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Born · November 5, 1899
Died · May 25, 2000 (100 years old)
Known For: Acting
Place of Birth: Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary [now Czech Republic]
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Francis Lederer (November 6, 1899 – May 25, 2000) was a Czech-born film and stage actor with a successful career, first in Europe, then in the United States. His original name was František Lederer. Lederer's first American movies were Man of Two Worlds (1934), Romance in Manhattan (1934), with Ginger Rogers, The Gay Deception (1935), with Frances Dee, and One Rainy Afternoon (1936). He was cast as the lead with Katharine Hepburn in the 1935 film Break of Hearts, but the producers replaced him with Charles Boyer. It was Irving Thalberg's plan to make Lederer "the biggest star in Hollywood" but the death of Thalberg ended this possibility. Although he continued to play leads occasionally – notably when he was a playboy in Mitchell Leisen's Midnight with Claudette Colbert and John Barrymore in 1939 – in the late 1930s Lederer began to expand his character parts, even playing villains. Edward G. Robinson praised Lederer's performance as a German American Bundist in Confessions of a Nazi Spy in 1939, and he earned plaudits for his portrayal of a fascist in The Man I Married (1940) with Joan Bennett. He also played Count Dracula for The Return of Dracula in 1958. Throughout his career, Lederer, who studied with Elia Kazan at the Actors Studio in New York City, continued to take stage acting seriously, and he performed often both in New York and elsewhere. He appeared in stage productions of Golden Boy (1937), Seventh Heaven (1939), No Time for Comedy (1939), in which he replaced Laurence Olivier, The Play's the Thing (1942), A Doll's House (1944), Arms and the Man (1950), The Sleeping Prince (1956) and The Diary of Anne Frank (1958). Although he took a break from making films in 1941, in order to concentrate on his stage work, he returned to the silver screen in 1944, appearing in Voice in the Wind and The Bridge of San Luis Rey, and in films such as Jean Renoir's The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946) and Million Dollar Weekend (1948). He took another break from Hollywood in 1950, after making Surrender (1950), and returned in 1956 with Lisbon and the light comedy The Ambassador's Daughter. His final film appearance was in Terror Is a Man in 1959. During the 1950s, he served as honorary mayor of Canoga Park. He would continue to make television appearances for the next 10 years in such shows as Sally, The Untouchables, Ben Casey, Blue Light, Mission: Impossible and That Girl. His final television appearance occurred in a 1971 episode of Rod Serling's Night Gallery called "The Devil Is Not Mocked". In it, he reprised his role as Dracula from The Return of Dracula.
Self (archive footage)
7.5
2009
Self
6.9
1996
Self
0.0
1991
Count Dracula (archive footage)
10.0
1991
Self - Interviewee
0.0
1976
Self · (5 episodes)
9.0
1975
(1 episode)
7.8
1970
Senko Brobin · (1 episode)
7.6
1966
Vittorio Barrini · (1 episode)
6.2
1966
(1 episode)
5.0
1966
Dr. Jeremias Lipp · (1 episode)
5.3
1963
(2 episodes)
5.6
1961
Dr. Charles Girard
4.2
1959
Brauer · (1 episode)
0.0
1958
Count Dracula
5.5
1958
Miguel Orlando
5.2
1958
Seraphim
6.4
1956
Prince Nicholas Obelski
4.3
1956
(1 episode)
4.6
1955
Claude Manelli
4.6
1953
Claude Manelli
8.3
1952
(1 episode)
7.0
1951
Charles · (1 episode)
6.0
1950
Henry Vaan
4.8
1950
Paul Simone
6.2
1950
Baron Rocco de Greffi
5.5
1950
Baron · (1 episode)
5.2
1950
Rene d'Arcy · (1 episode)
4.7
1948
Alan Marker
5.0
1948
(1 episode)
6.0
1948
James Harlan Corbin
5.9
1946
Joseph
6.3
1946
Jan Volny / El Hombre
5.2
1944
Esteban / Manuel
6.0
1944
Prince Karl
5.0
1941
Eric Hoffman
6.3
1940
Kurt Schneider
6.1
1939
Jacques Picot
7.4
1939
Michael Lanyard
6.0
1938
Jimmy Barnes
5.0
1937
Self (uncredited)
5.0
1937
Count Ferdinand von und zu Reidenach
0.0
1936
Philippe Martin
4.6
1936
Self
5.0
1935
Sandro
6.4
1935
Karel Novak
7.8
1935
Max Christmann
5.8
1934
Aigo
6.0
1934
Fred von Wellingen
0.0
1933
Gerd
0.0
1931
Robert
0.0
1930
Himself
6.5
1930
Jan Bergwall
0.0
1930
Dr. Wolfgang Crusius
0.0
1930
Boris Borrisoff
0.0
1930
Peter
6.5
1929
Georges de Chambry
4.0
1929
Karl Fenn
0.0
1929
Lt. Michael Rostof
7.0
1929
Alwa Schön
7.5
1929
Werner Hilsoe
0.0
1928
Martin Falkhagen
0.0
1928