--- name: "Fredric March" canonical: "https://film.one/person/fredric-march" roles: ["Actor"] born: "31 August 1897" died: "14 April 1975" reviewed_on_fi1m: 7 average_fi1m_score: 73 average_as: "actor" average_over: 7 updated: "2026-09-20T01:23:02.899313+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." --- # Fredric March Actor. Born 31 August 1897 in Racine, Wisconsin, USA. Died 14 April 1975. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 31 August 1897, Racine, Wisconsin, USA - **Died:** 14 April 1975 - **Active:** 1932–1946 - **Also known as:** Фредрик Марч, Frederick March, Фредрік Марч - **Frequently works with:** [Charles Laughton](https://film.one/person/charles-laughton.md), [Claudine West](https://film.one/person/claudine-west.md), [Ernest Vajda](https://film.one/person/ernest-vajda.md), [Irving Thalberg](https://film.one/person/irving-thalberg.md), [Norma Shearer](https://film.one/person/norma-shearer.md), [Sidney Franklin](https://film.one/person/sidney-franklin.md) - **Academy Awards:** 2 Oscars (2 won · 3 nominated) - **Average Fi1m score:** 73, as actor, over 7 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1930s 70 (5), 1940s 82 (2) - **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 5 at 60–79, 1 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 7 of 7 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Drama 7, Romance 6, History 2, War 1 - **Screen time:** 14 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $30m across 4 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredric_March, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q181819, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0545298/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/13576 ## Streaming the US now - **Pluto TV:** [*The Best Years of Our Lives*](https://film.one/film/the-best-years-of-our-lives.md) (90), [*A Star Is Born*](https://film.one/film/a-star-is-born-1937.md) (78) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Fredric March > Fredric March had two settings. As a young romantic lead he declares things at people and keeps declaring them; as a man at odds with himself, drunk, ashamed or holding something in, he is a different actor and a far better one. Watch Fredric March come through the door in *The Barretts of Wimpole Street* (1934). He arrives as Robert Browning with his arms open and his voice up, and he keeps both there for the rest of the film, courting an invalid at the volume of a proposal. Two years earlier, in *Smilin' Through* (1932), the same director, Sidney Franklin, gave him a dull young hero and a drunk in a flashback, and March did something with the drunk, a thing to do with wounded pride, that was more alive than anything in his love scenes. That is the whole of him in miniature. Give him a good coat and a woman to win and he declares; give him something to be ashamed of and he acts. He came to films late, after a spell as a bank teller and years as an extra in New York, and Paramount used him first as a leading man. The film that changed things was *Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde* (1931), two men in one body, and it showed what he could do when the part had a second man inside it. He went freelance in 1933, moved between the stage and the screen for the rest of his life, and his best decade was the 1940s, ending with Al Stephenson, the soldier who comes home in *The Best Years of Our Lives* (1946). The parts got smaller and stranger after that, and he kept taking them, into his seventies and *The Iceman Cometh* (1973). The pattern holds across the career. He has been called stolid in his early Paramount leads, and we found the same in both Franklin films: a fine actor with a poor part, asserting a romance the script had not bothered to write. Norman Maine in *A Star Is Born* (1937), the actor drinking his way out of his own career, is the Jeremy flashback stretched to feature length. He prepared coldly, learning his lines fast so he could spend the rehearsal on what sat underneath them, and he had no time for the method. It shows: you can see the decisions, and in the good parts they are good ones. Even when he is loud on purpose, as Brady thundering at Spencer Tracy in *Inherit the Wind* (1960), the volume belongs to the character rather than to the actor. We will own the irritation. For a long stretch of *The Barretts of Wimpole Street* we wanted him to sit down, and the reason is plain: a man who never lowers his voice gives Norma Shearer's invalid nothing to lean towards, and gives us nothing to wonder about. The 1950s and 1960s brought him fewer parts worth the trouble, and he knew as well as anyone that the top of the profession is a poor place to stand still. "Stardom is just an uneasy seat on top of a tricky toboggan," he said. Start with the drunks and the men who cannot say what is wrong. The lovers can wait. ## Biography Fredric March was an American actor. Born Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel on 31 August 1897 in Racine, Wisconsin, he died on 14 April 1975 in Los Angeles, California. He appeared as Kenneth Wayne / Jeremy in *Smilin' Through* (1932) and as Robert Browning in *The Barretts of Wimpole Street* (1934). March won Academy Awards for Best Actor for *Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde* (1931) and *The Best Years of Our Lives* (1946). He also received Tony Awards for Best Actor in a Play for *Years Ago* (1947) and *Long Day's Journey into Night* (1956). He is one of only two actors, alongside Helen Hayes, to have won both the Academy Award and the Tony Award twice. March studied at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and began his career in banking before turning to acting in the 1920s. He worked in New York theatre and films, later becoming a leading Hollywood performer known for roles in *A Star Is Born* (1937), *Inherit the Wind* (1960) and *Seven Days in May* (1964). *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, catalog.afi.com.* ## On Fi1m (7) - *The Best Years of Our Lives* (1946), Fi1m 90, as Al Stephenson — [page](https://film.one/film/the-best-years-of-our-lives.md) - *One Foot in Heaven* (1941), Fi1m 74, as William Spence — [page](https://film.one/film/one-foot-in-heaven.md) - *A Star Is Born* (1937), Fi1m 78, as Norman Maine — [page](https://film.one/film/a-star-is-born-1937.md) - *Anthony Adverse* (1936), Fi1m 57, as Anthony Adverse — [page](https://film.one/film/anthony-adverse.md) - *Les Misérables* (1935), Fi1m 74, as Jean Valjean / Champmathieu — [page](https://film.one/film/les-miserables-1935.md) - *The Barretts of Wimpole Street* (1934), Fi1m 72, as Robert Browning — [page](https://film.one/film/the-barretts-of-wimpole-street.md) - *Smilin' Through* (1932), Fi1m 67, as Kenneth Wayne / Jeremy — [page](https://film.one/film/smilin-through.md) ## Complete filmography (92) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Coded: The Hidden Love of J.C. Leyendecker* (2021), as Archival Footage - *Monster Madness: The Golden Age of the Horror Film* (2014), as Dr. Henry Jekyll / Mr. Hyde (archive footage) - *Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To* (1990), as (archive footage) - *The Iceman Cometh* (1973), as Harry Hope - *… tick… tick… tick…* (1970), as Mayor Jeff Parks - *Hombre* (1967), as Dr. Alex Favor - *Seven Days in May* (1964), as President Jordan Lyman - *The Condemned of Altona* (1962), as Albrecht von Gerlach - *The Young Doctors* (1961), as Dr. Joseph Pearson - *Inherit the Wind* (1960), as Matthew Harrison Brady - *A Christmas Carol* (1959), as Narrator - *Middle of the Night* (1959), as Jerry Kingsley - *The Winslow Boy* (1958), as Arthur Winslow - *Albert Schweitzer* (1957), as Albert Schweitzer (voice) - *The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit* (1956), as Ralph Hopkins - *Alexander the Great* (1956), as Philip of Macedonia - *The Desperate Hours* (1955), as Daniel C. Hilliard - *The Bridges at Toko-Ri* (1954), as Rear Adm. George Tarrant - *A Christmas Carol* (1954), as Ebenezer Scrooge - *Producers' Showcase* (1954), series, Actor - *The Best of Broadway* (1954), series, Actor - *Executive Suite* (1954), as Loren Phineas Shaw - *Man on a Tightrope* (1953), as Karel Cernik - *Death of a Salesman* (1951), as Willy Loman - *It's a Big Country* (1951), as Joe Esposito - *Lux Video Theatre* (1950), series, as Sam, Captain Matt - *The Titan: Story of Michelangelo* (1950), as Narrator (voice) - *Christopher Columbus* (1949), as Christopher Columbus - *The Twentieth Century* (1949), as Oscar Jaffe - *An Act of Murder* (1948), as Judge Calvin Cooke - *Lamp Unto My Feet* (1948), series, as Albert Schweitzer (voice) - *Another Part of the Forest* (1948), as Marcus Hubbard - *The Best Years of Our Lives* (1946), as Al Stephenson — Fi1m 90, [page](https://film.one/film/the-best-years-of-our-lives.md) - *Welcome Home* (1945), as Narrator - *Tomorrow, the World!* (1944), as Mike Frame - *The Adventures of Mark Twain* (1944), as Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) - *The Valley of the Tennessee* (1944), as Narrator (voice) - *I Married a Witch* (1942), as Jonathan / Nathaniel / Samuel / Wallace Wooley - *Bedtime Story* (1941), as Luke Drake - *One Foot in Heaven* (1941), as William Spence — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/one-foot-in-heaven.md) - *So Ends Our Night* (1941), as Josef Steiner - *Victory* (1940), as Hendrik Heyst - *Susan and God* (1940), as Barrie Trexel - *The 400 Million* (1939), as Narration (voice) - *Trade Winds* (1938), as Sam Wye - *There Goes My Heart* (1938), as Bill Spencer - *The Buccaneer* (1938), as Jean Lafitte - *Nothing Sacred* (1937), as Wallace "Wally" Cook - *A Star Is Born* (1937), as Norman Maine — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/a-star-is-born-1937.md) - *The Road to Glory* (1936), as Lieutenant Michel Denet - *Anthony Adverse* (1936), as Anthony Adverse — Fi1m 57, [page](https://film.one/film/anthony-adverse.md) - *Mary of Scotland* (1936), as Bothwell - *The Making of a Great Motion Picture* (1936), Actor - *The Dark Angel* (1935), as Alan Trent - *Anna Karenina* (1935), as Count Vronsky - *Les Misérables* (1935), as Jean Valjean / Champmathieu — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/les-miserables-1935.md) - *We Live Again* (1934), as Prince Dmitri Nekhlyudov - *The Barretts of Wimpole Street* (1934), as Robert Browning — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/the-barretts-of-wimpole-street.md) - *The Affairs of Cellini* (1934), as Benvenuto Cellini - *Death Takes a Holiday* (1934), as Prince Sirki - *Good Dame* (1934), as Mace Townsley - *All of Me* (1934), as Don Ellis - *Design for Living* (1933), as Tom Chambers - *The Eagle and the Hawk* (1933), as Jerry H. Young - *Tonight Is Ours* (1933), as Sabien Pastal - *The Sign of the Cross* (1932), as Marcus Superbus - Prefect of Rome - *Smilin' Through* (1932), as Kenneth Wayne / Jeremy — Fi1m 67, [page](https://film.one/film/smilin-through.md) - *Make Me a Star* (1932), as Fredric March (uncredited) - *Merrily We Go to Hell* (1932), as Jerry Corbett - *Strangers in Love* (1932), as Buddy Drake / Arthur Drake - *Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde* (1931), as Dr. Henry Jekyll / Mr. Edward Hyde - *My Sin* (1931), as Dick Grady - *The Night Angel* (1931), as Rudek Berken - *Honor Among Lovers* (1931), as Jerry Stafford - *The Royal Family of Broadway* (1930), as Tony Cavendish - *Laughter* (1930), as Paul Lockridge - *Manslaughter* (1930), as Dan O'Bannon - *True to the Navy* (1930), as Bull's Eye McCoy - *Ladies Love Brutes* (1930), as Dwight Howell - *Paramount on Parade* (1930), as Marine - *Sarah and Son* (1930), as Howard Vanning - *The Marriage Playground* (1929), as Martin Boyne - *Footlights and Fools* (1929), as Gregory Pyne - *Jealousy* (1929), as Pierre - *Paris Bound* (1929), as Jim Hutton - *The Studio Murder Mystery* (1929), as Richard Hardell - *The Wild Party* (1929), as James Gilmore - *The Dummy* (1929), as Trumbull Meredith - *The Devil* (1921), as Bal Masque Participant (uncredited) - *Paying the Piper* (1921), as Man (uncredited) - *The Education of Elizabeth* (1921), as Man (uncredited) - *The Great Adventure* (1921), as Man (uncredited) ## Gallery - ![Fredric March](https://film.one/media/person/1226594/gallery-9a0955d0f436.jpg) Fredric March — Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Fredric_March-1.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Portrait of Fredric March, in](https://film.one/media/person/1226594/gallery-4e89e40028cf.jpg) Portrait of Fredric March, in — Carl Van Vechten, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/FredricMarch1939.jpg/1280px-FredricMarch1939.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Fredric March during Un-American Activities Committee hearings in Los Angeles, Calif., 1940](https://film.one/media/person/1226594/gallery-f61bf8d867f7.jpg) Fredric March during Un-American Activities Committee hearings in Los Angeles, Calif., 1940 — Los Angeles Daily News, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Fredric_March_1940_crop.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Rostro del actor Fredric March (2012)](https://film.one/media/person/1226594/gallery-a6edd3a33ff0.jpg) Rostro del actor Fredric March (2012) — Carl Van Vechten, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Fredric_March_face.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Fredric March](https://film.one/media/person/1226594/gallery-1a25be932140.jpg) Fredric March — Image via TMDB - ![Fredric March](https://film.one/media/person/1226594/gallery-2c397c9af939.jpg) Fredric March — Image via TMDB - ![Fredric March](https://film.one/media/person/1226594/gallery-067a48478cb0.jpg) Fredric March — Image via TMDB - ![Miriam Hopkins and Fredric March in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) publicity still.](https://film.one/media/person/1226594/gallery-71dce3ba5a85.jpg) Miriam Hopkins and Fredric March in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) publicity still. — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ca/Dr._Jekyll_and_Mr._Hyde_1931.jpg/1280px-Dr._Jekyll_and_Mr._Hyde_1931.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Fredric March and Gregory Peck in the American drama film The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956).](https://film.one/media/person/1226594/gallery-44073bf69468.jpg) Fredric March and Gregory Peck in the American drama film The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956). — Unknown authorUnknown author, distributed by: 20th Century Fox, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Fredric_March_%26_Gregory_Peck_The_Man_in_the_Gray_Flannel_Suit.jpg/1280px-Fredric_March_%26_Gregory_Peck_The_Man_in_the_Gray_Flannel_Suit.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Fredric March](https://film.one/media/person/1226594/gallery-e39b7fd08df8.jpg) Fredric March — Image via TMDB - ![Fredric March](https://film.one/media/person/1226594/gallery-3170c32961d1.jpg) Fredric March — Image via TMDB - ![Fredric March](https://film.one/media/person/1226594/gallery-1265d6c8235e.jpg) Fredric March — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 2 won, 3 nominated - 1952: Best Actor (nominated), for *Death of a Salesman* - 1947: Best Actor (won), for *The Best Years of Our Lives* - 1938: Best Actor (nominated), for *A Star Is Born* - 1932: Best Actor (won), for *Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde* - 1931: Best Actor (nominated), for *The Royal Family of Broadway* ### Other awards — 2 won, 1 nominated - Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play 1962: Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play (nominated) - Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play 1957: Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play (won) - Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play 1947: Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play (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/fredric-march