Ray Bolger

Ray Bolger

Raymond Wallace Bolger was an American film and television actor, vaudevillian, singer, dancer and stage performer. He is best known for his role as the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz and the villainous Barnaby in Walt Disney’s holiday musical fantasy Babes in Toyland. He won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Actor in a Musical in 1952 for his stage role in Once in Love with Amy.

About Ray Bolger in brief

Summary Ray BolgerRaymond Wallace Bolger was an American film and television actor, vaudevillian, singer, dancer and stage performer. He is best known for his role as the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz and the villainous Barnaby in Walt Disney’s holiday musical fantasy Babes in Toyland. He was also the host of his eponymous television show, The Ray Bolger Show from 1953 and 1955, originally Where’s Raymond? Bolger’s Broadway credits included Life Begins at 8: 40, On Your Toes, By Jupiter, All American and Where’s Charley? He won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Actor in a Musical in 1952 for his stage role in Once in Love with Amy. He continued to star in several films, including Disney’s remake of Babes In Toyland and smaller cameos throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including the episode of Rich Man, Poor Man.

Bolger also appeared on The Partridge Family on The Little House on the Prairie in 1966, and on The Jean Arthur Show in 1966 and 1967. He died of a heart attack on December 25, 2011. He had a son, James, and a daughter, Anne. He also had a step-son, James Jr., and a stepdaughter, Anne C. Wallace, both of whom died of cancer in 2012. His son James was a first-generation Irish, and was born in Fall River, Massachusetts; his mother Annie, who had a large family, was also born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. He grew up and attended school in the Codman Square section of Dorchester neighborhood of Boston.