Everything about Fredric March totally explained
Fredric March (
August 31,
1897 –
April 14,
1975) was an
American two-time
Academy Award and
Tony Award-winning
stage and film
actor.
Biography
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 wasn't 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 surgery for
prostate cancer in 1972, 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 1930's. 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'd two adopted children.
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
Academy Awards and nominations
1952 Nominated Death of a Salesman
1947 Won The Best Years of Our Lives
1938 Nominated A Star Is Born
1932 Won Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
1931 Nominated The Royal Family of BroadwayFurther Information
Get more info on 'Fredric March'.
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