Frederic March
Above, Fellow Wisconsinite Spencer Tracy (left) playing Henry Drummond and Fredrick March (right) playing Matthew Harrison Brady in Inherit the Wind (1960).
Fredrick March - American actor; born Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel on August 31, 1897 in Racine, Wisconsin.
His father was the president of the Racine Hardware Manufacturing Company and his family was wealthy enough to have a pony and attend productions at the town's Orpeheum Theater.
March attended the Winslow Grammer School in Racine where he was president of his graduating class. March was also president of the senior class at Racine High School, where he graduated at 16 in 1915.
March's father had a business setback in 1915, so March took a job as a teller at the Manufacturers Bank in Racine to help earn tuition for college.
March was able to enroll in the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the Fall of 1916 where he pledged Alpha Delta Phi fraternity and joined the Edwin Booth Society Drama Club, one of the two all male drama clubs on campus.
His studies at the University of Wisconsin were interrupted in 1918 when he volunteered to fight in WWI. March was commissioned as a second lieutenant after attending officers candidate school and served stateside. After the war ended, March
returned to the UW to attend the 1919 sping semester.
March acted in the 1919 junior-class play, "The Romancers" and was also the varsity manager for the 1919 University of Wisconsin Football Squad. He also participated on the track team.
March obtained his bachelor's degree at the University of Wisconsin in 1920 and was elected senior class president.
After graduation, March briefly returned to work at the Manufacturers Bank in Racine until he took a job at as a bank teller in New York City where he started getting parts in theater and silent films.
In 1924 he sent out announcements that he was no longer Bickel but is now known as Fredrick March. he created this stage name from his middle name and his mother's maiden name.
March appeared on Broadway in 1926, and by the end of the decade, signed a film contract with Paramount Pictures.
Regarded as one of Hollywood's most celebrated and versatile stars of the 1930s and 40s, March won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
March was also presented the first Tony Award ever given for Best Actor in a Play in 1947 for Years Ago. Ten years later, March also won a Tony Award for Best Actor in 1957 for Long Day's Journey into Night.
For more information on Frederic March, visit Wikipedia.
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Frederic March
Actor (Movie, Radio, Stage)
Above: Frederic March.
Above: Fredrick March with Janet Gaynor in A Star is Born (1937).
Above: Fredrick March on cover of December 18, 1944 LIFE magazine cover for his role as Major Victor Joppolo in the 1944-1945 Broadway play "A Bell for Adano."
Above: Fredrick March (right) in The Road To Glory (1936) publicity still with Warner Baxter (left) and June Lang (center).
Above: Movie Legends - Fredric March.
