Fredric March

Fredric March began a career in banking but in 1920 found himself cast as an extra in films being produced in New York.

Because he considered 12 his lucky number, he shortened Frederick to Fredric, shortened his mother's maiden name from Marcher to March, and as of New Year's Day, 1924, Fredric March was born.

He starred on the Broadway stage first in 1926 and would return there between screen appearances later on.

His wife, actress Florence Eldridge, appeared with him in The Studio Murder Mystery (1929), Les Misérables (1935), Mary of Scotland (1936), Another Part of the Forest (1948), An Act of Murder (1948), Christopher Columbus (1949) and Inherit the Wind (1960). On television, she appeared with him in Producers' Showcase: Dodsworth (1956).

He won plaudits (and an Academy Award nomination) for his send-up of John Barrymore in The Royal Family of Broadway (1930). Four more Academy Award nominations would come his way, and he would win the Oscar for Best Actor twice: for Dr. Jekyll and Mr.

Hyde (1931) and The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946).

Adopted two children with his wife, Florence Eldridge: Penelope ("Penny," born 1932) and Anthony (born 1934).

March also appeared with his wife, Florence Eldridge, in Mary of Scotland (1936).

In 1937, he was listed as the fifth highest paid individual in America, earning $500,000.

After he and his wife Florence Eldridge appeared in the heavily panned play, "Yr. Obedient Husband" in 1938, they ran an ad in New York newspapers; a cartoon borrowed from the New Yorker magazine, it showed a trapeze artist missing his partner. The caption read: "Oops! Sorry!".

In 1943, March made tours for the USO covering nearly 40,000 miles. His other contributions to the war effort included volunteering at the Stage Door Canteen and fundraising activities.

It seems that nobody but Jesse L. Lasky wanted to make The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944). He fought for years to convince Warner Bros. to back a screen biography of the noted writer. Director Irving Rapper was not interested in making the film until he learned his friend March was first choice to star. March had been suggested by Twain's only living daughter, Clara Clemens Gabrilowitch, who informed Lasky that she would not help with the picture unless March played her father. But even with such a stirring endorsement, March had his doubts. He only accepted the role after the makeup department shot a test in which he played Twain at 65. When a picture of March in makeup was released to the papers, Twain's daughter thought somebody had discovered another archival photo of her father.

He singled out The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946) as his favorite movie role and "Long Day's Journey into Night" as his favorite stage play. He considered work in television "an awful experience".

Won two Tony Awards as Best Actor (Dramatic), the first in 1947 for his performance in Ruth Gordon's "Years Ago", an award shared with José Ferrer for "Cyrano de Bergerac", and the second, ten years later, in 1957, for his landmark performance in Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night". He was also nominated in the same category in 1962 for Paddy Chayefsky's "Gideon".

In 1949, he was targeted for blacklisting by the House Un-American Activities Committee because of his supposed "leftist" politics.

He and Basil Rathbone appeared together in two television adaptations of "A Christmas Carol", shown in the 1950s. In the first, Shower of Stars: A Christmas Carol (1954), March played Scrooge and Rathbone played Marley's Ghost. In the second, Fredric March Presents Tales from Dickens: A Christmas Carol (1959), March was the narrator, and Rathbone played Scrooge.

He and Humphrey Bogart played chess every day during breaks in the filming of The Desperate Hours (1955).

In 1959, he was accorded the honor of reading the Gettysburg Address to a joint session of Congress on the 150th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1620 Vine Street in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy called on him to do a dramatic reading at a White House dinner, and "at home" for 30 past Nobel Prize winners.

In 1965, both Marches got recruited by the State Department to tour eight Near Eastern countries, presenting recitations of poetry and excerpts from plays in which they had appeared in the American theater. They were the first husband-and-wife acting team to go abroad under the auspices of the State Department's division of cultural presentations.

For a while after undergoing major surgery for prostate cancer in 1970, it seemed March's acting career was finished. However, he was able to give one final great performance in The Iceman Cometh (1973).

A 500-seat theater was named after him on October 15, 1971, at the University of Wisconsin branch in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Director John Frankenheimer called March "the finest human being I've ever known, as well as the best actor I ever worked with," citing March's celebrated turns in The Iceman Cometh (1973) and Seven Days in May (1964).

In 1975, Marjorie Main, Larry Parks and Richard Conte died within days of March. March died on April 14, 1975, and was cremated and buried under a favorite tree on his farm in Connecticut.

March's daughter, Penny, remembered her father during her growing up years as fun, charming and very kind, writing in 1990, "I remember very well how handsome he looked back in the days when people really dressed up in the evening, and he'd have on tails and an evening cape to go out and I got to pop up his beautiful top hat" (Letter, Penelope March Fantacci, 12 September 1990).