FEEL IT.STREAM
Charles Ray

Charles Ray

Acting

Biography

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.

Known For

Hollywood Boulevard
4.5

With a full Hollywood background and settings but more an expose of scandal-and-gossip magazines of the era, has-been actor John Blakeford agrees to write his memoirs for magazine-publisher Jordan Winston. When Blakeford's daughter, Patricia, ask him to desist for the sake of his ex-wife, Carlotta Blakeford, he attempts to break his contract with Winston.

Hollywood Boulevard

1936
Mrs. Miniver
7.1

Middle-class housewife Kay Miniver deals with petty problems. She and her husband Clem watch her Oxford-educated son Vin court Carol Beldon, the charming granddaughter of the local nobility as represented by Lady Beldon. Then the war comes and Vin joins the RAF.

Mrs. Miniver

1942
Home
10.0

Bessie Wheaton returns from Europe to find her nouveau riche family has adopted and magnified the worst characteristics of the upper class. Her father spends all of his time at the club, her mother cultivates snobbishness, and her sister thinks only of marrying into royalty. To shake them out of their aristocratic poses, Bessie decides to reflect all of their faults, becoming as lazy as her father and as status conscious as her mother. She even rejects her own sweetheart, Allan Shelby, to lure Count d'Orr away from her sister. Finally, the members of the family confront Bessie, and she angrily tells them that she was only mirroring their behavior. Bessie then runs away, but Allan, with whom she quickly reconciles, brings her back, just as her family acknowledges its recent burlesque of the upper crust.

Home

1916
Peggy
N/A

The heroine, Peggy Cameron, is a high-society debutante with a mind of her own. After making a public spectacle of herself once too often, Peggy is bundled off to Scotland, where she is to be looked after by her no-nonsense uncle Andrew Cameron (William H. Thompson). If Peggy's family had hoped that she would straighten up and behave herself in Scotland, they were sorely mistaken. Restored in 2018 by the Academy Film Archive with restoration funding provided by the Louis B. Mayer Foundation.

Peggy

1916
String Beans
N/A

Farmer Toby Watkinsm whose fanciful poetry does not impress his exasperated uncle, leaves the farm to become a subscription solicitor for the "Sawbert Weekly Clarion." In Sawbert, Toby meets Mayor Lot Morris' daughter Jean, and the shy young people fall in love. Crooked stock promoter Kendall Reeves arrives in town and unveils his plan to open a string-bean cannery.

String Beans

1918
Dynamite Smith
10.0

Gladstone Smith, a fearful young reporter, gets on the wrong side of a murderous criminal and flees to Alaska, along with the killer's wife, who is equally frightened of her husband. But the murderer pursues them to the frozen north and Gladstone must overcome his cowardice in order to overcome his nemesis.

Dynamite Smith

1924
The Clodhopper
7.2

Everett Nelson is a naive young farmboy. Following unjust treatment on the farm, he runs away to the big city. There he encounters a showman who decides Everett is perfect for the part of a bumpkin in his new play. Everett takes the role and becomes a big star. But there are complications...

The Clodhopper

1917
Appointment for Love
5.8

Charming Andre Cassil woos physician Jane Alexander and the two impulsively get married. The honeymoon ends very quickly when Jane voices her progressive views on marriage which include the two having separate apartments. Andre then tries to make his wife jealous in order to lure her into his bedroom.

Appointment for Love

1941
Paris Green
9.0

A young man who falls for a Parisian dancer, but his wealthy family disapproves leading to societal conflict, misunderstandings, and eventual reconciliation as he navigates love, tradition, and his family's stubbornness in the post-WWI era, culminating in him choosing true love over strict duty.

Paris Green

1920
Rio Rita
6.0

Doc and Wishey run into some Nazi-agents, who want to smuggle bombs into the USA from a Mexican border hotel.

Rio Rita

1942
The Deserter
N/A

Parker, an Army lieutenant at a Western outpost, falls in love with Barbara Taylor, daughter of his commanding officer. But when Barbara rejects him, Parker fights with another soldier and deserts. An Indian attack gives him a chance to redeem himself.

The Deserter

1916
Bill Henry
N/A

Bill Henry Jenkins is a country boy on the lookout for a good career. He faces numerous obstacles, including losing his sales job when his bicycle is lost. A bigtime poker game turns out to be the key to Bill Henry's success.

Bill Henry

1919
The Man Who Lost Himself
5.4

John Evans encounters his lookalike, Malcolm Scott. When Scott is killed in an accident, Evans finds himself mistaken for Scott and decides to do some good in his new role.

The Man Who Lost Himself

1941
Slightly Dangerous
6.0

Small-town soda-jerk Peggy Evans quits her dead-end job and moves to New York where she invents a new identity.

Slightly Dangerous

1943
Vanity
10.0

Barbara Fiske, a beautiful girl of social standing, is about to be married to Lloyd Van Courtland. On the eve of their marriage, she foolishly pays a visit to a colorful steamship captain aboard his ship.

Vanity

1927
The Legend of Rudolph Valentino
7.0

A documentary of Hollywood's first great Latin Lover, the contradictions in his personal life, and his premature death.

The Legend of Rudolph Valentino

1961
The Coward
5.8

Set during the American Civil War, Keenan stars as a Virginia colonel and Charles Ray as his weak-willed son. The son is forced, at gunpoint, by his father to enlist in the Confederate army. He is terrified by the war and deserts during a battle. The film focuses on the son's struggle to overcome his cowardice.

The Coward

1915
The Count of Ten
7.0

A promising young prizefighter sees his career start to go down the drain after he gets married and allows his wife's father and no-good brother to move in with them.

The Count of Ten

1928
A Village Sleuth
7.0

A bumbling would-be detective always seems to reach the wrong conclusion, but one day accidentally stumbles across a real crook, guilty of a real crime.

A Village Sleuth

1920
Welcome Home
9.0

A con artist attends a reunion in his hometown and discovers that his former classmates are trying to trick an old millionaire into returning to build a factory.

Welcome Home

1935