Fredric March

Fredric March (Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel) (August 31, 1897–April 14, 1975) was an Academy Award winning American actor.

Related Topics:
August 31 - 1897 - April 14 - 1975 - Academy Award - Actor

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Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel was born in Racine, Wisconsin. He began as a banker, but an emergency appendectomy caused him to reevaluate his life, and in 1920 he began to be cast 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 won an Oscar nomination in 1930 for The Royal Family of Broadway, in which he played a role based upon John Barrymore. March won the Oscar in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and again in 1946 for The Best Years of Our Lives.

Related Topics:
Racine - Wisconsin - Appendectomy - 1920 - New York City - Broadway - 1926 - Oscar - 1930 - The Royal Family of Broadway - John Barrymore - 1932 - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - 1946 - The Best Years of Our Lives

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March was one of the few actors to resist the studios, and was able to 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. Perhaps his greatest late-in-life role was in Inherit the Wind in 1960, opposite Spencer Tracy.

Related Topics:
Hollywood - Inherit the Wind - 1960 - Spencer Tracy

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Throughout his life, he was a proponent of liberal political causes. He was a steady supporter of the Democratic Party. 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. Ironically, co-star Robert Ryan was entering the final stages of lung cancer, so the film was shot on a deathwatch.

Related Topics:
Liberal - Democratic Party - Prostate cancer - 1972 - The Iceman Cometh - Robert Ryan - Lung cancer

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Fredric March died in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 77 from cancer. He had been married to the actress Florence Eldridge from 1927 until his death.

Related Topics:
Los Angeles - California - Florence Eldridge

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