Biography
Fredric March (Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel) (August 31, 1897–April 14, 1975) was an Academy Award winning American actor.
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, again in 1946 for The Best Years of Our Lives. In 1954, March hosted the 26th Annual Academy Awards.
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.
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.
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.
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 Broadway
Partial filmography
The Great Adventure (1921)
Paying the Piper (1921)
The Education of Elizabeth (1921)
The Devil (1921)
The Dummy (1929)
The Wild Party (1929)
The Studio Murder Mystery (1929)
Paris Bound (1929)
Jealousy (1929)
Footlights and Fools (1929)
The Marriage Playground (1929)
Sarah and Son (1930)
Paramount on Parade (1930)
Ladies Love Brutes (1930)
True to the Navy (1930)
Manslaughter (1930)
Laughter (1930)
The Royal Family of Broadway (1930)
Honor Among Lovers (1931)
Night Angel (1931)
My Sin (1931)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
Strangers in Love (1932)
Merrily We Go to Hell (1932)
Make Me a Star (1932) (Cameo)
Smilin' Through (1932)
The Sign of the Cross (1932)
Tonight Is Ours (1933)
The Eagle and the Hawk (1933)
Design for Living (1933)
All of Me (1934)
Death Takes a Holiday (1934)
Good Dame (1934)
The Affairs of Cellini (1934)
The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934)
We Live Again
Nothing Sacred (1937)
Hombre (1967)
March has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1616 Vine Street.
