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person_profile-Francis Lederer

Francis Lederer Died at age: 100

Actor | Producer

Fullname:

Francis Lederer

Date of Birth:

Nov 06, 1899

Country of birth:

Austria-Hungary [now Czech Republic]

Died:

May 25, 2000

Biography of

Francis Lederer

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

    Francis Lederer (November 6, 1899 – May 25, 2000) was a Czech-born film and stage actor with a successful career, first in Europe, then in the United States. His original name was František Lederer. Lederer's first American movies were Man of Two Worlds (1934), Romance in Manhattan (1934), with Ginger Rogers, The Gay Deception (1935), with Frances Dee, and One Rainy Afternoon (1936). He was cast as the lead with Katharine Hepburn in the 1935 film Break of Hearts, but the producers replaced him with Charles Boyer. It was Irving Thalberg's plan to make Lederer "the biggest star in Hollywood" but the death of Thalberg ended this possibility.

    Although he continued to play leads occasionally – notably when he was a playboy in Mitchell Leisen's Midnight with Claudette Colbert and John Barrymore in 1939 – in the late 1930s Lederer began to expand his character parts, even playing villains. Edward G. Robinson praised Lederer's performance as a German American Bundist in Confessions of a Nazi Spy in 1939, and he earned plaudits for his portrayal of a fascist in The Man I Married (1940) with Joan Bennett. He also played Count Dracula for The Return of Dracula in 1958. Throughout his career, Lederer, who studied with Elia Kazan at the Actors Studio in New York City, continued to take stage acting seriously, and he performed often both in New York and elsewhere. He appeared in stage productions of Golden Boy (1937), Seventh Heaven (1939), No Time for Comedy (1939), in which he replaced Laurence Olivier, The Play's the Thing (1942), A Doll's House (1944), Arms and the Man (1950), The Sleeping Prince (1956) and The Diary of Anne Frank (1958).

    Although he took a break from making films in 1941, in order to concentrate on his stage work, he returned to the silver screen in 1944, appearing in Voice in the Wind and The Bridge of San Luis Rey, and in films such as Jean Renoir's The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946) and Million Dollar Weekend (1948). He took another break from Hollywood in 1950, after making Surrender (1950), and returned in 1956 with Lisbon and the light comedy The Ambassador's Daughter. His final film appearance was in Terror Is a Man in 1959. During the 1950s, he served as honorary mayor of Canoga Park.

    He would continue to make television appearances for the next 10 years in such shows as Sally, The Untouchables, Ben Casey, Blue Light, Mission: Impossible and That Girl. His final television appearance occurred in a 1971 episode of Rod Serling's Night Gallery called "The Devil Is Not Mocked". In it, he reprised his role as Dracula from The Return of Dracula.

Photos of

Francis Lederer

Photos ( 3 Photos

Filmography of

Francis Lederer

Found 38 Movies in total

1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year

Self (archive footage) ( Actor )

... 2009

... 1996

Dracula: A Cinematic Scrapbook

Count Dracula (archive footage) ( Actor )

... 1991

Vincent Price's Dracula

Count Dracula - (archive footage) ( Actor )

... 1986

... 1976

Terror Is a Man

Dr. Charles Girard ( Actor )

... 1959

Maracaibo

Miguel Orlando ( Actor )

... 1958

The Return of Dracula

Count Dracula ( Actor )

... 1958

Lisbon

Seraphim ( Actor )

... 1956

The Ambassador's Daughter

Prince Nicholas Obelski ( Actor )

... 1956

Stolen Identity

Claude Manelli ( Actor )

... 1953

Surrender

Henry Vaan ( Actor )

... 1950

A Woman of Distinction

Paul Simone ( Actor )

... 1950

Captain Carey, U.S.A.

Baron Rocco de Greffi ( Actor )

... 1950

Million Dollar Weekend

Alan Marker ( Actor )

... 1948

The Madonna's Secret

James Harlan Corbin ( Actor )

... 1946

... 1946

Voice in the Wind

Jan Volny / El Hombre ( Actor )

... 1944

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Esteban / Manuel ( Actor )

... 1944

Puddin' Head

Prince Karl ( Actor )

... 1941

The Man I Married

Eric Hoffman ( Actor )

... 1940

Confessions of a Nazi Spy

Kurt Schneider ( Actor )

... 1939

Midnight

Jacques Picot ( Actor )

... 1939

The Lone Wolf in Paris

Michael Lanyard ( Actor )

... 1938

It's All Yours

Jimmy Barnes ( Actor )

... 1937

My American Wife

Count Ferdinand von und zu Reidenach ( Actor )

... 1936

One Rainy Afternoon

Philippe Martin ( Actor )

... 1936

The Gay Deception

Sandro ( Actor )

... 1935

Romance in Manhattan

Karel Novak ( Actor )

... 1935

The Pursuit of Happiness

Max Christmann ( Actor )

... 1934

Man of Two Worlds

Aigo ( Actor )

... 1934

The Great Passion

Himself ( Actor )

... 1930

Fundvogel

Jan Bergwall ( Actor )

... 1930

Atlantic

Peter ( Actor )

... 1929

Mother Hummingbird

Georges de Chambry ( Actor )

... 1929

Meineid

Karl Fenn ( Actor )

... 1929

The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrovna

Lt. Michael Rostof ( Actor )

... 1929

Pandora's Box

Alwa Schön ( Actor )

... 1929