1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
2009 · Movie
as Self (archive footage)
Francis Lederer
1899-11-05
•
Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary [now Czech Republic]
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.
Filmography
A Century of Science Fiction
1996 · Movie
as Self
Dracula in the Movies
1992 · Movie
as (archive footage)
The Other Eye
1991 · Movie
as Self
Dracula: A Cinematic Scrapbook
1991 · Movie
as Count Dracula (archive footage)
Memories of Berlin: The Twilight of Weimar Culture
1976 · Movie
as Self - Interviewee
Film Emigration from Nazi Germany
1975 · TV Show
as Self
Night Gallery
1970 · TV Show
That Girl
1966 · TV Show
as Vittorio Barrini
Mission: Impossible
1966 · TV Show
as Senko Brobin
Blue Light
1966 · TV Show
Kraft Suspense Theatre
1963 · TV Show
as Dr. Jeremias Lipp
Ben Casey
1961 · TV Show
Terror Is a Man
1959 · Movie
as Dr. Charles Girard
The Return of Dracula
1958 · Movie
as Count Dracula
Maracaibo
1958 · Movie
as Miguel Orlando
Behind Closed Doors
1958 · TV Show
as Brauer
Lisbon
1956 · Movie
as Seraphim
The Ambassador's Daughter
1956 · Movie
as Prince Nicholas Obelski
Matinee Theater
1955 · TV Show
Stolen Identity
1953 · Movie
as Claude Manelli
Adventures in Vienna
1952 · Movie
as Claude Manelli
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
1951 · TV Show
Captain Carey, U.S.A.
1950 · Movie
as Baron Rocco de Greffi
A Woman of Distinction
1950 · Movie
as Paul Simone
Surrender
1950 · Movie
as Henry Vaan
No image
Lux Video Theatre
1950 · TV Show
as Charles
Robert Montgomery Presents
1950 · TV Show
as Baron
Million Dollar Weekend
1948 · Movie
as Alan Marker
Studio One
1948 · TV Show
as Rene d'Arcy
The Philco Television Playhouse
1948 · TV Show
The Madonna's Secret
1946 · Movie
as James Harlan Corbin
The Diary of a Chambermaid
1946 · Movie
as Joseph
Voice in the Wind
1944 · Movie
as Jan Volny / El Hombre
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
1944 · Movie
as Esteban / Manuel
Puddin' Head
1941 · Movie
as Prince Karl
The Man I Married
1940 · Movie
as Eric Hoffman
Midnight
1939 · Movie
as Jacques Picot
Confessions of a Nazi Spy
1939 · Movie
as Kurt Schneider
The Lone Wolf in Paris
1938 · Movie
as Michael Lanyard
It's All Yours
1937 · Movie
as Jimmy Barnes
Screen Snapshots: Series 16, No. 12
1937 · Movie
as Self (uncredited)
One Rainy Afternoon
1936 · Movie
as Philippe Martin
My American Wife
1936 · Movie
as Count Ferdinand von und zu Reidenach
The Gay Deception
1935 · Movie
as Sandro
Starlit Days at the Lido
1935 · Movie
as Self
The Pursuit of Happiness
1934 · Movie
as Max Christmann
Romance in Manhattan
1934 · Movie
as Karel Novak
Man of Two Worlds
1934 · Movie
as Aigo
Her Majesty Love
1933 · Movie
as Fred von Wellingen
No image
The Fate of Renate Langen
1931 · Movie
as Gerd
Susie Cleans Up
1930 · Movie
as Robert
Fundvogel
1930 · Movie
as Jan Bergwall
The Great Passion
1930 · Movie
as Himself
The Road to Dishonour
1930 · Movie
as Boris Borrisoff
No image
The emperor's detective
1930 · Movie
as Dr. Wolfgang Crusius
Pandora's Box
1929 · Movie
as Alwa Schön
Mother Hummingbird
1929 · Movie
as Georges de Chambry
The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrovna
1929 · Movie
as Lt. Michael Rostof
Meineid
1929 · Movie
as Karl Fenn
Atlantic
1929 · Movie
as Peter
No image
Die seltsame Nacht der Helga Wangen
1928 · Movie
as Werner Hilsoe
Refuge
1928 · Movie
as Martin Falkhagen
