Ray Bolger
Raymond Wallace Bolger was an American film and television actor, vaudevillian, singer, dancer and stage performer who started in the silent film era. He was a major Broadway performer in the 1930s and beyond. He is best known for his role as the Scarecrow and his Kansas counterpart farm worker "Hunk" in MGM's classic The Wizard of Oz and the villainous Barnaby in Walt Disney's holiday musical fantasy Babes in Toyland. He was also the host of his eponymous television show, The Ray Bolger Show.
Early life
Bolger was born at 598 Second St., South Boston, Massachusetts into a Catholic family of Irish descent, the son of James Edward Bolger and Anne C. Wallace. His father James was first-generation Irish, and was born in Fall River, Massachusetts; his mother "Annie" who had a large family, was born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. He grew up and attended school in the Codman Sqaure section of Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. After graduating high school he worked for a peanut company, as a bank messenger, and for the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company, before finding his way to vaudeville by gaining a role on Broadway in “The Passing Show of 1926."Career
Early career
His entertainment aspirations evolved from the vaudeville shows of his youth. He began his career in a vaudeville tap show, creating the act "Sanford & Bolger" with his dance partner. In 1926, he danced at New York City's legendary Palace Theatre, the premier vaudeville theatre in the United States. His limber body and improvisational dance movement won him many leading roles on Broadway in the 1930s. Eventually, his career would also encompass film, television and nightclub work. In 1932 he was elected to the theater club, The Lambs and performed on opening night at Radio City Music Hall in December 1932.Bolger signed his first cinema contract with MGM in 1936, and although The Wizard of Oz was early in his film career, he appeared in other movies of note. His best known pre-Oz appearance was The Great Ziegfeld, in which he portrayed himself. He also appeared in Sweethearts, the first MGM film in Technicolor, starring Nelson Eddy, Jeanette MacDonald. He also appeared in the Eleanor Powell vehicle Rosalie, which also starred Eddy and Frank Morgan.
''The Wizard of Oz''
Bolger's MGM contract stipulated that he would play any part the studio chose. However, he was unhappy when he was originally cast as the Tin Woodman in the studio's 1939 feature film adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. The role of the Scarecrow had already been assigned to another dancing studio contract player, Buddy Ebsen. In time, the roles were shuffled around. Bolger's face was permanently lined by wearing the Scarecrow's makeup.Post-Oz film career
Following The Wizard of Oz, Bolger moved to RKO Pictures. In 1941, he was a featured act at the Paramount Theatre in New York, working with the Harry James Band. He would do tap dance routines, sometimes in a mock-challenge dance with the band's pianist, Al Lerner. One day during this period, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and Bolger's performance was interrupted by President Roosevelt's announcement of the news of the attack. Bolger toured in USO shows in the Pacific Theater during World War II, and appeared in the United Artists wartime film Stage Door Canteen which teaches children that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it "all depends on how you look at things".Broadway
Bolger's Broadway credits included , On Your Toes, By Jupiter, All American and Where's Charley?, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical and in which he introduced "Once in Love with Amy", the song often connected with him. He repeated his stage role in the 1952 film version of the musical.Television
Bolger appeared in his own ABC television sitcom with a variety show theme, Where's Raymond?, renamed the second year as The Ray Bolger Show. He continued to star in several films, including Walt Disney's remake of Babes in Toyland and smaller cameos throughout the 1960s and 1970.Bolger made frequent guest appearances on television, including the episode "Rich Man, Poor Man" of the short-lived The Jean Arthur Show in 1966. In the 1970s, he had a recurring role as Fred Renfrew, the father of Shirley Partridge on The Partridge Family, and appeared in Little House on the Prairie as Toby Noe and also guest-starred on other television series such as Battlestar Galactica, Fantasy Island and The Love Boat. In the late 1970s, reaching back to his Irish roots, Bolger played in a commercial for Safeway Supermarket's "Scotch Buy" brand. It covered many products ranging from canned food to paper towels to beer and cigarettes. Bolger popularized the jingle, "Scotch Buy - taint fancy but it shore is good." His last television appearance was on Diff'rent Strokes in 1984, three years before his death.
In his later years, he danced in a Dr Pepper television commercial, and in 1985, he and Liza Minnelli, the daughter of his Oz costar Judy Garland, starred in That's Dancing!, a film also written by Jack Haley, Jr., the son of Jack Haley, who portrayed the Tin Woodman in The Wizard of Oz.
Honors
In 1998, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.He was a Roman Catholic, and a member of the Good Shepherd Parish and the Catholic Motion Picture Guild in Beverly Hills, California.
In 2016, the City of Boston commissioned a mural in Ray Bolger's honor in the Codman Square section of the Dorchester neighborhood.
Personal life
Bolger was married to Gwendolyn Rickard for over 57 years. They had no children.Bolger's great-nephew is actor John Bolger.
Bolger was a lifelong Republican who campaigned for Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election and
Richard Nixon in 1968.
Death and legacy
Bolger was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 1986, and at the end of that year, his health deteriorated and he left his Beverly Hills home to live in a nursing home in Los Angeles. He died there on January 15, 1987, 5 days after his 83rd birthday. He was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City.At the time of his death, he was the last surviving main credited cast member of The Wizard of Oz. At Judy Garland's funeral, Bolger was the only one of her Oz costars to be present. He joined Harold Arlen, the composer of "Over the Rainbow", and his wife, Anya Taranda. They were reported as among the last remaining guests at the conclusion of the service.
Whenever asked whether he received any residuals from telecasts of the 1939 classic, Bolger would reply: "No, just immortality. I'll settle for that." Bolger's Scarecrow is ranked among the "most beloved movie characters of all time" by AMC and the American Film Institute.
For his contributions to the film industry, Bolger received a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. It is located at 6788 Hollywood Boulevard.
In 2019, the biography More Than a Scarecrow by Holly Van Leuven was published, the first comprehensive biography of Bolger.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1953–1955 | Where's Raymond? | Raymond 'Ray' Wallace | Lead role |
| 1956–1957 | Washington Square | Host | |
| 1958–1959 | General Electric Theater | Stan Maylor / Alfred Boggs | 2 episodes |
| 1962 | The Red Skelton Show | Mayor Threadbare III | Episode: "The Mayor of Central Park" |
| 1962 | The Little Sweep | Storyteller | Television film |
| 1966 | The Jean Arthur Show | Wealthy Man | Episode: "Rich Man, Poor Man" |
| 1970–1972 | The Partridge Family | Grandpa Renfrew | Recurring role |
| 1971 | Nanny and the Professor | Uncle Horace | Episode: "South Sea Island Sweetheart" |
| 1976 | The Entertainer | Billy Rice | Television film |
| 1976 | Captains and the Kings | R.J. Squibbs | Television miniseries |
| 1977–1979 | The Love Boat | Andy Hopkins / Horace McDonald | 2 episodes |
| 1978 | Baretta | Episode: "Just for Laughs" | |
| 1978 | Three on a Date | Andrew | Television film |
| 1978–1982 | Fantasy Island | Gaylord Nelson / Spencer Randolph | 2 episodes |
| 1978–1979 | Little House on the Prairie | Toby Noe | 2 episodes |
| 1979 | Heaven Only Knows | Simon | Television pilot |
| 1979 | Battlestar Galactica | Vector | Episode: "Greetings from Earth" |
| 1981 | Aloha Paradise | Harry Carr | Episode: "Best of Friends/Success/Nine Karats" |
| 1981 | Peter and the Wolf | Narrator | Television film |
| 1983 | Peter and the Magic Egg | Uncle Amos | Voice, Television special |
| 1984 | Diff'rent Strokes | Clarence Markwell | Episode: "A Haunting We Will Go", |