King Kong heroine passes away at 96

Fay Wray is renowned as the damsel in distress in King Kong

Wray starred in about 100 films. She shot to fame in the 1928 silent classic, The Wedding March, and often played damsels in distress. She said she had not realised at the time 'that King Kong and I were going to be together for the rest of our lives, and longer'.

She recalled how King Kong Director Merian C Cooper 'called me into his office and showed me sketches of jungle scenes, and told me "You're going to have the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood".'

'Naturally, I thought Clark Gable. But then he showed me this sketch of a giant ape up the side of the Empire State Building, he said,' "There's your leading man".' Wray admitted that she had not been 'too impressed' in the beginning..

She made her name in horror movies like Doctor X (1932) and The Vampire Bat (1933), and went on to appear with such stars as Ronald Colman, Gary Cooper and Spencer Tracy. But it was King Kong that secured her immortality on the silver screen.

In April this year film experts voted King Kong the most terrifying movie monster of all time in UK film magazine Empire.