True to Himself: A Biography on Fredric March

Introduction:

It has always been my belief that the fans of Fredric March are seriously divided over his modern status. The Best Years of Our lives (1947), among other Fredric March films, reign as outstanding Hollywood achievements, and are largely cited as some of the greatest movies of all time. However, March isn’t as big of a name as one would suspect him to be. Most of his early Paramount films are currently being held hostage in the vaults of Universal Studios, and a number of his other movies are very exclusive, and have not been publicly viewed for decades.

For instance, March is widely known for his brilliant performance in Death of a Salesman (1951), but the film was never released on Video or DVD and has not been shown on Television for over twenty years.

But he is far from forgotten. He was a brilliant actor who balanced old school Hollywood glamour with gritty realism. Long before Marlon Brando, Fredric March reigned as the supreme acting icon of Hollywood. In the minds of most, it could very much be said that March is not as famous as he should be because of all the Brando notoriety. Everyone before him has been merely dismissed as “not very good, because few of the Hollywood stars originated from the stage.” It’s ridiculous, even if March was one of the few who had an amazing stage career. There were actors whose performances are just as powerful, some even a little more than “Method Actors” like Brando, but they are merely dismissed as 1930s Glamour Kings and Queens.

Also, the first Broadway invasion of Hollywood has been all but forgotten. Between 1928 and 1932, many of Cinema’s most enigmatic icons like Barbara Stanwyck, Katharine Hepburn, Paul Muni, Bette Davis, Robert Montgomery and Ruth Chatterton took Hollywood by storm after leaving the stage. In the April 1930 edition of Photoplay magazine, the main article read, “Are the Stage Actors Stealing the Screen?” The answer was yes, and March was even said to have been replacing John Gilbert as “King of Hollywood” in the December 1929 edition of Motion Picture magazine.

Fredric March is a true Legend, and it’s time he and his contemporaries, stage actors or screen stars, be taken more seriously for the talented geniuses they are.

“I should like to bring to the screen the sort of thing Alfred Lunt has brought to the stage. I think that is the best - and most ambitious - comparison I can make. The best illustration of what I hope to do and be.”

-Fredric March, Motion Picture, December 1929