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.
188 movies · 7 shows
Young Frankenstein
1974·7.9
Terror in the Wax Museum
1973·5.2
Evil Roy Slade
1972·6.3
Support Your Local Gunfighter
1971·6.6
The Over-the-Hill Gang Rides Again
1970·5.6
The Cheyenne Social Club
1970·6.4
True Grit
1969·7.3
The Legend of Lylah Clare
1968·6.0
Rosemary's Baby
1968·7.8
Hang 'em High
1968·6.9
Return of the Gunfighter
1967·6.1
A Big Hand for the Little Lady
1966·7.1
Gunpoint
1966·6.2
The Great Race
1965·7.1
Shenandoah
1965·6.9
4 for Texas
1963·5.1
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
1963·7.0
To Kill a Mockingbird
1962·8.0
Pressure Point
1962·6.5
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
1962·7.8
Sunrise at Campobello
1960·6.0
Ice Palace
1960·6.3
Public Pigeon No. 1
1957·6.3
The Spirit of St. Louis
1957·6.7
Robbery Under Arms
1957·5.2
The Conqueror
1956·3.6
I Died a Thousand Times
1955·6.2
Illegal
1955·6.5
Tennessee's Partner
1955·6.5
East of Eden
1955·7.5
The Country Girl
1954·7.0
The Great Diamond Robbery
1954·10.0
Donovan's Brain
1953·6.2
Invaders from Mars
1953·5.9
Flaming Feather
1952·6.2
The Racket
1951·6.3
The Secret of Convict Lake
1951·6.6
Pier 23
1951·5.5
Frenchie
1950·6.0
Reign of Terror
1949·6.8
It Happens Every Spring
1949·6.6
The Red Pony
1949·6.0
Caught
1949·6.6
Flaxy Martin
1949·5.6
Shed No Tears
1948·5.1
The Sainted Sisters
1948·7.3
The Miracle of the Bells
1948·6.2
Half Past Midnight
1948·7.0
Tycoon
1947·5.6
Possessed
1947·6.9
Sinbad the Sailor
1947·6.0
That Brennan Girl
1946·5.5
It's a Wonderful Life
1946·8.3
Dick Tracy vs. Cueball
1946·5.5
The Truth About Murder
1946·4.8
The Lost Weekend
1945·7.6
Fallen Angel
1945·6.6
Radio Stars on Parade
1945·9.0
Circumstantial Evidence
1945·5.2
A Medal for Benny
1945·5.6
Hi, Beautiful
1944·9.8
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
1944·6.9
Boss of Boomtown
1944·10.0
Undercover: How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines
1943·6.0
A Night to Remember
1942·6.7
Panama Hattie
1942·5.7
Overland to Deadwood
1942·9.0
Mexican Spitfire's Elephant
1942·5.4
The Palm Beach Story
1942·7.0
Sabotage Squad
1942·7.5
The Talk of the Town
1942·7.3
Matri-Phony
1942·5.5
The Spoilers
1942·6.2
Come on Danger
1942·6.0
Moontide
1942·6.4
The Wife Takes a Flyer
1942·5.5
Obliging Young Lady
1942·6.0
The Mexican Spitfire's Baby
1941·4.6
Texas
1941·6.7
Cyclone on Horseback
1941·6.4
Ride on Vaquero
1941·5.2
The Mad Doctor
1940·6.2
Trail of the Vigilantes
1940·10.0
The Bank Dick
1940·6.5
Hired Wife
1940·6.8
Men Against the Sky
1940·4.6
Rhythm on the River
1940·6.9
Wildcat Bus
1940·5.5
Lucky Partners
1940·6.1
They Drive by Night
1940·6.9
The Ghost Breakers
1940·6.5
Pop Always Pays
1940·6.7
Buck Benny Rides Again
1940·5.0
You Can't Fool Your Wife
1940·5.5
The Grapes of Wrath
1940·7.8
Millionaire Playboy
1940·4.5
The House Across the Bay
1940·5.6
Charlie Chan in Panama
1940·6.8
Mexican Spitfire
1940·5.0
The Man Who Wouldn't Talk
1940·5.3
Reno
1939·6.7
The Roaring Twenties
1939·7.5
Fifth Avenue Girl
1939·7.0
The Day the Bookies Wept
1939·7.5
Our Leading Citizen
1939·8.0
The Gracie Allen Murder Case
1939·6.3
The Girl from Mexico
1939·5.1
The Return of the Cisco Kid
1939·6.3
Mr. Moto in Danger Island
1939·6.7
Money to Loan
1939·6.8
I'll Tell the World
1939·0.0
Cafe Society
1939·7.5
Fast and Loose
1939·5.9
Wings of the Navy
1939·6.2
Off the Record
1939·6.4
Scouts to the Rescue
1939·10.0
Submarine Patrol
1938·6.7
Little Tough Guys in Society
1938·7.3
Tarnished Angel
1938·5.3
The Arkansas Traveler
1938·6.7
Painted Desert
1938·6.0
Professor Beware
1938·6.0
Cocoanut Grove
1938·9.0
Maid's Night Out
1938·5.9
Penrod and His Twin Brother
1938·6.0
Born to Be Wild
1938·7.5
Many Unhappy Returns
1937·0.0
Alcatraz Island
1937·5.1
Stage Door
1937·7.1
Step Lively, Jeeves!
1937·6.0
Border Cafe
1937·7.0
San Quentin
1937·6.6
Wings Over Honolulu
1937·6.4
The Great O'Malley
1937·7.0
Black Legion
1937·6.6
You Only Live Once
1937·7.1
God's Country and the Woman
1937·5.2
We Who Are About to Die
1937·7.0
Smart Blonde
1937·6.4
Night Waitress
1936·6.4
The Big Game
1936·6.6
The Girl on the Front Page
1936·7.0
Walking on Air
1936·6.3
Love Begins at Twenty
1936·6.3
Bullets or Ballots
1936·6.6
Dancing Pirate
1936·5.7
Sons o' Guns
1936·5.2
The Crime Patrol
1936·7.0
The Girl from Mandalay
1936·4.7
Two in Revolt
1936·7.0
The House of a Thousand Candles
1936·10.0
Love on a Bet
1936·7.0
Paddy O'Day
1936·7.0
Chatterbox
1936·7.0
The Adventures of Frank Merriwell
1936·5.7
The Fighting Marines
1935·6.5
Mary Burns, Fugitive
1935·9.0
3 Kids and a Queen
1935·6.8
Dr. Socrates
1935·6.6
Charlie Chan in Shanghai
1935·6.7
The Daring Young Man
1935·10.0
The Miracle Rider
1935·5.5
The Oil Raider
1934·10.0
Gridiron Flash
1934·4.8
She Had to Choose
1934·6.0
Name the Woman
1934·9.0
Blind Date
1934·8.0
The Lost Jungle
1934·4.3
The Personality Kid
1934·4.4
Hell Bent for Love
1934·10.0
The Lost Jungle
1934·3.5
Miss Fane's Baby Is Stolen
1934·6.0
Before Dawn
1933·5.7
Arizona to Broadway
1933·7.5
Renegades of the West
1932·6.0
Rockabye
1932·6.5
The World and the Flesh
1932·7.7
Cock of the Air
1932·7.7
Suicide Fleet
1931·5.0
The Good Bad Girl
1931·6.5
Going Wild
1930·7.0
The Last of the Vargas
1930·10.0
Numbered Men
1930·5.1
The Thrill Seekers
1927·6.5
The First Auto
1927·5.8
Flashing Oars
1927·3.5
The Relay
1927·6.8
Making Good
1926·9.0