Biography
Rags Ragland was a boxer, then a burlesque comedian and then a Broadway performer before ending up in Hollywood to repeat his stage role as the boisterous sailor in Panama Hattie (1942), in which Ann Sothern played on film the part that had been played on Broadway by Ethel Merman. Ragland, typecast as a good-natured oaf with a knack for fracturing the English language, had as his sole movie employer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, in some two dozen of whose lighter vehicles he appeared, in the company of such MGM luminaries as Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Judy Garland and Gene Kelly.
Date of Birth 23 August 1905, Louisville, Kentucky
Date of Death 20 August 1946, Los Angeles, California (uremic poisoning)
Filmography
Cast Credits

The Hoodlum Saint
Character: Fishface
MOVIE • 1946

Her Highness and the Bellboy
Character: Albert Weever
MOVIE • 1945

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood
Character: Self
MOVIE • 1945

Anchors Aweigh
Character: Police Sergeant
MOVIE • 1945

The Canterville Ghost
Character: Big Harry Waters
MOVIE • 1944

Meet the People
Character: Mr. Smith
MOVIE • 1944

3 Men in White
Character: Hobart Genet
MOVIE • 1944

Whistling in Brooklyn
Character: Chester Conway
MOVIE • 1943

Girl Crazy
Character: 'Rags'
MOVIE • 1943

Du Barry Was a Lady
Character: Charlie / Dauphin
MOVIE • 1943

Whistling in Dixie
Character: Chester Conway / Sylvester 'Lester' Conway
MOVIE • 1942

Panama Hattie
Character: Rags (as 'Rags' Ragland)
MOVIE • 1942

Somewhere I'll Find You
Character: Charlie
MOVIE • 1942

The War Against Mrs. Hadley
Character: Louie
MOVIE • 1942

Maisie Gets Her Man
Character: Ears Cofflin
MOVIE • 1942

Sunday Punch
Character: 'Killer' Connolly
MOVIE • 1942

Born to Sing
Character: 'Grunt'
MOVIE • 1942

Whistling in the Dark
Character: Sylvester
MOVIE • 1941

Ringside Maisie
Character: Vic
MOVIE • 1941

Hats and Dogs
Character:
MOVIE • 1938