Fredric March has to be the least remembered five time Academy Award Best Actor nominee (and two time winner!) among all classic actors, male or female.  I don't know what the reasons are for this; perhaps other women don't share the same 'attraction' to his many attributes that you do, Medusa;-)

Say Medusa, Could you please share Mr. March with those of us who fell just a little under his spell in Death Takes a Holiday? And could you share him with those whose respect for his talent and growth as an actor grew exponentially from his better known work as well as the gems such as So Ends Our Night and Act of Murder and his (and the great actor Robert Ryan's last film), The Iceman Cometh?  Where are the definitive biographies, the film retrospectives, or the boxed set of dvds for this seemingly forgotten yet protean actor. Surely, an engaging biography could be forged from the material offered from his long career in films and the theater, his political activism in the formation of SAG and his leadership in the arts community against fascism and repression, as well as his remarkably solid marriage to fellow actress Florence Eldridge, (which must have been quite a feat, since offstage, by all accounts, this somewhat rascally actor must have tried her patience and that of his female co-stars on more than one occasion)? My only regrets about Fredric March: I would love to have seen him on stage in a production such as Thornton Wilder's The Skin or Our Teeth and he didn't do more comedies in the vein of Nothing Sacred and I Married a Witch. Thanks for this tribute to one of the real greats. I truly appreciate it.  

MDR and Moira –I did go a little silly over Mr. March!  Though I certainly didn't do him justice in terms of a career retrospective, indeed, he is so underappreciated it's criminal.   Obviously he's got it all, and as Moira points out, also such an interesting and honorable personal history.  Of course he's been gone for a long time, but somehow 1975 seems so recent compared to say, Errol Flynn, who died much younger and much earlier. I, too, fell in love with him in Death Takes a Holiday, which I used to program far more than other movies when I handled the overnight movie franchise at KTLA.  We also had his other early Paramount work and Angelenos from 1977 – 1988 surely got more of a dose of Fredric March than a lot of people! :-) And I really love him in The Best Years of Our Lives, too, and really, all his things.  Never less than excellent, serious — a dignified actor with amazing gifts — wow…the total package.  But don't get me started talking his package, okay?!  :-)  Yipes!  Somebody slap me!  — m

Medusa,I am so with you on Fredric March.  What a fox! It was Sign of the Cross that really showed me the light =) Thanks for the post!  

I LOVE Fredric March!  It pains me that so few people ever mention him.I first discovered him in "Executive Suite" and thought his performance was incredibly layered — I started watching every movie of his that I came across.Not only is he a wonderfully subtle actor, he always comes across as charismatic and very, very intelligent.  And yes … he is incredibly sexy. That mouth … those eyes … that voice … ! 

Ever see his last performance, opposite Lee Marvin (chewing up the scenery, naturally) in "The Iceman Cometh", Eugene O'Neill dark, brilliant masterpiece? Even on his last legs, Fredrick March (I, too, am-unapologetically- a member of the fan club) was the essence of pathos and scorn. Wow. He was just magnificent.

Thelonius, I am dismayed to say I haven't seen it, but will be on the lookout for it.  He aged well, lost none of his integrity or intelligence, didn't he?I can't wait to see this.  Thanks for the heads-up!– Medusa

Thanks for reminding me that I too love Fredric March!  It had been some time since I've seen any of his movies, and you started me to thinking about how much I've always loved him and how there are so many of his movies I haven't seen yet.  I watched Nothing Sacred last night, have Design For Living ready to go, and ended up ordering Meet Joe Black since it includes Death Takes A Holiday, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, A Star Is Born, Les Miserables, and We Live Again on DVD.  I can't wait! 

OMG!  A veritable Fredric March festival!  Don't be surprised if we all show up on your doorstep, with popcorn, of course!  I haven't seen Les Miserables ever — I have a great deal of catching up do, too!It's feels very good to remember him.Thanks for writing, Scott!  :-)- m

Yes, he was a great actor,,, however,, my heart belongs to DANA ANDREWS….  wish i can see more of him….  when he passed, it was an " end of an era"

Joanne, I am with you on Dana Andrews, too.  I promise that I will do a tribute to him, soon.  He was marvelous and a terrific masculine presence in all sorts of movies.  Thanks for your comments!- m

paula, I'm with you on March's performance in Executive Suite.  I even mentioned it a few days ago in one of the Oscar-related threads, because he really deserved the award for it.  I guess they figured 2 Best Actor awards was sufficient, but they were wrong.Big Dana Andrews fan here, too.  I think his best performance may be in Daisy Kenyon, which is happily coming to DVD very shortly.  A great, relatively unsung film as well.

THANK YOU! yes he was a marvelous actor. Medusa, you know it, people here know it, how has he been practically forgotten?And I agree about his being quite a hottie, he was was breath taking as a young man, in the way that  joel Mccrea was, very pretty, while still masculine looking.Moira– I'm with you, I have always felt bad, not having gotten to see Frederic March on stage.You feel you would meet FM and kind of just be in awe and respectful, but If I had met Dana Andrews, I just would  have just stripped him naked and  then have shown him, over and over,  how much I appreciated his  movies.AddieNY, NY    

Thanks Medusa for the tribute to Fredric.  I love him too and don't have a single friend who has even heard of him.  My husband has, of course, because I've made him watch so many of his movies.  Check out the rare precode film 'Merrily We Go To Hell' where Fredric plays an alcoholic who marries a woman knowing he is going to make her miserable.  That's the movie that sent me over the edge with this man.  Think I'll have my own mini Fredric March festival this weekend!!!

I'll leave the discussion of Mr. March's sex appeal to the ladies.I would share with those interested a memory of Mr. March's appearance on television.For a long time the Game Show Network used to show 1950s reruns of "What's My Line?" during the middle of the night. I would set my alarm, wake up, watch and then go back to bed.It wasn't the mundane panel program which caught my interest but a special feature at the show's end. The panel would be blind folded and would have to guess the identiies of the movie, television and Broadway stars appearing in what amounted to a five minute guest shot for the personality involved. The stars would disguise their voices, often to no avail since the panel was quick witted and often knew which stars were in town (New York City) to plug films, books, shows or whatever.The show was hot, fairly popular for a while in the 50s, and managed to attract some of the biggest names as guests, such as Gary Cooper or Montgomery Clift. And of course, as a movie buff, TCM fan and Morelock afficando, thats exactly what I wanted to see.I remember Esther Williams teasing panelist Dick Clark because he was so short. If you read her autobiography you know she wasn't attracted to short guys. And then there was Gene Kelly promoting one of his lesser movies, "The Happy Road" and receiving a compliment on it from one of the panelists. The panel could not  guess Ann Sheridan's identity and had to unmask; you felt sorry for her because she was no longer a major player in Hollywood.Frederic March was an unexpected sensation. He disguised his voice and pretended to be a punch drunk prize fighter. He got laughs and fooled the panel.He was always unpredictable and a joy to watch. It's too bad Marlon Brando, who was just as gifted, was not a pro like he was, but thats a subject perhaps someone will discuss at another time.

[...] names of the actors (which change with each chime): William Holden, June Allyson, Barbara Stanwyck, Fredric March, Walter Pidgeon, Shelley Winters, Paul Douglas, Louis Calhern, Dean Jagger, and Nina Foch (etc.). [...]

Al, I came across a clip of that very same Fredric March clip on “What’s My Line?” on YouTube a few months ago. It’s wonderful:

Hello everybody

I’m crazy about him since I saw him on TV the first time – acting together with his wife, Florence Eldridge in ,,Christopher Columbus (1949)” in 1992.
Unfortunately,up to the present day, I never managed to get a good version of the film on DVD. Good means:
- bright colors
- all scenes included and shown in full length (I think to watch the film takes at least 105 minutes, doesn’t it?)

Can you help me?