Max Wagner

Diagnoses

Personal

Vocation

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. Three of Wagner's brothers were working in Hollywood – Jack Wagner and Blake Wagner as cameramen for D.W. Griffith, Hal Roach and Mack Sennett, and Bob Wagner as an assistant cameraman at First National – and Max Wagner moved there in 1924. 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. Wagner's career has several breaks in it. He served with the U.S. Army in the North African Campaign of World War II, and his struggle with alcoholism caused a short break in 1950. Wagner died of a heart attack in Hollywood on 16 November 1975, aged 73. Link to Wikipedia biography