
Fredric March
Active - 1921 - 1973 | Born - Aug 31, 1897 in Racine, WI | Died - Apr 14, 1975 | Genres - Drama, Romance | Height: 5’ 10”
Born Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel in Racine, WI, he aspired to a career in business as a young man, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in economics after serving in the First World War as an artillery lieutenant.
March came along as a leading man just as Hollywood was switching to sound and scrambling for stage actors. His work in a West Coast production of Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman’s satirical stage work The Royal Family in 1929, in which he parodied John Barrymore, got him a five-year contract with Paramount Pictures. March repeated the role to great acclaim (and his first Oscar nomination) in George Cukor’s and Cyril Gardner’s 1930 screen adaptation, entitled The Royal Family of Broadway.
In 1937, March was listed as the fifth highest paid individual in America, earning a half-million dollars. Unfortunately for his later reputation, A Star Is Born, Nothing Sacred, and The Buccaneer, along with his Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Les Miserables, and Smilin’ Through, were all the subjects of remakes in the 1940s and ‘50s that came to supplant the versions in which he had starred in distribution to television; most were out of circulation for decades.
His career faltered somewhat during the 1950s and into the ’60s, but highlights include his Oscar-nominated performance as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman (1951), his role as a suburban homeowner terrorized by a gang of thugs in The Desperate Hours (1955), his William Jennings Bryan-based character in Inherit the Wind (1960), a turn as the president of the United States in Seven Days in May (1964), and a role as the corrupt Indian agent in Hombre (1967). March appeared on Broadway between film roles, winning a second Tony Award for originating the role of James Tyrone in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night (1956). His final performance, as Harry Hope in the film adaptation of O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh (1973), was especially strong.
Available Films:
Active - 1921 - 1973 | Born - Aug 31, 1897 in Racine, WI | Died - Apr 14, 1975 | Genres - Drama, Romance | Height: 5’ 10”
Born Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel in Racine, WI, he aspired to a career in business as a young man, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in economics after serving in the First World War as an artillery lieutenant.
March came along as a leading man just as Hollywood was switching to sound and scrambling for stage actors. His work in a West Coast production of Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman’s satirical stage work The Royal Family in 1929, in which he parodied John Barrymore, got him a five-year contract with Paramount Pictures. March repeated the role to great acclaim (and his first Oscar nomination) in George Cukor’s and Cyril Gardner’s 1930 screen adaptation, entitled The Royal Family of Broadway.
In 1937, March was listed as the fifth highest paid individual in America, earning a half-million dollars. Unfortunately for his later reputation, A Star Is Born, Nothing Sacred, and The Buccaneer, along with his Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Les Miserables, and Smilin’ Through, were all the subjects of remakes in the 1940s and ‘50s that came to supplant the versions in which he had starred in distribution to television; most were out of circulation for decades.
His career faltered somewhat during the 1950s and into the ’60s, but highlights include his Oscar-nominated performance as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman (1951), his role as a suburban homeowner terrorized by a gang of thugs in The Desperate Hours (1955), his William Jennings Bryan-based character in Inherit the Wind (1960), a turn as the president of the United States in Seven Days in May (1964), and a role as the corrupt Indian agent in Hombre (1967). March appeared on Broadway between film roles, winning a second Tony Award for originating the role of James Tyrone in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night (1956). His final performance, as Harry Hope in the film adaptation of O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh (1973), was especially strong.
Available Films:
ALL OF ME AN ACT OF MURDER ANNA KARENINA ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST DARK ANGEL |
DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY EAGLE AND THE HAWK, THE I MARRIED A WITCH MANSLAUGHTER |
NOTHING SACRED SMILIN' THROUGH SUSAN AND GOD TOMORROW THE WORLD |
Trivia:
He was the first actor to receive an Academy Award for a horror film (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)). The next would not be until Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
He and Humphrey Bogart played chess every day during breaks in the filming of The Desperate Hours (1955).
“Actually, I was not overwhelmed by Greta Garbo’s beauty. I think at that time women were more attracted to her than men.”
He was the first actor to receive an Academy Award for a horror film (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)). The next would not be until Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
He and Humphrey Bogart played chess every day during breaks in the filming of The Desperate Hours (1955).
“Actually, I was not overwhelmed by Greta Garbo’s beauty. I think at that time women were more attracted to her than men.”