Max Wagner

Acting · 0.6 popularity

Age

124

Movies

188

Born: November 28, 1901 – November 16, 1975
From: Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico

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.

Works

188 films

It's a Wonderful Life

19468.3

To Kill a Mockingbird

19628.0

Rosemary's Baby

19687.8

True Grit

19697.3

Young Frankenstein

19747.9

Hang 'em High

19686.9

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

19637.0

East of Eden

19557.5

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

19627.8

The Grapes of Wrath

19407.8

The Great Race

19657.1

The Ghost Breakers

19406.5

A Big Hand for the Little Lady

19667.1

Sinbad the Sailor

19476.0

Fallen Angel

19456.6

4 for Texas

19635.1

The Country Girl

19547.0

Caught

19496.6

The Roaring Twenties

19397.5

Return of the Gunfighter

19676.1

Before Dawn

19335.7

The Conqueror

19563.6

Stage Door

19377.1

Shenandoah

19656.9

Invaders from Mars

19535.9

The Lost Weekend

19457.6

Support Your Local Gunfighter

19716.6

The Bank Dick

19406.5

Shed No Tears

19485.1

The Racket

19516.3

You Only Live Once

19377.1

The Spoilers

19426.2

The Spirit of St. Louis

19576.7

Charlie Chan in Shanghai

19356.7

The Cheyenne Social Club

19706.4

The Legend of Lylah Clare

19686.0

The Talk of the Town

19427.3

Gunpoint

19666.2

Millionaire Playboy

19404.5

Fifth Avenue Girl

19397.0

Texas

19416.7

Possessed

19476.9

Tarnished Angel

19385.3

They Drive by Night

19406.9

Reign of Terror

19496.8

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek

19446.8

I Died a Thousand Times

19556.2

The Secret of Convict Lake

19516.6

Black Legion

19376.6

The Palm Beach Story

19427.0

Moontide

19426.4

The Over-the-Hill Gang Rides Again

19705.6

Evil Roy Slade

19726.3

Illegal

19556.5

Dick Tracy vs. Cueball

19465.5

The Miracle of the Bells

19486.2

Bullets or Ballots

19366.6

Obliging Young Lady

19426.0

Flaxy Martin

19495.6

That Brennan Girl

19465.5

Terror in the Wax Museum

19735.2

It Happens Every Spring

19496.6

Frenchie

19506.0

Night Waitress

19366.4

Pressure Point

19626.5

Flaming Feather

19526.2

Tycoon

19475.6

The Red Pony

19496.0

Maid's Night Out

19385.9

A Night to Remember

19426.7

Dancing Pirate

19365.7

Charlie Chan in Panama

19406.8

Mr. Moto in Danger Island

19396.7

The Great Diamond Robbery

195410.0

Ice Palace

19606.3

The Great O'Malley

19377.0

3 Kids and a Queen

19356.8

Panama Hattie

19425.7

Wings Over Honolulu

19376.4

Arizona to Broadway

19337.5

Donovan's Brain

19536.2

Smart Blonde

19376.4

San Quentin

19376.6

Wings of the Navy

19396.2

The Man Who Wouldn't Talk

19405.3

Submarine Patrol

19386.7

You Can't Fool Your Wife

19405.5

Buck Benny Rides Again

19405.0

The Personality Kid

19344.4

Rhythm on the River

19406.9

The Good Bad Girl

19316.5

A Medal for Benny

19455.6

Little Tough Guys in Society

19387.3

Dr. Socrates

19356.6

Fast and Loose

19395.9

Lucky Partners

19406.1

Robbery Under Arms

19575.2

Circumstantial Evidence

19455.2

Tennessee's Partner

19556.5

Sunrise at Campobello

19606.0

The Sainted Sisters

19487.3

Trail of the Vigilantes

194010.0

Blind Date

19348.0

The House Across the Bay

19405.6

Off the Record

19396.4

Hell Bent for Love

193410.0

The Girl on the Front Page

19367.0

Cafe Society

19397.5

Mexican Spitfire's Elephant

19425.4

The Big Game

19366.6

Hired Wife

19406.8

Sabotage Squad

19427.5

We Who Are About to Die

19377.0

The Wife Takes a Flyer

19425.5

Our Leading Citizen

19398.0

Numbered Men

19305.1

Public Pigeon No. 1

19576.3

Cock of the Air

19327.7

The Miracle Rider

19355.5

Pier 23

19515.5

The Adventures of Frank Merriwell

19365.7

Penrod and His Twin Brother

19386.0

The Mad Doctor

19406.2

Alcatraz Island

19375.1

Mary Burns, Fugitive

19359.0

The Return of the Cisco Kid

19396.3

Love on a Bet

19367.0

Name the Woman

19349.0

Painted Desert

19386.0

The Daring Young Man

193510.0

Going Wild

19307.0

God's Country and the Woman

19375.2

The Truth About Murder

19464.8

Undercover: How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines

19436.0

The Crime Patrol

19367.0

Boss of Boomtown

194410.0

Men Against the Sky

19404.6

I'll Tell the World

1939

Rockabye

19326.5

Suicide Fleet

19315.0

Paddy O'Day

19367.0

Sons o' Guns

19365.2

Border Cafe

19377.0

The World and the Flesh

19327.7

Walking on Air

19366.3

Professor Beware

19386.0

The Girl from Mexico

19395.1

The Girl from Mandalay

19364.7

Miss Fane's Baby Is Stolen

19346.0

The Arkansas Traveler

19386.7

The Gracie Allen Murder Case

19396.3

Gridiron Flash

19344.8

She Had to Choose

19346.0

Born to Be Wild

19387.5

The House of a Thousand Candles

193610.0

The Mexican Spitfire's Baby

19414.6

The First Auto

19275.8

Wildcat Bus

19405.5

Come on Danger

19426.0

Two in Revolt

19367.0

Cocoanut Grove

19389.0

Half Past Midnight

19487.0

Overland to Deadwood

19429.0

Many Unhappy Returns

1937

The Day the Bookies Wept

19397.5

Love Begins at Twenty

19366.3

The Lost Jungle

19343.5

Step Lively, Jeeves!

19376.0

Reno

19396.7

Chatterbox

19367.0

Matri-Phony

19425.5

Money to Loan

19396.8

The Fighting Marines

19356.5

The Lost Jungle

19344.3

Ride on Vaquero

19415.2

Pop Always Pays

19406.7

Cyclone on Horseback

19416.4

The Oil Raider

193410.0

Hi, Beautiful

19449.8

Radio Stars on Parade

19459.0

Mexican Spitfire

19405.0

Renegades of the West

19326.0

Scouts to the Rescue

193910.0

Making Good

19269.0

The Thrill Seekers

19276.5

The Last of the Vargas

193010.0

The Relay

19276.8

Flashing Oars

19273.5