I’m a few days late in writing about this, but nevertheless I must note the passing of a Hollywood icon, the actress Fay Wray, who died this past Sunday at the age of 96.

Fay, the star of the classic monster movie King Kong, is probably better remembered today as an idea rather than an actual person. Few people in my generation could pick her face out of a line-up, but I’m willing to bet most people have heard the name and know that she was the woman that was carried up the side of the Empire State Building by Kong (although it seems to me that most people think “Fay Wray” was the character she played in Kong, and not the actress herself. The character Fay played was named Ann Darrow, a.k.a. “The Girl”).

Wray herself was reportedly ambivalent about her association with the giant ape, which isn’t too surprising considering how she could never escape it. Despite a career that began in the silent era and ran until a final on-screen appearance in 1980, Kong is pretty much the only thing anyone remembers, and the only one of her films anyone ever wanted to talk to her about. She eventually came to accept and even enjoy the association, though; her 1989 autobiography bears the tongue-in-cheek name On the Other Hand.

I understand that the managers of the Empire State planned to honor the legendary “Queen of Scream” by dimming the tower lights on Tuesday night, but I’ve been unable to find anything on the ‘net about whether this actually took place.

Incidentally, King Kong is one of my favorite movies. Made in 1933, the film is admittedly difficult at times for a modern audience as it displays some very old-fashioned racial and sexist stereotypes. But it does so innocently, without any rancor or true hatred, and it is the film’s primitive nature that is its greatest charm. As critic Roger Ebert remarks in his “Great Movies” review of Kong, “there is something ageless and primeval about King Kong that still somehow works.” Even the film’s special effects, so archaic by today’s slick, photorealistic standards, are effective in their own way and within the context of the film. (It’s worth noting that Kong was the first big “effects” movie, essentially the great-granddaddy of Jurassic Park and all our other modern spectacles. The film’s head effects guy, Willis O’Brien, practically invented the art of stop-motion animation, which was then perfected by the genius Ray Harryhausen before being swept aside by computer-generated imagery.) While it is difficult even for me, a lover of old movies and student of the era, to grasp how audiences of 1933 could find Kong so terrifying — supposedly, it had people running for the doors screaming — it remains a wonderful piece of entertainment, a great adventure story that reminds us of that childhood desire to believe there may be lost islands that are home to amazing creatures. Anyone who doesn’t feel moved by the film’s ending must have a heart of stone.

Director Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings-fame is currently working on a remake starring Adrien Brody, Jack Black and, in the Fay Wray role, Naomi Watts. Watts is reported to be “devastated” by Wray’s death, as she’d hoped to meet with the elder actress to discuss the role of Ann Darrow. Jackson intends to dedicate his version — which we all hope to God will be lightyears better than the first remake, that 1976 crapfest that starred (to his chagrin, I’m sure) Jeff Bridges — to Fay. Good on ya, mate.

The best Fay Wray obituary I found online was, not surprisingly, the one in The Hollywood Reporter.