Max Wagner
Encyclopedia
Max Wagner 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 in over 300 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.
. 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 life-long friend. Steinback based the character of the boy in his novel The Red Pony
on Wagner.
Three of Wagner's brothers were working in Hollywood – Jack Wagner
and Blake Wagner as cameramen for D.W. Griffith, Hal Roach
and Mack Sennett
, and Bob as an assistant cameraman at First National
– and Max Wagner moved there in 1924, where he got an acting job on the Harry Langdon
film his brother Jack was working on, All Night Long.
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 tax driver. "I was cast as a taxi driver about five years ago", Wagner told a reporter. "And I was typed."
Wagner's career has several breaks in it. He served with the U.S. Army in the North African Campaign
of World War II, and his struggle with alcoholism caused a break in 1950.
Kelly was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to two years in state prison. Mackaye was sentenced to 10 months in prison on accessory and concealing evidence convictions. Kelly and Mackaye were married after Kelly's released from prison. Wagner and Kelly appeared together in two films after the incident: "Death on the Diamond" (1934) and "Frenchie" (1950).
, 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 60 appearances between 1960 and 1973. He also appeared in many The Rifleman
and Maverick
episodes, including a guest starring role in The Rifleman's "Blood Brothers." He appeared in more than 150 television episodes between 1952 and 1974.
Notable roles for Wagner include appearing in 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 Laurel and Hardy
's 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, just 12 days before his 74th birthday.
Biography
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 RevolutionMexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
. When he was 10 years old, his father was killed by rebels and the family moved to Salinas, California
Salinas, California
Salinas is the county seat and the largest municipality of Monterey County, California. Salinas is located east-southeast of the mouth of the Salinas River, at an elevation of about 52 feet above sea level. The population was 150,441 at the 2010 census...
, where he met John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
, who became a life-long friend. Steinback based the character of the boy in his novel The Red Pony
The Red Pony
The Red Pony is an episodic novella written by American writer John Steinbeck in 1933. The first three chapters were published in magazines from 1933–1936, and the full book was published in 1937 by Covici Friede. The stories in the book are tales of a boy named Jody Tiflin. The book has four...
on Wagner.
Three of Wagner's brothers were working in Hollywood – Jack Wagner
Jack Wagner
Jack Wagner may refer to:*Jack Wagner *Jack Wagner , an announcer for Disney theme parks*Jack Wagner , from The Bold and the Beautiful...
and Blake Wagner as cameramen for D.W. Griffith, Hal Roach
Hal Roach
Harold Eugene "Hal" Roach, Sr. was an American film and television producer and director, and from the 1910s to the 1990s.- Early life and career :Hal Roach was born in Elmira, New York...
and Mack Sennett
Mack Sennett
Mack Sennett was a Canadian-born American director and was known as the innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the "King of Comedy"...
, and Bob as an assistant cameraman at First National
First National
First National was an association of independent theater owners in the United States that expanded from exhibiting movies to distributing them, and eventually to producing them as a movie studio, called First National Pictures, Inc. It later merged with Warner Bros.-Early history:The First National...
– and Max Wagner moved there in 1924, where he got an acting job on the Harry Langdon
Harry Langdon
Harry Philmore Langdon was an American comedian who appeared in vaudeville, silent films , and talkies. He was briefly partnered with Oliver Hardy.-Life and career:...
film his brother Jack was working on, All Night Long.
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
Lupe Vélez
Lupe Vélez was a Mexican film actress. Vélez began her career in Mexico as a dancer, before moving to the U.S. where she worked in vaudeville. She was seen by Fanny Brice who promoted her, and Vélez soon entered films, making her first appearance in 1924. By the end of the decade she had...
, where he also served to monitor Velez's Spanish ad-libs for profanity.
Other series that Wagner appeared in include the Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan is a fictional Chinese-American detective created by Earl Derr Biggers in 1919. Loosely based on Honolulu detective Chang Apana, Biggers conceived of the benevolent and heroic Chan as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes, such as villains like Fu Manchu...
films, and Tom Mix
Tom Mix
Thomas Edwin "Tom" Mix was an American film actor and the star of many early Western movies. He made a reported 336 films between 1910 and 1935, all but nine of which were silent features...
serials, as well as others made by Mascot Pictures Corporation
Mascot Pictures Corporation
Mascot Pictures Corporation was a minor film company of the 1920s and 1930s best known for producing film serials and B-westerns. Mascot's serial The King of the Kongo was the first serial to include sound, beating Universal Studios by several months.Mascot was formed in 1927 by film producer Nat...
. In the 1940s, Wagner was part of Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges , originally Edmund Preston Biden, was a celebrated playwright, screenwriter and film director born in Chicago, Illinois...
' unofficial "stock company" of character actors
Preston Sturges Unofficial Stock Company Actors
Actors who frequently worked with film director Preston Sturges: !! Christmas in July !! The Lady Eve !! Sullivan's Travels !! The Palm Beach Story !! The Miracle of Morgan's Creek !! Hail the Conquering Hero !! The Great Moment !! The Sin of Harold Diddlebock !! Unfaithfully Yours !! The...
, appearing in six films written and directed by Sturges, beginning with The Palm Beach Story
The Palm Beach Story
The Palm Beach Story is a 1942 romantic screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, and starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor and Rudy Vallée. Victor Young contributed the lively musical score, including a fast-paced variation of William Tell Overture for the...
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 tax driver. "I was cast as a taxi driver about five years ago", Wagner told a reporter. "And I was typed."
Wagner's career has several breaks in it. He served with the U.S. Army in the North African Campaign
North African campaign
During the Second World War, the North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts and in Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia .The campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers, many of whom had...
of World War II, and his struggle with alcoholism caused a break in 1950.
Paul Kelly case
Wagner was the star prosecution witness in the manslaughter trials of actor Paul Kelly and actress/screenwriter Dorothy Mackaye in 1927. Wagner was Kelly's roommate. During an alcohol-fueled party and Wagner and Kelly's apartment on April 16, 1927, Kelly beat to death Mackaye's husband, Ray Raymond, a Vaudeville entertainer. Kelly and Mackaye had been seeing each other for some time before the fight had occurred. Wagner was present when Kelly and Raymond were fighting.Kelly was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to two years in state prison. Mackaye was sentenced to 10 months in prison on accessory and concealing evidence convictions. Kelly and Mackaye were married after Kelly's released from prison. Wagner and Kelly appeared together in two films after the incident: "Death on the Diamond" (1934) and "Frenchie" (1950).
Television appearances
In , Wagner began to appear on television, in episodes of such shows as The Cisco KidThe Cisco Kid
The Cisco Kid refers to a character found in numerous film, radio, television and comic book series based on the fictional Western character created by O. Henry in his 1907 short story "The Caballero's Way", published in the collection Heart of the West...
, Zane Grey Theater and Perry Mason
Perry Mason
Perry Mason is a fictional character, a defense attorney who was the main character in works of detective fiction authored by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason was featured in more than 80 novels and short stories, most of which had a plot involving his client's murder trial...
, playing much the same kind of parts he played in the movies.
He was a regular cast member on the western television series Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
, making nearly 60 appearances between 1960 and 1973. He also appeared in many The Rifleman
The Rifleman
The Rifleman is an American Western television program that starred Chuck Connors as homesteader Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son, Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show, filmed in black-and-white with a half hour running time, ran...
and Maverick
Maverick
Maverick or Maverik may refer to:* Maverick , an unbranded range animal, derived from U.S. cattleman Samuel Maverick - Computers :* MaverickCrunch, a floating point math coprocessor core intended for digital audio...
episodes, including a guest starring role in The Rifleman's "Blood Brothers." He appeared in more than 150 television episodes between 1952 and 1974.
Notable roles for Wagner include appearing in a supporting role in the cult science fiction classic Invaders from Mars
Invaders from Mars (1953 film)
Invaders From Mars is a science fiction film directed by William Cameron Menzies, taken from a scenario by Richard Blake, and based on a story treatment by John Tucker Battle who was inspired by a dream recounted by his wife. It was produced independently by Edward L. Alperson Jr. and starred...
(1953), an actor playing a gangster in the film-within-a-film segment of Bullets or Ballots
Bullets or Ballots
Bullets or Ballots is a 1936 gangster film starring Edward G. Robinson, Joan Blondell, Barton MacLane and Humphrey Bogart. Robinson plays a police detective who infiltrates a crime gang.-Cast:*Edward G...
(1936), and the bull farm attendant in Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema...
's The Bullfighters
The Bullfighters
The Bullfighters is a late Laurel and Hardy feature film. The plot involves the team working as private detectives who've come to Mexico City hot on the trail of Hattie Blake, a.k.a. Larceny Nell. Meanwhile, Stan Laurel is found to resemble a famous matador, Don Sebastian...
(1945). Late in his career, he appeared in To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was instantly successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature...
(1962) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is a 1962 American Western film directed by John Ford and starring James Stewart and John Wayne. The black-and-white film was released by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay by James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck was adapted from a short story written by Dorothy M...
(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, just 12 days before his 74th birthday.