Fredric March Explained

Fredric March (August 31 1897 – April 14 1975) was an American two-time Academy Award and Tony Award-winning stage and film actor.

Life and career

Early life

March was born Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel in Racine, Wisconsin, the son of Cora Brown Marcher and John F. Bickel. He 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. He began a career as a banker, but an emergency appendectomy caused him to reevaluate 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, Marcher. He appeared on Broadway in 1926, and by the end of the decade signed a film contract with Paramount Pictures.

Career

March won an Oscar nomination in 1930 for The Royal Family of Broadway, in which he played a role based upon John Barrymore. He won the Oscar for Best Actor in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and again in 1946 for The Best Years of Our Lives. 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.

March was one of the few actors to resist signing long-term contracts with the studios, and was able to freelance and pick and choose his roles, in the process also avoiding typecasting. By this time, he was working on Broadway as often as in Hollywood, and his screen career was not as prolific as it had been.

March, however, 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.

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. Perhaps March's greatest late-in-life role was in Inherit the Wind (1960), opposite Spencer Tracy.When March underwent major surgery for prostate cancer in 1970, it seemed his career was over, yet he managed to give one last great performance in The Iceman Cometh (1973), as the complicated Irish bartender, Harry Hope. Coincidentally, co-star Robert Ryan was entering the final stages of lung cancer, so the film was the last for both March and Ryan.

March has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1616 Vine Street.

Personal life

Although March died in Los Angeles, California at the age of 77 from cancer, he considered the rural Litchfield County town of New Milford, Connecticut his primary residence since the 1930s. This property was subsequently home to American playwright Lillian Hellman as well as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. March was married to actress Florence Eldridge from 1927 until his death, and they had two adopted children. He was buried at his estate in New Milford, Connecticut.

Throughout his life, he and his wife were supporters of the Democratic Party and liberal political causes. His support for the Republican (Second Spanish Republic) side during the Spanish Civil War was particularly controversial.

Filmography and awards

Year	Title	Role	Notes
rowspan=4	1921	The Great Adventure	uncredited	extra
Paying the Piper	uncredited	extra
The Education of Elizabeth	uncredited	extra
The Devil	uncredited	extra
rowspan=7	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
The Marriage Playground	Martin Boyne
rowspan=7	1930	Sarah and Son	Howard Vanning
Paramount on Parade	Marine
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
rowspan=4	1931	Honor Among Lovers	Jerry Stafford
Night Angel	Rudek Berken
My Sin	Dick Grady
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde	Dr. Henry Jekyll/Mr. Hyde	Academy Award for Best Actor (tied with Wallace Beery for The Champ)
rowspan=6	1932	Strangers in Love	Buddy Drake/Arthur Drake
Merrily We Go to Hell	Jerry Corbett
Make Me a Star	himself	behind-the-scenes drama.
Smilin' Through	Kenneth Wayne
The Sign of the Cross	Marcus Superbus
Hollywood on Parade No. A-1	himself	short film
rowspan=3	1933	Tonight Is Ours	Sabien Pastal
The Eagle and the Hawk	Jerry H. Young
Design for Living	Thomas B. 'Tom' Chambers
rowspan=7	1934	All of Me	Don Ellis
Death Takes a Holiday	Prince Sirki/Death
Good Dame	Mace Townsley
The Affairs of Cellini	Benvenuto Cellini
The Barretts of Wimpole Street	Robert Browning
We Live Again	Prince Dmitri Nekhlyudov
Hollywood on Parade No. B-6	himself	short film
rowspan=4	1935	Les Misérables	Jean Valjean/Champmathieu
Anna Karenina	Vronsky
The Dark Angel	Alan Trent
Screen Snapshots Series 14, No. 11	himself	short film
rowspan=4	1936	The Road to Glory	Lieutenant Michel Denet
Mary of Scotland	Bothwell
Anthony Adverse	Anthony Adverse
Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 3	himself	short film
rowspan=3	1937	A Star Is Born	Norman Maine	Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor
Nothing Sacred	Wallace 'Wally' Cook
Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 5	himself	short film
rowspan=3	1938	The Buccaneer	Jean Lafitte
There Goes My Heart	Bill Spencer
Trade Winds	Sam Wye
1939	The 400 Million	Narrator	Documentary of Chinese history
rowspan=3	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
rowspan=3	1941	So Ends Our Night	Josef Steiner
One Foot in Heaven	William Spence
Bedtime Story	Lucius 'Luke' Drake
rowspan=2	1942	I Married a Witch	Jonathan Wooley/Nathaniel Wooley/Samuel Wooley
Lake Carrier	Narrator	Documentary short
rowspan=3	1944	Valley of the Tennessee	Narrator	voice only
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
rowspan=2	1948	Another Part of the Forest	Marcus Hubbard
An Act of Murder	Judge Calvin Cooke
rowspan=2	1949	Christopher Columbus	Christopher Columbus
The Ford Theatre Hour		Television Episode: "The Twentieth Century"
rowspan=2	1950		Narrator	documentary about the life and works of Michelangelo Buonarroti
Nash Airflyte Theatre		Television Episode: "The Boor"
rowspan=3	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 Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor
Lux Video Theatre		Television Episode: "The Speech"
rowspan=2	1952	Lux Video Theatre		Television Episode: "Ferry Crisis at Friday Point"
Toast of the Town	himself	later known as The Ed Sullivan Show
rowspan=4	1953	25th Academy Awards	himself	presenter Academy Award for Best Actress to Shirley Booth for Come Back, Little Sheba
Omnibus		Television Episode: "The Last Night of Don Juan"
Man on a Tightrope	Karel Cernik
The Bridges at Toko-Ri	Rear Admiral George Tarrant
rowspan=5	1954	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		Dan C. Hilliard
rowspan=5	1956	Alexander the Great	Philip of Macedonia
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
rowspan=2	1957	Toast of the Town	himself	later known as The Ed Sullivan Show
Albert Schweitzer	Narrator	documentary
rowspan=2	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
1960	Inherit the Wind	Matthew Harrison Brady	Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor Nominated — Silver Bear for Best Actor
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
rowspan=3	1964	Seven Days in May	President Jordan Lyman	Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
The Presidency: A Splendid Mystery	Narrator	Television
Pieta	Narrator	documentary
1967	Hombre	Dr. Alex Favor
1970	…tick…tick…tick…	Mayor Jeff Parks
1973	The Iceman Cometh	Harry Hope

External links

• • Photographs of Fredric March