Fredric March




American actor

























Fredric March

Fredric March face.jpg
Fredric March in 1939

Born
Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel


(1897-08-31)August 31, 1897

Racine, Wisconsin, U.S.

Died April 14, 1975(1975-04-14) (aged 77)

Los Angeles, California, U.S.

Occupation Actor
Years active 1921–1973
Spouse(s)
Ellis Baker (m. 1921–1927)
(divorced)

Florence Eldridge (m. 1927–1975)
(his death); 2 children

Fredric March (born Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel; August 31, 1897 – April 14, 1975) was an American actor, regarded as "one of Hollywood's most celebrated, versatile stars of the 1930s and '40s."[1][2] He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), as well as the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for Years Ago (1947) and Long Day's Journey into Night (1956).


March is one of only two actors, the other being Helen Hayes, to have won both the Academy Award and the Tony Award twice.




Contents






  • 1 Early life


  • 2 Career


  • 3 Personal life


  • 4 Tributes


  • 5 Filmography and awards


  • 6 Radio appearances


  • 7 See also


  • 8 References


  • 9 External links





Early life


March was born in Racine, Wisconsin, the son of Cora Brown Marcher (1863–1936), a schoolteacher from England[3], and John F. Bickel (1859–1941), a devout Presbyterian Church elder who worked in the wholesale hardware business.[4] March attended the Winslow Elementary School (established in 1855), Racine High School, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he was a member of Alpha Delta Phi.[citation needed] He was also a member of an "interfraternity society composed of leading students" formed at the college in 1919 named Ku Klux Klan that "appears to have had no connection with the national Klan organization" but whose "choice of a name signals an identification—or at the very least, no meaningful discomfort—with the widely known violent actions of the Reconstruction-era Klan..." [5][6]


He began a career as a banker, but an emergency appendectomy caused him to re-evaluate his life, and in 1920 he began working as an extra in movies made in New York City, using a shortened form of his mother's maiden name. He appeared on Broadway in 1926, and by the end of the decade, signed a film contract with Paramount Pictures.[7]


March served in the United States Army during World War I as an artillery lieutenant.



Career


March received an Oscar nomination for the 4th Academy Awards in 1930 for The Royal Family of Broadway, in which he played a role modeled on John Barrymore. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 5th Academy Awards in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (tied with Wallace Beery for The Champ, although March accrued one more vote than Beery[8]). This led to roles in a series of classic films based on stage hits and classic novels like Design for Living (1933) with Gary Cooper and Miriam Hopkins; Death Takes a Holiday (1934); Les Misérables (1935) with Charles Laughton; Anna Karenina (1935) with Greta Garbo; Anthony Adverse (1936) with Olivia de Havilland; and as the original Norman Maine in A Star is Born (1937) with Janet Gaynor, for which he received his third Oscar nomination.





Warner Baxter, June Lang and March in The Road to Glory (1936)




March with Janet Gaynor in A Star is Born (1937)


March resisted signing long-term contracts with the studios,[8][9] enabling him to play roles in films from a variety of studios. He returned to Broadway after a ten-year absence in 1937 with a notable flop, Yr. Obedient Husband, but after the success of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth he focused as much on Broadway as on Hollywood. He won two Best Actor Tony Awards: in 1947 for the play Years Ago, written by Ruth Gordon; and in 1957 for his performance as James Tyrone in the original Broadway production of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night. He also had major successes in A Bell for Adano in 1944 and Gideon in 1961, and played Ibsen's An Enemy of the People on Broadway in 1951. During this period he also starred in films, including I Married a Witch (1942) and Another Part of the Forest (1948), and won his second Oscar in 1946 for The Best Years of Our Lives.


March also branched out into television, winning Emmy nominations for his third attempt at The Royal Family for the series The Best of Broadway as well as for television performances as Samuel Dodsworth and Ebenezer Scrooge. On March 25, 1954, March co-hosted the 26th Annual Academy Awards ceremony from New York City, with co-host Donald O'Connor in Los Angeles.




Henry Drummond (Tracy, left) and Matthew Harrison Brady (March), right) in Inherit the Wind. Previously, March had taken the role in The Desperate Hours originally offered to Tracy. Both men had also played Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde.


March's neighbor in Connecticut, playwright Arthur Miller, was thought to favor March to inaugurate the part of Willy Loman in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Death of a Salesman (1949). However, March read the play and turned down the role, whereupon director Elia Kazan cast Lee J. Cobb as Willy, and Arthur Kennedy as one of Willy's sons, Biff Loman, two men that the director had worked with in the film Boomerang (1947). March later regretted turning down the role and finally played Willy Loman in Columbia Pictures's 1951 film version of the play, directed by Laslo Benedek, receiving his fifth and final Oscar nomination as well as a Golden Globe Award. March also played one of two leads in The Desperate Hours (1955) with Humphrey Bogart. Bogart and Spencer Tracy had both insisted upon top billing and Tracy withdrew, leaving the part available for March.


In 1957, March was awarded the George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for "distinguished contribution to the art of film."[10]


On February 12, 1959, March appeared before a joint session of the 86th United States Congress, reading of the Gettysburg Address as part of a commemorations of the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth.[11]


March co-starred with Spencer Tracy in the 1960 Stanley Kramer film Inherit the Wind, in which he played a dramatized version of famous orator and political figure William Jennings Bryan. March's Bible-thumping character provided a rival for Tracy's Clarence Darrow-inspired character. In the 1960s, March's film career proceeded with a performance as President Jordan Lyman in the political thriller Seven Days in May (1964) in which he co-starred with Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, and Edmond O'Brien; the part earned March a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actor.


March made several spoken word recordings, including a version of Oscar Wilde's The Selfish Giant issued in 1945, in which he narrated and played the title role, and The Sounds of History, a twelve volume LP set accompanying the twelve volume set of books The Life History of the United States, published by Time-Life. The recordings were narrated by Charles Collingwood, with March and his wife Florence Eldridge performing dramatic readings from historical documents and literature.


Following surgery for prostate cancer in 1970, it seemed his career was over, yet he managed to give one last performance in The Iceman Cometh (1973), as the complicated Irish saloon keeper, Harry Hope.



Personal life




March in 1946


March was married to actress Florence Eldridge from 1927 until his death in 1975, and they had two adopted children. He died from prostate cancer, at age 77, in Los Angeles, California: he was buried at his estate in New Milford, Connecticut.


Throughout his life, he and his wife were supporters of the Democratic Party.


In July 1936, March co-founded the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League (HANL)[12] along with writers Dorothy Parker[13] and Donald Ogden Stewart, director Fritz Lang, and composer Oscar Hammerstein.


In 1938, March was one of many Hollywood personalities investigated by the House of Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) and the hunt for Communists in the film community. In July 1940, he was among a number of individuals questioned by a HUAC subcommittee led by Representative Martin Dies.[14]



Tributes


March has a star for motion pictures on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1620 Vine Street.[15] In addition, the 500-seat theater at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh is named after March,[16] as well as the 168-seat Fredric March Play Circle Theater at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Memorial Union.[17], though his name was removed in 2018 after it was discovered that he had belonged to an organization calling itself Ku Klux Klan.


Biographies of March include Fredric March: Craftsman First, Star Second by Deborah C. Peterson (1996),[18] and Fredric March: A Consummate Actor (2013) by Charles Tranberg.[8]



Filmography and awards

































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Films
Year Title Role Notes
1921

The Education of Elizabeth
Extra
Uncredited

The Great Adventure
Extra
Uncredited

The Devil
Extra
Uncredited

Paying the Piper
Extra
Uncredited
1929

The Dummy
Trumbull Meredith


The Wild Party
James 'Gil' Gilmore


The Studio Murder Mystery
Richard Hardell


Paris Bound
Jim Hutton


Jealousy
Pierre


Footlights and Fools
Gregory Pyne

lost film; the soundtrack survives

The Marriage Playground
Martin Boyne

1930

Sarah and Son
Howard Vanning


Paramount on Parade

Doughboy
Cameo

Ladies Love Brutes
Dwight Howell


True to the Navy
Bull's Eye McCoy


Manslaughter
Dan O'Bannon


Laughter
Paul Lockridge


The Royal Family of Broadway
Tony Cavendish
Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor
1931

Honor Among Lovers
Jerry Stafford


The Night Angel
Rudek Berken


My Sin
Dick Grady

1932

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Dr. Henry Jekyll / Mr Edward Hyde

Academy Award for Best Actor (tied with Wallace Beery for The Champ)

Strangers in Love
Buddy Drake / Arthur Drake


Merrily We Go to Hell
Jerry Corbett


Make Me a Star
Himself
behind-the-scenes drama, Uncredited

Smilin' Through
Kenneth Wayne


The Sign of the Cross
Marcus Superbus


Hollywood on Parade No. A-1
Himself
short film
1933

Tonight Is Ours
Sabien Pastal


The Eagle and the Hawk
Jerry H. Young
With Cary Grant and Carole Lombard

Design for Living
Thomas B. 'Tom' Chambers
With Gary Cooper and Miriam Hopkins
1934

All of Me
Don Ellis
With Miriam Hopkins and George Raft

Good Dame
Mace Townsley


Death Takes a Holiday
Prince Sirki / Death


The Affairs of Cellini

Benvenuto Cellini


The Barretts of Wimpole Street

Robert Browning
With Norma Shearer and Charles Laughton

We Live Again
Prince Dmitri Nekhlyudov


Hollywood on Parade No. B-6
Himself
short film
1935

Les Misérables

Jean Valjean / Champmathieu


Anna Karenina
Count Vronsky
With Greta Garbo

The Dark Angel
Alan Trent


Screen Snapshots Series 14, No. 11
Himself
short film
1936

The Road to Glory
Lieutenant Michel Denet


Mary of Scotland

Bothwell
With Katharine Hepburn
Directed by John Ford

Anthony Adverse
Anthony Adverse
With Olivia de Havilland

Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 3
Himself
short film
1937

A Star Is Born
Norman Maine
Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor
With Janet Gaynor

Nothing Sacred
Wallace 'Wally' Cook


Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 5
Himself
short film
1938

The Buccaneer

Jean Lafitte


There Goes My Heart
Bill Spencer


Trade Winds
Sam Wye

1939

The 400 Million
Narrator
Documentary of Chinese history
1940

Susan and God
Barrie Trexel


Victory
Hendrik Heyst


Lights Out in Europe
Narrator
War documentary about the outbreak of World War II in Europe
1941

So Ends Our Night
Josef Steiner


One Foot in Heaven
William Spence


Bedtime Story
Lucius 'Luke' Drake
With Loretta Young and Robert Benchley
1942

I Married a Witch
Jonathan Wooley / Nathaniel Wooley / Samuel Wooley
With Veronica Lake and Robert Benchley

Lake Carrier
Narrator
Documentary short
1944

Valley of the Tennessee
Narrator
Voice

The Adventures of Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens


Tomorrow, the World!
Mike Frame

1946

The Best Years of Our Lives
Al Stephenson

Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated — New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
With Myrna Loy
1948

Another Part of the Forest
Marcus Hubbard


An Act of Murder
Judge Calvin Cooke

1949

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus


The Ford Theatre Hour
Oscar Jaffe
Television
Episode: "The Twentieth Century"
1950

The Titan: Story of Michelangelo
Narrator
documentary about the life and works of Michelangelo Buonarroti

The Nash Airflyte Theater

Television
Episode: "The Boor"
1951

It's a Big Country
Joe Esposito


Death of a Salesman

Willy Loman

Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Volpi Cup for Best Actor
Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor

Lux Video Theatre

Television
Episode: "The Speech"
1952

Lux Video Theatre
Captain Matt
Television
Episode: "Ferry Crisis at Friday Point"

Toast of the Town
Himself
later known as The Ed Sullivan Show
1953

25th Academy Awards
Himself
presenter Academy Award for Best Actress to Shirley Booth for Come Back, Little Sheba

Omnibus
Don Juan
Television
Episode: "The Last Night of Don Juan"

Man on a Tightrope
Karel Cernik
With Terry Moore and Gloria Grahame
1954

The Bridges at Toko-Ri
Rear Admiral George Tarrant


26th Academy Awards
Himself
Co-hosted from New York, with Donald O'Connor in Hollywood

Executive Suite
Loren Phineas Shaw

Venice Film Festival Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Acting (shared with the principal cast)
Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor

The Best of Broadway
Tony Cavendish
Television
Episode: "The Royal Family" (based on March's Broadway play and film of the same name)
Nominated — Emmy Award for Best Single Performance by an Actor

Shower of Stars

Ebenezer Scrooge
Television
Episode: "A Christmas Carol"
Nominated — Emmy Award for Best Single Performance by an Actor

What's My Line?
Himself

1955

The Desperate Hours
Dan C. Hilliard
With Humphrey Bogart
1956

Alexander the Great

Philip II of Macedon


The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
Ralph Hopkins


Producers' Showcase
Sam Dodsworth
Television
Episode: "Dodsworth"
Nominated — Emmy Award for Best Single Performance by an Actor

Shower of Stars
Eugene Tesh
Television
Episode: "The Flattering World"

Island of Allah
Narrator

1957

Toast of the Town
Himself
later known as The Ed Sullivan Show

Albert Schweitzer
Narrator
Documentary
1958

The DuPont Show of the Month
Arthur Winslow
Television
Episode: "The Winslow Boy"

Tales from Dickens
Host
also known as Fredric March Presents Tales From Dickens, March hosted seven episodes during 1958 and 1959.
Episodes: "Bardell Versus Pickwick", "Uriah Heep", "A Christmas Carol", "David and Betsy Trotwood", "David and His Mother", "Christmas at Dingley Dell" and "The Runaways"
1959

Middle of the Night
Jerry Kingsley
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Written by Paddy Chayevsky
1960

Inherit the Wind

Matthew Harrison Brady
Won — Silver Bear for Best Actor (Berlin Film Festival)[19]
Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor
With Spencer Tracy
1961

The Young Doctors
Dr. Joseph Pearson

1962

I Sequestrati di Altona
(The Condemned of Altona)
Albrecht von Gerlach

1963

A Tribute to John F. Kennedy from the Arts
Host
broadcast on November 24, 1963, two days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy
1964

Seven Days in May
President Jordan Lyman

David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actor
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
With Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas

The Presidency: A Splendid Mystery
Narrator
Television

Pieta
Narrator
Documentary
1967

Hombre
Dr. Alex Favor
Nominated — Laurel Award for Top Male Supporting Performance
With Paul Newman
1970

…tick…tick…tick…
Mayor Jeff Parks

1973

The Iceman Cometh
Harry Hope
With Lee Marvin and Robert Ryan
(final film role)


Radio appearances






































Year Program Episode/source
1942 Lux Radio Theatre
One Foot in Heaven[20]
1946 Academy Award
A Star Is Born[21]
1949 MGM Theater of the Air
Citadel
1953 Theatre Guild on the Air
Cass Timberlane[22]
1953 Star Playhouse
A Bell for Adano[23]
1953 Star Playhouse
There Shall Be No Night[24]


See also



  • List of actors with Academy Award nominations


References





  1. ^ "Overview for Fredric March". Turner Classic Movies..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}


  2. ^ Obituary Variety, April 16, 1975, page 95.


  3. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45drbKEfL2M


  4. ^ Lillian Ross; Helen Ross (22 September 1961). "The Player A Profile Of An Art". Simon And Schuster – via Internet Archive.


  5. ^ "UW–Madison releases report on student organizations that took name of KKK in 1920s". news.wisc.edu.


  6. ^ "1924 Badger". 5 July 2008.


  7. ^ "Fredric March, american actor". Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. August 27, 2018. Archived from the original on March 10, 2018.


  8. ^ abc Tranberg, Charles (2013). Fredric March: A Consummate Actor. Duncan, Oklahoma: BearManor Media. ISBN 9781593937454.


  9. ^ "Fredric March: A Consummate Actor - An Interview with author Charles Tranberg". Let's Misbehave: A Tribute to Precode Hollywood. Blogspot.com.au.


  10. ^ "Awards granted by George Eastman House International Museum of Photography & Film". George Eastman House. Archived from the original on April 15, 2012. Retrieved April 25, 2013.


  11. ^ "Nation Honor Lincoln On Sesquicentennial" (PDF). Yonkers Herald-Statesman. Northern Illinois University Libraries. Associated Press. February 11, 1959. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 1, 2013. Retrieved April 25, 2013. Congress gets into the act tomorrow, when a joint session will be held. Carl Sandburg, famed Lincoln biographer, will give and address, and actor Fredric March will read the Gettysburg Address.


  12. ^ "Hollywood Fights Back -- In Our Own Backyard: Resisting Nazi Propaganda in Southern California 1933-1945". digital-library.csun.edu. Retrieved 2018-05-31.


  13. ^ Longworth, Karina (2016-02-26). "Dorothy Parker Goes to Hollywood". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 2018-05-31.


  14. ^ "HUAC Goes to Hollywood, Part 1: The Forgotten Investigation of 1940 | Cold War & Internal Security (CWIS) Collection". blog.ecu.edu. Retrieved 2018-05-31.


  15. ^ "Fredric March | Hollywood Walk of Fame". www.walkoffame.com. Retrieved 2016-12-01.


  16. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-06-19. Retrieved 2010-08-02.CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link)


  17. ^ "Wisconsin Union Theater » Wisconsin Union". www.union.wisc.edu.


  18. ^ Peterson, Deborah C. (1996). Fredric March: Craftsman First, Star Second. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313298028.


  19. ^ "Berlinale: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved 2010-01-17.


  20. ^ "Those Were the Days". Nostalgia Digest. 43 (2): 33. Spring 2017.


  21. ^ "Those Were The Days". Nostalgia Digest. 41 (3): 32–39. Summer 2015.


  22. ^ Kirby, Walter (February 15, 1953). "Better Radio Programs for the Week". The Decatur Daily Review. p. 42. Retrieved June 21, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
    open access publication – free to read



  23. ^ Kirby, Walter (October 11, 1953). "Better Radio Programs for the Week". The Decatur Daily Review. p. 50. Retrieved July 6, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
    open access publication – free to read



  24. ^ Kirby, Walter (November 29, 1953). "Better Radio Programs for the Week". The Decatur Daily Review. p. 50. Retrieved July 14, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
    open access publication – free to read





External links








  • Fredric March on IMDb


  • Fredric March at the Internet Broadway Database

  • Photographs of Fredric March










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