Cast

Max Wagner

Acting

Cast

Max Wagner

Known for

Acting

Born

1901-11-28

From

Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico

Died

1975-11-16

Also known as Maxwell Wagner

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Max Wagner (November 28, 1901 – November 16, 1975) was a Mexican-born American film actor who specialized in playing small parts such as thugs, gangsters, sailors, henchmen, bodyguards, cab drivers and moving men, appearing more than 400 films in his career, most without receiving screen credit. Newspaper gossip columnists noted his rise from playing "Gangster #4", with no lines, and not carrying a gun, to "Gangster #2", with both lines and a gun. Wagner was one of five children, all boys, of William Wallace Wagner, a railroad conductor, and Edith Wagner, a writer who provided dispatches for the Christian Science Monitor during the Mexican Revolution. When he was 10 years old, his father was killed by rebels and the family moved to Salinas, California, where he met John Steinbeck, who became a lifelong friend. Steinback based the character of the boy in his novel The Red Pony on Wagner. Under the name "Max Baron", Wagner acted in many Spanish-language versions of English-language films, which studios made as a matter of course in the early days of sound films, He also served as a Spanish language coach for other actors, and appeared in many of the "Mexican Spitfire" films starring Lupe Vélez, where he also served to monitor Velez's Spanish ad-libs for profanity. Other series that Wagner appeared in include the Charlie Chan films, and Tom Mix serials, as well as others made by Mascot Pictures Corporation. In the 1940s, Wagner was part of Preston Sturges' unofficial "stock company" of character actors, appearing in six films written and directed by Sturges, beginning with The Palm Beach Story In 1940 during the filming of "The Mad Doctor", Wagner was credited for driving 50,000 miles as an on-screen taxi driver on the studio back lots of Hollywood. Since his appearance as a cab driver in Charlie Chan in Shanghai (1935), producers often cast him as a wise-cracking or henchman taxi driver. "I was cast as a taxi driver about five years ago", Wagner told a reporter. "And I was typed." In 1952, Wagner began to appear on television, in episodes of such shows as The Cisco Kid, Zane Grey Theater and Perry Mason, playing much the same kind of parts he played in the movies. He was a regular cast member on the western television series Gunsmoke, making nearly 80 appearances between 1959 and 1973. He also appeared in many episodes of The Rifleman, Bonanza, Cimarron Strip, The Wild Wild West and Maverick, including a guest-starring role in the 1959 Rifleman episode "Blood Brother." He also had roles in the original Star Trek and The Twilight Zone series. He appeared in more than 200 television episodes between 1952 and 1974. Notable film roles for Wagner include a supporting role in the cult science fiction classic Invaders from Mars (1953), an actor playing a gangster in the film-within-a-film segment of Bullets or Ballots (1936), and the bull farm attendant in the Laurel and Hardy comedy The Bullfighters (1945). Late in his career, he appeared in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). He also occasionally composed music, such as the Mexican folk ballad "Pedro, Rudarte y Simon" in the Western film The Last Trail (1933). Wagner died of a heart attack in Hollywood in 1975.

Max Wagner

Max Wagner

Biography

It's a Wonderful Life

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Rosemary's Baby

Young Frankenstein

To Kill a Mockingbird

True Grit

Hang 'em High

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

The Grapes of Wrath

The Great Race

East of Eden

Before Dawn

The Lost Weekend

Fallen Angel

The Ghost Breakers

Shed No Tears

Sinbad the Sailor

The Legend of Lylah Clare

Millionaire Playboy

Caught

A Big Hand for the Little Lady

Fifth Avenue Girl

The Spirit of St. Louis

4 for Texas

The Roaring Twenties

Support Your Local Gunfighter

Dick Tracy vs. Cueball

Shenandoah

Stage Door

Tarnished Angel

Return of the Gunfighter

They Drive by Night

Bullets or Ballots

Illegal

I Died a Thousand Times

The Country Girl

The Spoilers

The Cheyenne Social Club

The Racket

The Conqueror

The Talk of the Town

You Only Live Once

The Palm Beach Story

Night Waitress

Reign of Terror

Charlie Chan in Shanghai

Mr. Moto in Danger Island

It Happens Every Spring

Terror in the Wax Museum

Invaders from Mars

Pressure Point

The Over-the-Hill Gang Rides Again

Flaxy Martin

Sunrise at Campobello

Obliging Young Lady

Wings of the Navy

Many Unhappy Returns

Evil Roy Slade

The Gracie Allen Murder Case

Charlie Chan in Panama

The Bank Dick

Possessed

Tycoon

Maid's Night Out

Texas

The Wife Takes a Flyer

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek

Donovan's Brain

Buck Benny Rides Again

Hired Wife

Circumstantial Evidence

Moontide

Mary Burns, Fugitive

The Secret of Convict Lake

Panama Hattie

Gunpoint

A Medal for Benny