
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)
movieThe Hoodlum Saint
1946 · Fishface
movieHer Highness and the Bellboy
1945 · Albert Weever
movieBud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood
1945 · Self
movieAnchors Aweigh
1945 · Police Sergeant
movieThe Canterville Ghost
1944 · Big Harry Waters
movieMeet the People
1944 · Mr. Smith
movie3 Men in White
1944 · Hobart Genet
movieWhistling in Brooklyn
1943 · Chester Conway
movieGirl Crazy
1943 · 'Rags'
movieDu Barry Was a Lady
1943 · Charlie / Dauphin
movieWhistling in Dixie
1942 · Chester Conway / Sylvester 'Lester' Conway
moviePanama Hattie
1942 · Rags (as 'Rags' Ragland)
movieSomewhere I'll Find You
1942 · Charlie
movieThe War Against Mrs. Hadley
1942 · Louie
movieMaisie Gets Her Man
1942 · Ears Cofflin
movieSunday Punch
1942 · 'Killer' Connolly
movieBorn to Sing
1942 · 'Grunt'
movieWhistling in the Dark
1941 · Sylvester
movieRingside Maisie
1941 · Vic
movieHats and Dogs
1938