March, Fredric

March, Fredric, 1897–1975, American actor, b. Racine, Wis., as Frederick McIntyre Bickel. Equally distinguished on stage and screen, he won Academy Awards for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1947). Originally cast as the dashing hero because of his good looks, March's later roles took advantage of his powerful screen presence and his ability to express the weaknesses in seemingly self-assured professional men. His films include Anna Karenina (1935), Death of a Salesman (1952), Inherit the Wind (1960), and The Iceman Cometh (1973). He appeared on Broadway in O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night (1956) and in Gideon (1961).

Bibliography

See L. J. Quirk, The Films of Fredric March (1971).

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March, Fredric 

Ernest Frederick Mclntyre Bickel). Born Aug. 31, 1897, in Racine, Wis.; died Apr. 14, 1975, in Los Angeles, Calif. American film actor.

March studied at Wisconsin State University. In 1920 he began his acting career in New York theaters. In 1929, March made his film debut and in the 1930’s became one of Hollywood’s leading actors. Among his best roles were Jean Valjean in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables (1935), Al Stephenson in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Matthew Brady in Inherit the Wind (1960), Willy Loman in Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1961), the German financier in The Condemned of Altona (1962), and the American president in Seven Days in May (1963). March created complex, contradictory characters; he was noted for his skillful character portrayal and attention to man’s inner world.