---
name: "Frank Morgan"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/frank-morgan"
fi1m_id: "frank-morgan"
imdb_id: "nm0604656"
tmdb_id: 9067
wikidata_id: "Q200514"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "1 June 1890"
died: "18 September 1949"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 6
average_fi1m_score: 75
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 6
updated: "2026-10-02T22:05:21.988325+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Frank Morgan

## Identity

Frank Morgan

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/frank-morgan
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** frank-morgan
- **IMDb ID:** nm0604656
- **TMDB ID:** 9067
- **Wikidata ID:** Q200514
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Morgan, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q200514, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0604656/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/9067

Actor. Born 1 June 1890 in New York City, New York, USA. Died 18 September 1949.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 1 June 1890, New York City, New York, USA
- **Died:** 18 September 1949
- **Active:** 1935–1943
- **Also known as:** Francis Philip Wuppermann, Francis Morgan, Frank Wupperman
- **Frequently works with:** [Hunt Stromberg](https://film.one/person/hunt-stromberg.md), [James Stewart](https://film.one/person/james-stewart.md), [Margaret Sullavan](https://film.one/person/margaret-sullavan.md)
- **Academy Awards:** 2 Oscar nominations
- **Average Fi1m score:** 75, as actor, over 6 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1930s 73 (3), 1940s 77 (3)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 80 to 76 across 4 titles
- **Score spread:** 2 at 80+, 4 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Lead roles:** 1 of 6 acting credits billed first or second
- **Genres:** Drama 4, Romance 3, Family 2, Music 2, Adventure 1, Comedy 1
- **Screen time:** 12 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $44m across 4 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Morgan, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q200514, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0604656/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/9067

## Streaming the US now

- **HBO Max:** [*The Wizard of Oz*](https://film.one/film/the-wizard-of-oz.md) (91)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Frank Morgan

> Frank Morgan made a speciality of men who hold an office and cannot quite hold themselves together: fluttering, courtly, wounded in their dignity and kind underneath it. He is the reason five strangers in Oz feel like one friend.

Frank Morgan's men are usually in charge of something and never quite in charge of themselves. The governor in *Naughty Marietta* (1935) has a province, a title and a wife, and Morgan plays him as a man whose dignity has been wounded so often it has developed a flinch. He flutters. He dithers. He begins a sentence with authority and finishes it looking for the door. It is a small part in a creaky film, and along with Elsa Lanchester's terrifying wife it is most of the reason to sit through the talking between the songs. We laughed at him, and then felt a little sorry for him, which is the order he intended.

He was on stage from 1914 and in pictures from 1916, had his Broadway success in the 1920s, and from the mid-1930s was an MGM contract player, in supporting parts, through the 1940s until his death in 1949. The studio knew what it had bought: courtly, eccentric or befuddled middle-aged men, sympathetic almost by reflex. He is said to have been as good when the befuddlement was not funny, and the parts most often pointed to are Hugo Matuschek in *The Shop Around the Corner* (1940) and Professor Victor Roth in *The Mortal Storm* (1940). We will let them stand as names here; the dither, in those, is not the point.

Then there is *The Wizard of Oz* (1939), in which he plays five people: Professor Marvel in Kansas, and then the Gatekeeper, the carriage driver, the Palace Guard and the Wizard himself. It is a stunt, and it does not play like one, because Morgan does not hide the join. The same fussing, apologetic warmth comes through under each disguise, so that everyone Dorothy meets at the end of the road seems faintly like someone she has met before. Some of the film's comic business goes on too long; his does not. He is never on screen for long, and the film is warmer for every minute he is.

The reservation about Morgan is the one that attaches to most character actors of his kind: he is remembered for one film, and the flutter is a thing he can switch on. In *Naughty Marietta* it is exactly what the scene requires. Across a career it could become a habit, the way a good comedian's pause can, and a lesser director would have let him lean on it. The five parts in *Oz* are the argument against this, because the trick there is not the disguises but the restraint: five men, one temperament, and no showing off about it.

He said once that "Frank Wuppermann, hobo, became Frank Morgan, thespian, overnight." Every man he played looks as though he arrived at his post the same way, and is waiting, politely, for someone to notice.

## Biography

Frank Morgan (born Francis Phillip Wuppermann) was an American character actor. He made his Broadway debut in 1914 and his film debut two years later. He attended Cornell University and was a contract player at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for much of his career.

Morgan is known for his performances in *The Wizard of Oz* (1939) as Professor Marvel and the Wizard, *The Shop Around the Corner* (1940) as Hugo Matuschek, *The Great Ziegfeld* (1936), *The Mortal Storm* (1940) and *The Three Musketeers* (1948). His older brother Ralph Morgan was also an actor.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (6)

- *The Human Comedy* (1943), Fi1m 66, as Willie Grogan — [page](https://film.one/film/the-human-comedy.md)
- *The Mortal Storm* (1940), Fi1m 76, as Professor Victor Roth — [page](https://film.one/film/the-mortal-storm.md)
- *The Shop Around the Corner* (1940), Fi1m 88, as Hugo Matuschek — [page](https://film.one/film/the-shop-around-the-corner.md)
- *The Wizard of Oz* (1939), Fi1m 91, as Oz / Professor Marvel — [page](https://film.one/film/the-wizard-of-oz.md)
- *The Great Ziegfeld* (1936), Fi1m 64, as Billings — [page](https://film.one/film/the-great-ziegfeld.md)
- *Naughty Marietta* (1935), Fi1m 64, as Gov. Gaspar d'Annard — [page](https://film.one/film/naughty-marietta.md)

## Complete filmography (102)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *The Dark Side of the Rainbow* (2000), as Professor Marvel (archive footage)
- *Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To* (1990), as (archive footage)
- *Çelik Pençe* (1983), Actor
- *That's Entertainment!* (1974), as (archive footage) (uncredited)
- *Key to the City* (1950), as Fire Chief Duggan
- *Any Number Can Play* (1949), as Jim Kurstyn
- *The Great Sinner* (1949), as Aristide Pitard
- *The Stratton Story* (1949), as Barney Wile
- *The Three Musketeers* (1948), as King Louis XIII
- *Summer Holiday* (1948), as Uncle Sid
- *Green Dolphin Street* (1947), as Dr. Edmond Ozanne
- *Courage of Lassie* (1946), as Harry MacBain
- *Lady Luck* (1946), as William Audrey
- *The Cockeyed Miracle* (1946), as Sam Griggs
- *Yolanda and the Thief* (1945), as Victor Budlow Trout
- *Kismet* (1944), as Narrator (voice)
- *Casanova Brown* (1944), as Mr. Ferris
- *The White Cliffs of Dover* (1944), as Hiram Porter Dunn
- *Twenty Years After* (1944), as (archive footage)
- *Thousands Cheer* (1943), as Frank Morgan
- *A Stranger in Town* (1943), as John Josephus Grant
- *The Human Comedy* (1943), as Willie Grogan — Fi1m 66, [page](https://film.one/film/the-human-comedy.md)
- *White Cargo* (1942), as The Doctor
- *Tortilla Flat* (1942), as The Pirate
- *The Vanishing Virginian* (1942), as Robert Yancey
- *Honky Tonk* (1941), as Judge Cotton
- *Washington Melodrama* (1941), as Calvin Claymore
- *The Wild Man of Borneo* (1941), as J. Daniel 'Dan' Thompson
- *Keeping Company* (1940), as Harry C. Thomas
- *Hullabaloo* (1940), as Frankie' Merriweather
- *Boom Town* (1940), as Luther Aldrich
- *The Mortal Storm* (1940), as Professor Victor Roth — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/film/the-mortal-storm.md)
- *The Ghost Comes Home* (1940), as Vernon 'Vern' Adams
- *Broadway Melody of 1940* (1940), as Bob Casey
- *The Shop Around the Corner* (1940), as Hugo Matuschek — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/film/the-shop-around-the-corner.md)
- *Balalaika* (1939), as Ivan Danchenoff
- *Henry Goes Arizona* (1939), as Henry Conroy
- *The Wizard of Oz* (1939), as Oz / Professor Marvel — Fi1m 91, [page](https://film.one/film/the-wizard-of-oz.md)
- *Broadway Serenade* (1939), as Cornelius Collier, Jr.
- *Sweethearts* (1938), as Felix Lehman
- *The Crowd Roars* (1938), as Brian McCoy
- *Port of Seven Seas* (1938), as Panisse
- *Paradise for Three* (1938), as Rudolph Tobler
- *Rosalie* (1937), as King Fredrick Romanikov
- *Beg, Borrow or Steal* (1937), as Ingraham Steward
- *Sunday Night at the Trocadero* (1937), as Frank Morgan
- *Saratoga* (1937), as Jesse Kiffmeyer
- *The Emperor's Candlesticks* (1937), as Colonel Baron Suroff
- *The Last of Mrs. Cheyney* (1937), as Lord Francis Kelton
- *Dimples* (1936), as Eustace Appleby
- *Piccadilly Jim* (1936), as James Crocker, Sr. / Count Olav Osric
- *Trouble for Two* (1936), as Colonel Geraldine
- *Dancing Pirate* (1936), as Mayor Don Emilio Perena
- *The Great Ziegfeld* (1936), as Billings — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/the-great-ziegfeld.md)
- *The Perfect Gentleman* (1935), as Major Horatio Chatteris
- *I Live My Life* (1935), as G.P. Bentley
- *Escapade* (1935), as Karl
- *Lazybones* (1935), as Tom
- *Naughty Marietta* (1935), as Gov. Gaspar d'Annard — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/naughty-marietta.md)
- *The Good Fairy* (1935), as Konrad
- *Enchanted April* (1935), as Mellersh Wilkins
- *By Your Leave* (1934), as Henry Smith
- *There's Always Tomorrow* (1934), as Joseph White
- *A Lost Lady* (1934), as Daniel Forrester
- *The Affairs of Cellini* (1934), as Alessandro, Duke of Florence
- *Sisters Under the Skin* (1934), as John Hunter Yates
- *Success at Any Price* (1934), as Raymond Merritt
- *The Cat and the Fiddle* (1934), as Jules Daudet
- *Bombshell* (1933), as Pops Burns
- *Broadway to Hollywood* (1933), as Ted Hackett
- *When Ladies Meet* (1933), as Rogers Woodruff
- *Best of Enemies* (1933), as William Hartman
- *Reunion in Vienna* (1933), as Dr. Anton King
- *The Nuisance* (1933), as Dr. Buchanan Prescott
- *The Kiss Before the Mirror* (1933), as Paul Held
- *Hallelujah, I'm a Bum* (1933), as Mayor John Hastings
- *Luxury Liner* (1933), as Alex Stevenson
- *The Billion Dollar Scandal* (1933), as John Dudley Masterson
- *The Half-Naked Truth* (1932), as Merle Farrell
- *Secrets of the French Police* (1932), as François St. Cyr
- *Fast and Loose* (1930), as Bronson Lenox
- *Laughter* (1930), as C. Mortimer Gibson
- *Queen High* (1930), as George Nettleton
- *Dangerous Nan McGrew* (1930), as Doc Foster
- *Belle of the Night* (1930), Actor
- *Love's Greatest Mistake* (1927), as William Ogden
- *Scarlet Saint* (1925), as Baron Badeau
- *The Man Who Found Himself* (1925), as Lon Morris
- *The Crowded Hour* (1925), as Bert Caswell
- *Born Rich* (1924), as Eugene Magnin
- *Manhandled* (1924), as Arno Riccardi
- *The Golden Shower* (1919), as Lester
- *At the Mercy of Men* (1918), as Count Nicho
- *The Knife* (1918), as Dr. Robert Manning
- *Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman* (1917), as Bunny Manders
- *Baby Mine* (1917), as Alfred
- *The Light in Darkness* (1917), as Ramsey Latham
- *Who's Your Neighbor?* (1917), as Dudley Carlton
- *The Girl Philippa* (1917), as Halkett
- *A Modern Cinderella* (1917), as Tom
- *The Daring of Diana* (1916), as John Briscoe
- *The Suspect* (1916), as Sir Richard

## Gallery

- ![L. to R. : Frank Morgan, Steffi Duna, and Charles Collins in Dancing Pirate - cropped screenshot (1936)](https://film.one/media/person/104615/gallery-51535a83bed6.jpg) L. to R. : Frank Morgan, Steffi Duna, and Charles Collins in Dancing Pirate - cropped screenshot (1936) — film screenshot (RKO Pictures), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/Dancing_Pirate_%281936%29_2.jpg/1280px-Dancing_Pirate_%281936%29_2.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Frank Morgan](https://film.one/media/person/104615/gallery-db7cf71d7cb2.jpg) Frank Morgan — MGM studio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Frank_Morgan-publicity.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Frank Morgan (left) and Madge Kennedy in Baby Mine (1917)](https://film.one/media/person/104615/gallery-d5947311deee.jpg) Frank Morgan (left) and Madge Kennedy in Baby Mine (1917) — Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Frank_Morgan_and_Madge_Kennedy_in_Baby_Mine_%281%29.jpg/1280px-Frank_Morgan_and_Madge_Kennedy_in_Baby_Mine_%281%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Frank Morgan (left) and Madge Kennedy in Baby Mine (the baby is unidentified) (1917)](https://film.one/media/person/104615/gallery-90ef666ac56c.jpg) Frank Morgan (left) and Madge Kennedy in Baby Mine (the baby is unidentified) (1917) — Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/Frank_Morgan_and_Madge_Kennedy_in_Baby_Mine_%282%29.jpg/1280px-Frank_Morgan_and_Madge_Kennedy_in_Baby_Mine_%282%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Frank Morgan](https://film.one/media/person/104615/gallery-15f73445b934.jpg) Frank Morgan — Image via TMDB
- ![Frank Morgan](https://film.one/media/person/104615/gallery-4bb6b5bbdf60.jpg) Frank Morgan — Image via TMDB
- ![Lobby card from the American film The Great Ziegfeld (1936).](https://film.one/media/person/104615/gallery-5293dbe5cf71.jpg) Lobby card from the American film The Great Ziegfeld (1936). — MGM, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/56/Great_Zeigfeld_lobby_card_2.jpg/1280px-Great_Zeigfeld_lobby_card_2.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

## Awards

### Academy Awards — 0 won, 2 nominated

- 1943: Best Supporting Actor (nominated), for *Tortilla Flat*
- 1935: Best Actor (nominated), for *The Affairs of Cellini*

### Other awards — 1 won

- star on Hollywood Walk of Fame 1960: star on Hollywood Walk of Fame (won)

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/frank-morgan