Rags Ragland

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 goodnatured oaf with a knack for fracturing the English language had as his sole movie employer MetroGoldwynMayer 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