Fritz Weaver

Fritz Weaver
Born Fritz William Weaver
(1926-01-19) January 19, 1926
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation Actor & Voice actor
Years active 1956–present
Spouse(s) Sylvia Short (1953–1979) (divorced) (2 children)
Rochelle Oliver (1997–present)

Fritz William Weaver (born January 19, 1926) is an American stage and screen actor. Weaver has performed in television, stage, and motion picture acting and is well known for his roles in two seminal television films: the mini-series Holocaust and the made-for-television movie The Legend of Lizzie Borden. He is also known for his work in science fiction and fantasy, especially in television series and movies like The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, The X-Files, The Martian Chronicles and Demon Seed. Weaver continues to work as a narrator for educational TV programs.

Life and career

Weaver was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Elsa W. (née Stringaro) Weaver and John Carson Weaver.[1] His mother was of Italian descent and his father was a social worker from Pittsburgh with deep American roots.[2] His younger sister was the late art director, Mary Dodson.[3]

Weaver attended the Fanny Edel Falk Laboratory School[4] at the University of Pittsburgh as a child, followed by Peabody High School. He served in Civilian Public Service as a conscientious objector during World War II.

Following the war, Weaver worked at various jobs before turning to acting in the early 1950s. His first acting role for television came in 1956 for an episode of The United States Steel Hour. Weaver continued to act in television during the next four decades. Weaver also appeared in the made-for-TV movies The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975) and Holocaust (1978), earning Emmy nominations for both.

Weaver won the Tony Award for "Best Actor in a Play" and the Drama Desk Award for "Outstanding Performance" for the Broadway play Child's Play (1970). His other credits in Broadway theatre have included The Chalk Garden (Tony nomination and Theatre World Award win), All American, Baker Street, Absurd Person Singular, Love Letters, and The Crucible. He appeared in the off-Broadway play Burnt Piano for the HB Playwrights Theatre, and with Uta Hagen in a television adaptation of Norman Corwin's play The World of Carl Sandburg.

Weaver has also acted in motion pictures, generally as a supporting player. He has appeared in such movies as Fail-Safe (1964; as a jingoist and increasingly unstable U.S. Air Force colonel, ashamed of his foreign-born and alcoholic parents, which he refers to as "those people"), Marathon Man (1976), Black Sunday (1977) and Creepshow (1982), and John McTiernan's remake of The Thomas Crown Affair (1999). He also had roles in The Day of the Dolphin (1973), Demon Seed (1977), The Big Fix (1978), and Sidney Lumet's Power (1986). Since 1995, Weaver has worked primarily as a voice actor, providing narration for programs on the History Channel.

In 2010, he was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.[5]

Weaver has been married to actress Rochelle Oliver since 1997.

Filmography

Television

References

  1. ↑ "Fritz Weaver Biography". filmreference. 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-10.
  2. ↑ Jones, Chris (April 22, 2004). "Fritz Weaver tackles a 'Trying' role in Chicago.(Chicago Tribune)". Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service.
  3. ↑ Barnes, Mike (2016-02-21). "Mary Weaver Dodson, Art Director on 'Murder, She Wrote,' Dies at 83". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2016-03-13.
  4. ↑ http://www.pittmag.pitt.edu/winter2007/feature3.html
  5. ↑ "Theater Hall of Fame Ceremony, Honoring Linda Lavin, Brian Dennehy, Michael Blakemore, Presented Jan. 24". Playbill. Retrieved 8 December 2014.

External links

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