Ron Wilson

born: 13 November 1900
Crawfordsville, Indiana,
United States of America		 died: 13 May 1969
Honolulu, Hawaii,
United States of America
(age 68)

American actor, musician, and pilot, a veteran of both World Wars and the Korean War. He married vaudeville songstress Jane Green (1897-1931) in 1927, also accompanying her on piano in her performances including two 1928 Vitaphone shorts. Wilson later had a brief career as an actor in Hollywood films during the 1930s. After the outbreak of World War II, Wilson served as a pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1940 to 1942, then as a Colonel in the United States Air Force from 1942 until his retirement in 1958. He spent his later years residing in Hawaii, and is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.
On 22 August 1933, Wilson was piloting an airplane accompanied by passenger Corinne Marlowe; after a series of low-flying stunts near the roofs of houses, the plane crashed into a high-tension power line and into the backyard of a residence near Glendale, California, catapulting the pair into a huge pepper tree. Miraculously, they escaped unharmed, then had to be protected and saved by police from an angry mob of townsfolk, after which they were arrested on charges of being intoxicated in an airplane. Both admitted and pled guilty, with Marlowe applying for probation. Wilson, who was reportedly the first ever flier to face such charges and faced one to five years in prison on a felony charge, was ultimately sentenced to 50 days in the Los Angeles County jail, followed by three years probation, as well as paying restitution for damages to the backyard of the residence he crashed into. After 39 days, he was given a "Christmas parole" three days before the merry holiday, though the three-year probation sentence remained.
Real name: Ronald Francis Wilson
Height: 5'10½"		 Films listed on this page: all films with Charley Chase.

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▼ NON-HAL ROACH FILMS

1938		 Time Out For Trouble
Clumsy store employee

1939		 The Sap Takes A Wrap
Nightclub patron

Acknowledgements:
R F Wilson, "Montgomery County, Indiana, Index to Birth Records, 1882-1922" (Ancestry.com)
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MLB3-842 (1910 Census)
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPNY-K9FC (WWI aid application)
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4ZL-G8P (1920 Census)
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XCFF-ZXD (1930 Census)
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKXL-Z7L2 (1931 airplane pass. list) [?]
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K9C2-M3H (1940 Census)
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:WX8Z-CHN2 (1941 pass. index)
Ronald Frances Wilson, "U.S., Border Crossings from Canada to U.S., 1895-1960" (Ancestry.com)
Ronald F Wilson, "U.S., Select Military Registers, 1862-1985" (Ancestry.com)
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:8BTC-4HW2 (1964 voter reg.)
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JBQW-T6D (Social Security Death Index)
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:WW9F-4XW2 (U.S. Veterans Adm. Master Index)
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/124456740 (Find a Grave)
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/271446193/ (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 15 May 1969)
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/271446224/ (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 15 May 1969)
https://www.newspapers.com/search/results/?date-end=1933-09-16&date-start=1933-08-23&keyword=%22ron+wilson%22&sort=paper-date-asc (Newspapers.com, search)
https://www.newspapers.com/search/results/?date-end=1933-12-31&date-start=1933-08-23&keyword=%22ronald+wilson%22&sort=paper-date-asc (Newspapers.com, search)
http://www.jazzage1920s.com/janegreen/janegreen.php (Jazz Age 1920s)
https://artmusiclounge.wordpress.com/2023/03/18/the-20s-green-singer-who-was-no-plain-jane/ (The Art Music Lounge)
Jesse Brisson (identification in Time Out For Trouble, The Sap Takes A Wrap)

This page was last updated on: 04 April 2026