Ray Bolger
(Hunk/The Scarecrow)

A talented song-and-dance-man, Ray Bolger began his career in vaudeville before moving onto Broadway and Hollywood. Appropriately, his film debut was in the movie The Great Ziegfield (1936). Oz producer Arthur Freed originally intended to cast Bolger as the Tin Woodman, and slated hoofer Buddy Ebsen as the loose-limbed Scarecrow. However, Bolger lobbied hard for the Scarecrow role and Freed finally conceded. Although Ebsen eventually dropped out of the production due to aluminum dust poisoning from the Tin Woodsman's makeup, Bolger also suffered under the rubber prosthetics mask that he wore for his part. (It is said that Bolger went through over 40 masks in the course of the filming.) Although his fame as the Scarecrow would never be matched, Bolger continued to make movies for nearly five more decades until his death in 1987.