Max 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.
Acting (185 movies)

The Last of the Vargas
1930

Invaders from Mars
1953

Dick Tracy vs. Cueball
1946

The Thrill Seekers
1927

It Happens Every Spring
1949

Name the Woman
1934

Charlie Chan in Shanghai
1935

Hell Bent for Love
1934

Making Good
1926

Flashing Oars
1927

The Relay
1927

Step Lively, Jeeves!
1937

Born to Be Wild
1938

The House Across the Bay
1940

Shed No Tears
1948

The Fighting Marines
1935

Gunpoint
1966

Support Your Local Gunfighter
1971

I Died a Thousand Times
1955

Donovan's Brain
1953

Rosemary's Baby
1968

Hang 'em High
1968

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
1963

Flaxy Martin
1949

Young Frankenstein
1974

The Great Race
1965

Shenandoah
1965

The Arkansas Traveler
1938

Alcatraz Island
1937

Maid's Night Out
1938

God's Country and the Woman
1937

Many Unhappy Returns
1937

The Over-the-Hill Gang Rides Again
1970

The Miracle Rider
1935

Love on a Bet
1936

The Crime Patrol
1936

Illegal
1955

Dr. Socrates
1935

Pressure Point
1962

Frenchie
1950

Robbery Under Arms
1957

Numbered Men
1930

Radio Stars on Parade
1945

Cock of the Air
1932

Matri-Phony
1942

True Grit
1969

Arizona to Broadway
1933

We Who Are About to Die
1937

Gridiron Flash
1934

Walking on Air
1936

Blind Date
1934

The Personality Kid
1934

Cocoanut Grove
1938

Going Wild
1930

Two in Revolt
1936

Tarnished Angel
1938

Paddy O'Day
1936

Border Cafe
1937

Miss Fane's Baby Is Stolen
1934

Wings of the Navy
1939

Fast and Loose
1939

Mr. Moto in Danger Island
1939

The Return of the Cisco Kid
1939

Fifth Avenue Girl
1939

The Girl from Mexico
1939

The Gracie Allen Murder Case
1939

The Red Pony
1949

Professor Beware
1938

Reno
1939

The Roaring Twenties
1939

Pier 23
1951

The Day the Bookies Wept
1939

Millionaire Playboy
1940

The Man Who Wouldn't Talk
1940

The Grapes of Wrath
1940

The Lost Weekend
1945

East of Eden
1955

Night Waitress
1936

Wings Over Honolulu
1937

The Great O'Malley
1937

It's a Wonderful Life
1946

To Kill a Mockingbird
1962

The Adventures of Frank Merriwell
1936

The Girl from Mandalay
1936

Evil Roy Slade
1972

I'll Tell the World
1939

The Daring Young Man
1935

Charlie Chan in Panama
1940

Smart Blonde
1937

Mexican Spitfire
1940

The Truth About Murder
1946

The Oil Raider
1934

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
1962

Money to Loan
1939

Trail of the Vigilantes
1940

A Big Hand for the Little Lady
1966

Ride on Vaquero
1941

Buck Benny Rides Again
1940

Overland to Deadwood
1942

The World and the Flesh
1932
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