Movie Credits
Just You and Me, Kid	(1979)
[ Christopher Knight ][ George Burns ][ William Russ ]
Heaven Only Knows	(1979)
[ Kenneth Mars ]
The Runner Stumbles	(1979)
[ Beau Bridges ][ Dick Van Dyke ][ Lloyd Bridges ]
The Over the Hill Caper/Poof! You're a Movie Star	(1978)
[ Herb Edelman ]
There's No Place Like Home: Part 1	(1978)
Three on a Date	(1978)
[ Ricky Nelson ]
The Identical Problem/Julie's Old Flame/Jinx	(1977)
The Entertainer	(1976)
[ Jack Lemmon ][ Tyne Daly ]
The Forty-Year Itch	(1971)
Whatever Happened to the Old Songs?	(1970)
Babes in Toyland: Part 1	(1969)
The Daydreamer	(1966)
[ Boris Karloff ]
The Masques of Music	(1965)
Episode dated 16 June 1964	(1964)
Episode dated 5 November 1963	(1963)
Babes in Toyland	(1961)
[ Walt Disney ]
The Girl with the Flaxen Hair	(1958)
April in Paris	(1952)
Where's Charley	(1952)
Look for the Silver Lining	(1949)
The Harvey Girls	(1946)
Forever and a Day	(1943)
[ Christopher Isherwood ][ Charles Laughton ][ Buster Keaton ][ Claude Rains ][ Ray Milland ]
Four Jacks and a Jill	(1942)
[ Desi Arnaz ]
Sunny	(1941)
The Wizard of Oz	(1939)
Sweethearts	(1938)
The Girl of the Golden West	(1938)
[ Buddy Ebsen ]
Rosalie	(1937)
On with the Show!	(1929)
Carrie of the Chorus	(1924)

The son of a house painter, American actor/dancer Ray Bolger grew up in a middle-class Boston neighborhood called Dorchester. Bolger knew what he wanted to do in life the moment he saw Broadway entertainer Fred Stone literally bounce on stage in a Boston production of Jack O'Lantern. "That moment opened up a whole new world for me" Bolger would remember; after a relatively aimless childhood, he determined to become a performer himself. Starting out in vaudeville as a dancer, Bolger developed a loose-limbed ad lib style that would win him starring spots in such 1930s Broadway musicals as Life Begins at 8:40 and On Your Toes; in the latter, Bolger introduced Richard Rodgers' "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue". Signed by MGM in 1936 for a featured solo in The Great Ziegfeld, Bolger was given a ,000 per week contract and was expected to take whatever part was assigned him. But Bolger balked when he was cast as the Tin Man in the studio's Wizard of Oz. He felt the role was too confining for his talents, so Bolger convinced the film's Scarecrow, Buddy Ebsen, to switch parts with him. This move, of course, assured film immortality for Bolger, but wasn't so beneficial for Ebsen, whose allergic reaction to the Tin Man's silver makeup forced him to drop out of the film and be replaced by Jack Haley. Bolger's movie career pretty much took second place to his Broadway work in the 1940s. In 1948, Bolger was awarded the lead in a musical version of Charley's Aunt titled Where's Charley? It was when the daughter of one of the production people began singing his lyrics back to him during out-of-town tryouts that Bolger, in league with composer Frank Loesser, developed the "everybody sing" chorus for the song "Once in Love With Amy". Bolger repeated his role in the 1952 filmization of Where's Charley (1952), then continued his Broadway career with intermittent film appearances into the 1960s. He also starred in a 1953 TV series, alternately titled The Ray Bolger Show and Where's Raymond?, which was so bad that even he was uncharacteristically putting himself down before the inevitable cancellation. Bolger suffered a few career setbacks on stage in the early 1960s, and his villain role in Disney's Babes in Toyland (1961) hardly showed him to best advantage, but the performer prospered as a nightclub performer during the rest of the decade in a nostalgic (if slightly lachrymose) act which recalled his past song hits. Bolger charmed live audiences with his still-athletic hoofing skills into the 1970s. In the twilight of his career, Bolger was allowed to sparkle in guest spots on such TV programs as The Partridge Family, The Love Boat, Baretta, and even PBS's Evening at the Pops.