Frank Morgan
| Frank Morgan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born |
Francis Phillip Wuppermann June 1, 1890 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died |
September 18, 1949 (aged 59) Beverly Hills, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Heart attack |
| Resting place | Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York |
| Alma mater | Cornell University |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1914–1949 |
| Spouse(s) | Alma Muller (m. 1914–49) (his death) |
| Children | George Morgan (1916–2003) |
Francis Phillip Wuppermann (June 1, 1890 – September 18, 1949), known by his stage name of Frank Morgan, was an American character actor.[1] He is best known as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player, and as the title character in The Wizard of Oz (1939).
Early life
Morgan was born Francis Phillip Wuppermann in New York City, the youngest of eleven children (six boys and five girls) born to Josephine Wright (née Hancox) and George Diogracia Wuppermann. His father was born in Venezuela, of German and Spanish descent, and was raised in Hamburg, Germany.[2][3][4] His mother was born in the U.S. of English descent. The family earned its wealth distributing Angostura bitters, allowing Wuppermann to attend Cornell University where he joined Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity.[5] He then followed his older brother Ralph Morgan into show business, first on the Broadway stage and then into motion pictures.
Career
His first film was The Suspect in 1916. In 1917, he provided support to his friend John Barrymore in Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman, an independent film produced in and about New York City. Morgan's career expanded when talkies began, his most stereotypical role being that of a befuddled but good hearted middle-aged man.
By the mid-1930s, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had been so impressed by Morgan that they signed him to a lifetime contract. Morgan's best remembered film performance, playing five roles, is in The Wizard of Oz (1939), where he played the carnival huckster "Professor Marvel", the Gatekeeper at the Emerald City, the coachman of the carriage drawn by "The Horse of a Different Color", the Guard who initially refuses to let Dorothy and her friends in to see the Wizard, and the Wizard himself. Morgan was cast in the role on September 22, 1938. W. C. Fields was originally chosen for the role of the Wizard, but the studio ran out of patience after protracted haggling over his fee. An actor with a wide range, he was equally effective playing comical, befuddled men such as Jesse Kiffmeyer in Saratoga (1937) and Mr. Ferris in Casanova Brown (1944), as he was with more serious, troubled characters like Hugo Matuschek in The Shop Around the Corner (1940) and Professor Roth in The Mortal Storm (1940). MGM's 1946 film The Great Morgan was written with the story centering on Frank Morgan.
In the 1940s, Morgan co-starred with Fanny Brice in one version (of several different series) of the radio program Maxwell House Coffee Time, aka The Frank Morgan-Fanny Brice Show. During the first half of the show Morgan would tell increasingly outlandish tall tales about his life adventures, much to the dismay of his fellow cast members. After the Morgan segment there was a song, followed by Brice as 'Baby Snooks' for the last half of the show. In 1947, Morgan starred as the title character in the radio series The Fabulous Dr. Tweedy. He also recorded a number of children's records, including the popular Gossamer Wump, released in 1949 by Capitol Records.
Like most character actors of the studio era, Morgan was sought out for numerous motion picture roles. One of his last roles was as Barney Wile in The Stratton Story (1949), a true story about a ballplayer (played by James Stewart) who makes a comeback after having his leg amputated due to a hunting accident.
His last film Key to the City (1950) was released posthumously. In it Morgan played Fire Chief Duggan. He was the third lead, after Clark Gable and Loretta Young. He was nominated twice for an Academy Award: for Best Actor for his role as the cuckolded Duke of Florence in The Affairs of Cellini (1934), and for Best Supporting Actor for Tortilla Flat (1942), in which he played a simple Hispanic man who takes care of dogs.
Personal life and death
Morgan married Alma Muller (1895–1970) in 1914; they had one son. Their marriage ended with his death in 1949. He was widely known to have had a drinking problem, according to several who worked with him, including actress Margaret Hamilton (the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz) and "Oz" historian Aljean Harmetz. Morgan sometimes carried a black briefcase to work fully equipped with a small mini bar.[6] Morgan's niece, Claudia Morgan (née Wuppermann) was a stage and film actress, most notable for playing the role of Vera Claythorne in the first Broadway production of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None.
Morgan was also a brother of playwright Carlos Wupperman, who was killed in the Rhineland in 1919 while on duty there with the Army of Occupation. Wupperman had only one play produced on Broadway. The Triumph of X opened at the Comedy Theater in New York City on August 24, 1921,[7] but ran only 30 performances. The production besides starring Morgan, the play's female lead was Helen Menken, and in his first Broadway outing,[8] character actor Robert Keith, father of actor Brian Keith and one-time husband of Theater Guild actress Peg Entwistle, who committed suicide by jumping from the Hollywood Sign in 1932.
Morgan died of a heart attack on September 18, 1949, while filming Annie Get Your Gun (replaced by Louis Calhern). His death came before the 1956 premiere televised broadcast on CBS[9] of The Wizard of Oz, would make him the only major cast member from the film who would not live to see the film's revived popularity and become in the 1960s an annual holiday American television institution.[9] He is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. His tombstone carries his real name, Wuppermann, as well as his stage name, Frank Morgan. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for motion pictures at 1708 Vine Street and for radio at 6700 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
Filmography
Radio appearances
| Year | Program | Episode/source |
|---|---|---|
| 1940 | Screen Guild Players | The Shop Around the Corner[10] |
References
- ↑ Obituary Variety, September 21, 1949, page 63.
- ↑ The National cyclopaedia of American biography: being the history of the ... - James Terry White - Google Books. Books.google.ca. Retrieved September 18, 2012.
- ↑ Playbills to Photoplays - New England Vintage Film Inc Society, New England Vintage Film Society, Inc. - Google Books. Books.google.ca. Retrieved September 18, 2012.
- ↑ http://irishmafia.us/morgan.html
- ↑ Grand Catalogue of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity - Twelfth Edition, p.377: Bernard C. Harris Publishing Company, 1985.
- ↑ "Frank Morgan at Hollywood's Irish Mafia". Retrieved 18 September 2009.
- ↑ Theater Review by Alexander Woollcot New York Times, August 25, 1921.
- ↑ "Internet Broadway Database".
- 1 2 Doug Fuhrmann, "Pop Culture History: Wizard of Oz televised (1950s), The Daily Journal.com April 6, 2009. Accessed 24 August, 2014.
- ↑ "Those Were The Days". Nostalgia Digest 41 (3): 32–39. Summer 2015.
External links
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