" Bolger would remember; after a relatively aimless childhood, he determined to become a performer himself. Starting out in vaudeville as a dancer, Bolger developed a loose-limbed ad lib style that would win him starring spots in such 1930s Broadway musicals as Life Begins at 8:40 and On Your Toes; in the latter, Bolger introduced Richard Rodgers' "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue". Signed by MGM in 1936 for a featured solo in The Great Ziegfeld, Bolger was given a $3,000 per week contract and was expected to take whatever part was assigned him. But Bolger balked when he was cast as the Tin Man in the studio's Wizard of Oz. He felt the role was too confining for his talents, so Bolger convinced the film's Scarecrow, Buddy Ebsen, to switch parts with him. This move, of course, assured film immortality for Bolger, but wasn't so beneficial for Ebsen, whose allergic reaction to the Tin Man's silver makeup forced him to drop out of the film and be replaced by Jack Haley. Bolger's movie career pretty much took second place to his Broadway work in the 1940s. In 1948, Bolger was awarded the lead in a musical version of Charley's Aunt titled Where's Charley? It was when the daughter of one of the production people began singing his lyrics back to him during out-of-town tryouts that Bolger, in league with composer Frank Loesser, developed the "everybody sing" chorus for the song "Once in Love With Amy". Bolger repeated his role in the 1952 filmization of Where's Charley (1952), then continued his Broadway career with intermittent film appearances into the 1960s. He also starred in a 1953 TV series, alternately titled The Ray Bolger Show and Where's Raymond?, which was so bad that even he was uncharacteristically putting himself down before the inevitable cancellation. Bolger suffered a few career setbacks on stage in the early 1960s, and his villain role in Disney's Babes in Toyland (1961) hardly showed him to best advantage, but the performer prospered as a nightclub performer during the rest of the decade in a nostalgic (if slightly lachrymose) act which recalled his past song hits. Bolger charmed live audiences with his still-athletic hoofing skills into the 1970s. In the twilight of his career, Bolger was allowed to sparkle in guest spots on such TV programs as The Partridge Family, The Love Boat, Baretta, and even PBS's Evening at the Pops.
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
Movies
| Credit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Score Yet | Broadway's Best at Pops | Actor | — | 2007 |
| No Score Yet | Where's Charley? | Actor | — | 1998 |
| 100% | That's Entertainment! III | Actor | — | 1994 |
| No Score Yet | That's Dancing! | Actor | — | 1985 |
| No Score Yet | Peter and the Wolf and Other Tales | Actor | — | 1984 |
| No Score Yet | Peter and the Magic Egg | Actor | — | 1983 |
| No Score Yet | Just You and Me, Kid | Tom | — | 1979 |
| 55% | The Runner Stumbles | Monsignor Nicholson | — | 1979 |
| No Score Yet | The Daydreamer | The Pieman | — | 1966 |
| 36% | Babes in Toyland | Barnaby | — | 1961 |
| No Score Yet | April in Paris | S. 'Sam' Winthrop Putnam | — | 1952 |
| No Score Yet | Look for the Silver Lining | Jack Donahue | — | 1949 |
| 100% | The Harvey Girls | Chris Maule | — | 1946 |
| No Score Yet | Forever and a Day | Sentry | — | 1943 |
| No Score Yet | Stage Door Canteen | Actor | — | 1943 |
| No Score Yet | Sunny | Bunny Billings | — | 1941 |
| No Score Yet | Four Jacks and a Jill | Nifty | — | 1941 |
| 98% | The Wizard of Oz | Scarecrow/Hunk | $3.9M | 1939 |
| No Score Yet | Sweethearts | Hans | — | 1938 |
| No Score Yet | Rosalie | Bill | — | 1937 |
| 62% | The Great Ziegfeld | Himself | — | 1936 |
| No Score Yet | Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical Treasure | Actor | — |
TV
| Credit | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No Score Yet |
Diff'rent Strokes 1978-1986 |
Clarence Markwell |
1984 |
| No Score Yet |
Little House on the Prairie 1974-1984 |
Toby Noe |
1981 1979 1978 |
| 33% |
Battlestar Galactica 1978-1980 |
Vector |
1979 |
| No Score Yet |
The Partridge Family 1970-1974 |
Grandpa Fred Renfrew |
1972 1971 1970 |
QUOTES FROM Ray Bolger CHARACTERS
Dorothy Gale says: How do you talk if you don't have a brain?
The Scarecrow says: Well, some people without brains do an awful lot of talking don't they?
Dorothy Gale says: Oh, you're the best friends anybody ever had. And it's funny, but I feel as if I'd known you all the time, but I couldn't have, could I?
The Scarecrow says: I don't see how. You weren't around when I was stuffed and sewn together, were you?
The Tin Woodsman says: And I was standing over there, rusting for the longest time.
Dorothy Gale says: Still, I wish I could remember, but I guess it doesn't matter anyway. We know each other now, don't we?
Dorothy Gale says: Did you say something?
The Tin Woodsman says: [indiscernible sounds from the Tin Man, who is rusted]
Dorothy Gale says: He said oil can!
The Scarecrow says: Oil can what?
Dorothy Gale says: Oil can.
Dorothy Gale says: Now which way do we go?
The Scarecrow says: Pardon me, this way is a very nice way.
Dorothy Gale says: Who said that? [Toto barks at scarecrow] Don't be silly, Toto. Scarecrows don't talk.
Dorothy Gale says: Who said that? Don't be silly, Toto. Scarecrows don't talk.
The Scarecrow says: [points other way] It's pleasant down that way, too.
The Scarecrow says: It's pleasant down that way, too.
Dorothy Gale says: That's funny. Wasn't he pointing the other way?
The Scarecrow says: [points both ways] Of course, some people do go both ways.
The Scarecrow says: Of course, some people do go both ways.
Dorothy Gale says: How can you talk if you haven't got a brain?
The Scarecrow says: I don't know, but some people without brains do an awful lot of talking,don't they?
The Scarecrow says: I don't know, but some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't they?
Dorothy Gale says: Lions?
The Scarecrow says: And Tigers?
The Tin Woodsman says: And bears.
Dorothy Gale says: Oh my!
Dorothy Gale says: Did you say something?
The Tin Woodsman says: [indiscernible sounds from the Tin Man, who is rusted]
Dorothy Gale says: He said oil can!
The Scarecrow says: Oil can what?
The Scarecrow says: And I'm sure to have a brain...
The Tin Woodsman says: A heart...
Dorothy Gale says: A home...
The Cowardly Lion says: The nerve!
Dorothy Gale says: Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
The Scarecrow says: Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
The Tin Woodsman says: Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!