---
name: "Rags Ragland"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/rags-ragland"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "23 August 1905"
died: "20 August 1946"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-20T01:24:14.781835+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Rags Ragland

Actor. Born 23 August 1905 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. Died 20 August 1946.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 23 August 1905, Louisville, Kentucky, USA
- **Died:** 20 August 1946
- **Also known as:** John Lee Morgan Beauregard Ragland
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rags_Ragland, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7283228, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0706533/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/129549

## Streaming the US now

- **Tubi:** [*Anchors Aweigh*](https://film.one/film/anchors-aweigh.md) (70)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Biography

Rags Ragland (born John Lee Morgan Beauregard Ragland) was an American comedian and character actor. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, he worked as a boxer and truck driver before entering show business as a burlesque performer, notably at Minsky's, and later appeared on Broadway.

He began his film career with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the early 1940s, repeating his Broadway role in *Panama Hattie* (1942). Ragland appeared in around two dozen MGM comedies and musicals, often cast as a good-natured oaf, including *The Canterville Ghost* (1944) and *Anchors Aweigh* (1945). He died in Los Angeles in 1946.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, nytimes.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Anchors Aweigh* (1945), Fi1m 70, as Police Sergeant — [page](https://film.one/film/anchors-aweigh.md)

## Complete filmography (19)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *The Hoodlum Saint* (1946), as Fishface
- *Her Highness and the Bellboy* (1945), as Albert Weever
- *Anchors Aweigh* (1945), as Police Sergeant — Fi1m 70, [page](https://film.one/film/anchors-aweigh.md)
- *The Canterville Ghost* (1944), as Big Harry Waters
- *Meet the People* (1944), as Mr. Smith
- *3 Men in White* (1944), as Hobart Genet
- *Whistling in Brooklyn* (1943), as Chester Conway
- *Girl Crazy* (1943), as 'Rags'
- *Du Barry Was a Lady* (1943), as Charlie / Dauphin
- *Whistling in Dixie* (1942), as Chester Conway / Sylvester 'Lester' Conway
- *Panama Hattie* (1942), as Rags (as 'Rags' Ragland)
- *Somewhere I'll Find You* (1942), as Charlie
- *The War Against Mrs. Hadley* (1942), as Louie
- *Maisie Gets Her Man* (1942), as Ears Cofflin
- *Sunday Punch* (1942), as 'Killer' Connolly
- *Born to Sing* (1942), as 'Grunt'
- *Whistling in the Dark* (1941), as Sylvester
- *Ringside Maisie* (1941), as Vic
- *Hats and Dogs* (1938), as Rags

## Gallery

- ![Rags Ragland](https://film.one/media/person/1234861/gallery-fc2f3ff9255d.jpg) Rags Ragland — trailer screenshot (MGM), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Rags_Ragland_in_Ringside_Maisie_trailer.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Rags Ragland](https://film.one/media/person/1234861/gallery-7681d64024f2.jpg) Rags Ragland — Image via TMDB

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/rags-ragland