Post by Nalli Saveekshna

Remembering the “Jekyll & Hyde” FREDRIC MARCH, birth name Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel (Born 31 August 1897 - Died 14 April 1975), one of the most respected, and distinguished actors in the history of Hollywood, on his Death Anniversary today. March, with two Academy Awards, for 1932, “Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, and “The Best Years of Our Lives” 1946. He became a stage star in the 20s, marrying in 1927 and often acting with Florence Eldridge. March appeared opposite most of the glamorous women stars of the early 30s cinema, Garbo, Crawford, Loy, Lombard, Gaynor, among others. He was one of the first actors of the 30s who made Technicolor films. As his reputation grew, and he re-created his stage success imitating John Barrymore in, The Royal Family of Broadway. His brilliant double performance in Rouben Mamoulian's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide won him a deserved Oscar and increased his prestige both as an actor and a matinée idol. Cecil B. De Mille cast him as the Roman centurion lead in The Sign of the Cross. He was one of the first stage actors to be brought to Hollywood when the sound arrived, and continuing at a high level up to 1973. He made more than 66 pictures in all genres, from comedy to horror, including Swashbucklers, epics, romances, and heavy drama. John Ford cast him as Bothwell, in Mary of Scotland with Katherine Hepburn, He starred opposite Carol Lombard in the hilarious Ben Hecht satire in Technicolor, Nothing Sacred in 1937. Cecil B. De Mille again cast him the lead of the spectacular, ”The Buccaneer” in 1938. Fredric March, as many of his performances were, he never really had the charisma of a major movie star; like all good stage actors, he lost his personality in his roles, and probably for this reason, never created a recognizable screen image, the only characteristics he carried with him from film to film were his intelligence and his prestige. “Anna Karenina” (1935) with the great Greta Garbo, was the peak of his 30s career, starring in one great film after another. Fredric March didn't want to do Anna Karenina, he said, that he only do the film if he is forced to by his employers, Twentieth Century Pictures, which had contract with him, He has told producer David O. Selznick repeatedly that he is fed up on doing costume films, that he thinks it a mistake to do another. Then, “The Adventures of Mark Twain”, with lots of make-up, he moved definitely to older roles. He was memorable as the older man in love with Kim Novak, in the film version of Paddy Chayefsky's “The Middle of the Night”, in 1958. He rounded off his career beautifully, playing in the 1973 American Film Theatre Production of O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh, as the owner of the last chance saloon; it was a perfect combination of theatre and Cinema that reflect his own best work. He died in 1975 at age 78.