Frank Morgan

Frank Morgan
Frank Morgan
Born	Francis Phillip Wuppermann; June 1, 1890; New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	September 18, 1949 (aged 59); Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Resting place	Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York
Alma mater	Cornell University
Occupation	film actor; stage performer;
Years active	1914–1949
Spouse(s)	Alma Muller (m. 1914)
Children	1

Francis Phillip Wuppermann (June 1, 1890 – September 18, 1949), known professionally as Frank Morgan, was an American character actor on radio, stage and film. He was best known for his appearances in films starting in the silent era in 1916, and then numerous sound films throughout the 1930s and 1940s, with a career spanning 35 years[1] mostly as a contract player at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with his most celebrated performance playing the title role in The Wizard of Oz (1939). He was also briefly billed early in his career as Frank Wupperman and Francis Morgan.

Early life

Morgan was born in New York City, to Josephine Wright (née Hancox) and George Diogracia Wuppermann. He was the youngest of 11 children, and had five brothers and five sisters. The elder Mr. Wuppermann was born in Venezuela, but was brought up in Hamburg, Germany, and was of German and Spanish ancestry.[2][3][4] His mother was born in the United States, of English ancestry. His brother, Ralph Morgan, was also an actor of stage and screen. The family earned their wealth distributing Angostura bitters, allowing Wuppermann to attend Cornell University and join Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and the Glee Club.[5][6]

Career

Morgan and Madge Kennedy in Baby Mine (1917)

Morgan starred with John Barrymore in Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman (1917), an independent film produced in and about New York City. His career expanded when talkies began, his most stereotypical role being that of a befuddled but good hearted middle-aged man. By the mid-1930s, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had been so impressed by Morgan that they signed him to a lifetime contract. Morgan is best remembered for his performance in The Wizard of Oz (1939) where he played the Wizard and five other roles: the carnival huckster "Professor Marvel", the gatekeeper at the Emerald City, the coachman of the carriage drawn by "The Horse of a Different Color", the Emerald City guard (who initially refuses to let Dorothy and her friends in to see the Wizard), and the Wizard's scary face projection. Morgan was cast in the role on September 22, 1938. W. C. Fields was originally chosen for the role of the Wizard, but the studio ran out of patience after protracted haggling over his fee. An actor with a wide range, Morgan was equally effective playing comical, befuddled men such as Jesse Kiffmeyer in Saratoga (1937) and Mr. Ferris in Casanova Brown (1944), as he was with more serious, troubled characters like Hugo Matuschek in The Shop Around the Corner (1940), Professor Roth in The Mortal Storm (1940) and Willie Grogan in The Human Comedy (1943). MGM's comedy film The Great Morgan (1946), was written with the story centering on the latter.

In 1936 Morgan played alongside Shirley Temple as Professor Appleby in Dimples. In the 1940s, Morgan co-starred with Fanny Brice in one version (of several different series) of the radio program Maxwell House Coffee Time, aka The Frank Morgan-Fanny Brice Show. During the first half of the show Morgan would tell increasingly outlandish tall tales about his life adventures, much to the dismay of his fellow cast members. After the Morgan segment there was a song, followed by Brice as 'Baby Snooks' for the last half of the show. When Brice left to star in her own program in 1944, Morgan continued solo for a year with The Frank Morgan Show.[7] In 1947, Morgan starred as the title character in the radio series The Fabulous Dr. Tweedy. He also recorded a number of children's records, including the popular Gossamer Wump, released in 1949 by Capitol Records. Like most popular character actors of the studio era, Morgan was sought out for numerous supporting roles. He played Barney Wile in The Stratton Story (1949), which follows a baseball player (James Stewart), who makes a comeback after having his leg amputated due to a hunting accident. His final film, Key to the City (1950), was released posthumously.

Personal life and death

Morgan married Alma Muller (1895–1970) in 1914; they had one son, George (1916–2003). They were married until Frank's death in 1949. Morgan was widely known to have been an alcoholic, according to several who worked with him, including Margaret Hamilton and Aljean Harmetz. Morgan sometimes carried a black briefcase to work fully equipped with a small mini-bar.[4] Morgan's niece Claudia Morgan (née Wuppermann) was a stage and film actress, most notable for playing the role of Vera Claythorne in the first Broadway production of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. Morgan was also a brother of playwright Carlos Wuppermann (1887–1919, stage/pen names Carlyle Morgan and Carlos Wupperman), who was killed in the Rhineland in 1919 while on duty there with the Army of Occupation. Wuppermann had only one play produced on Broadway, The Triumph of X which opened at the Comedy Theater in New York City on August 24, 1921,[8] but ran for only 30 performances. The production starred Morgan, and also featured Helen Menken as the female lead. Also in the production for his first Broadway outing was Robert Keith, father of actor Brian Keith and one-time husband of Theater Guild actress Peg Entwistle.[9]

Morgan died of a heart attack on September 18, 1949, while filming Annie Get Your Gun. He was replaced by Louis Calhern for the film.[10] His death came before the 1956 premiere televised broadcast on CBS of The Wizard of Oz, which made him the only major cast member from the film who did not live to see the film's revived popularity and how it would become an annual American television institution.[11] Morgan is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. His tombstone carries his real name, Wuppermann, as well as his stage name.

Awards and honors

Morgan was nominated for two Academy Awards, one for Best Actor in The Affairs of Cellini (1934) and one for Best Supporting Actor in Tortilla Flat (1942). He has two stars dedicated to him on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California: one for his films at 1708 Vine Street and one for his work in radio at 6700 Hollywood Boulevard. Both were dedicated on February 8, 1960.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1916	The Suspect	Sir Richard	Film debut, as Frank Wupperman
	The Daring of Diana	John Briscoe	As Francis Morgan
	The Girl Philippa	Halkett	As Francis Morgan
1917	A Modern Cinderella	Tom
	A Child of the Wild	Frank Trent
	The Light in Darkness	Ramsey Latham
	Baby Mine	Alfred
	Who's Your Neighbor?	Dudley Carlton
	Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman	Bunny Manders
1918	The Knife	Dr. Robert Manning
	At the Mercy of Men	Count Nicho
	The Gray Towers Mystery	Billy Durland
1919	The Golden Shower	Lester
1924	Manhandled	Arno Riccardi
1924	Born Rich	Eugene Magnin
1925	The Crowded Hour	Bert Caswell
	The Man Who Found Himself	Lon Morris
	Scarlet Saint	Baron Badeau
1927	Love's Greatest Mistake	William Ogden
1930	Belle of the Night		Short
	Dangerous Nan McGrew	Muldoon
	Queen High	Mr. Nettleton
	Laughter	C. Mortimer Gibson
	Fast and Loose	Bronson Lenox
1932	Secrets of the French Police	François St. Cyr
1932	The Half-Naked Truth	Merle Farrell
1933	The Billion Dollar Scandal	John Dudley Masterson
	Luxury Liner	Alex Stevenson
	Hallelujah, I'm a Bum	Mayor John Hastings
	Reunion in Vienna	Dr. Anton Krug
	The Kiss Before the Mirror	Paul Held
	The Nuisance	Dr. Buchanan Prescott
	Best of Enemies	William Hartman
	When Ladies Meet	Rogers Woodruf
	Broadway to Hollywood	Ted Hackett
	Bombshell	Pops Burns
1934	The Cat and the Fiddle	Daudet
	Success at Any Price	Merritt
	Sisters Under the Skin	John Hunter Yates
	The Affairs of Cellini	Alessandro – Duke of Florence	Academy Award nomination - Best Actor
	A Lost Lady	Forrester
	There's Always Tomorrow	Joseph White
	By Your Leave	Henry Smith
	The Mighty Barnum	Joe	Uncredited
1935	The Good Fairy	Konrad
	Enchanted April	Mellersh Wilkins
	Naughty Marietta	Governor d'Annard
	Escapade	Karl
	I Live My Life	G.P. Bentley
	The Perfect Gentleman	Major Horatio Chatteris
1936	The Great Ziegfeld	Jack Billings
	Dancing Pirate	Mayor Don Emilio Perena
	Trouble for Two	Colonel Geraldine
	Piccadilly Jim	James Crocker – Sr./Count Olav Osric
	Dimples	Prof. Eustace Appleby
1937	The Last of Mrs. Cheyney	Lord Kelton
	The Emperor's Candlesticks	Col. Baron Suroff
	Saratoga	Jesse Kiffmeyer
	Sunday Night at the Trocadero	Himself	Short
	Beg, Borrow or Steal	Ingraham Steward
	Rosalie	King
1938	Paradise for Three	Rudolph Tobler
	Port of Seven Seas	Panisse
	The Crowd Roars	Brian McCoy
	Sweethearts	Felix Lehman
1939	Broadway Serenade	Cornelius Collier, Jr.
	The Wizard of Oz	The Wizard of Oz/Professor Marvel/The Gatekeeper/The Carriage Driver/The Guard
	Henry Goes Arizona	Henry Conroy
	Balalaika	Ivan Danchenoff
1940	The Shop Around the Corner	Hugo Matuschek
	Broadway Melody of 1940	Bob Casey
	The Ghost Comes Home	Vern Adams
	The Mortal Storm	Professor Viktor Roth
	Boom Town	Luther Aldrich
	Hullabaloo	Frankie Merriweather
	Keeping Company	Harry C. Thomas
1941	The Wild Man of Borneo	J. Daniel Thompson
	Washington Melodrama	Calvin Claymore
	Honky Tonk	Judge Cotton
1942	The Vanishing Virginian	Robert Yancey
	Tortilla Flat	The Pirate	Academy Award nomination - Best Supporting Actor
	White Cargo	The Doctor
1943	The Human Comedy	Willie Grogan
	A Stranger in Town	John Josephus Grant
	Thousands Cheer	Dr. Frank Morgan
1944	The White Cliffs of Dover	Hiram Porter Dunn
	Kismet	Narrator	Voice, Uncredited
	Casanova Brown	Mr. Ferris
1945	Yolanda and the Thief	Victor Budlow Trout
1946	Courage of Lassie	Harry MacBain
	The Cockeyed Miracle	Sam Griggs
	Lady Luck	William Audrey
	The Great Morgan	Himself
1947	Green Dolphin Street	Dr. Edmond Ozanne
1948	Summer Holiday	Uncle Sid
1948	The Three Musketeers	King Louis XIII
1949	The Stratton Story	Barney Wile
	The Great Sinner	Aristide Pitard
	Any Number Can Play	Jim Kurstyn
1950	Key to the City	Fire Chief Duggan	Final film

Radio appearances

Year	Program	Episode/source
1940	Screen Guild Players	The Shop Around the Corner[12]

gollark: ... why?

gollark: Personally, I think traditions are bad, unless they're good.

gollark: Compromise solution: every year we elect a random penguin which owns America but is not allowed to exercise this power in any way.

gollark: The number is from Wikipedia, which says that 600000 of those are people who are already there and who are granted legal status.

gollark: Immigration to America is a million a year, which is, what, 0.3% of the population.

References

Obituary Variety, September 21, 1949, page 63.
White, James Terry, ed. (1967). Frank Morgan Wuppermann. The National cyclopaedia of American biography. University Microfilms. p. 26. Retrieved April 10, 2020.
New England Vintage Film Inc Society (December 1, 2010). Playbills to Photoplays. pp. 488–523. ISBN 978-1453587751. Retrieved April 10, 2020.
"Frank Morgan". Hollywood's Irish Mafia. Archived from the original on 5 August 2009. Retrieved 18 September 2009.
Grand Catalogue of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity (Twelfth ed.). Bernard C. Harris. 1985. p. 377.
Slon, Michael (January 1, 1998). Songs from the Hill: A History of the Cornell University Glee Club. Cornell University Glee Club. ISBN 978-0962010316.
Dunning, John (1998). The Frank Morgan Show, comedy-variety. On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio (Revised ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 259–260. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3. Retrieved 2019-09-16.
Woollcot, Alexander (August 25, 1921). "THE PLAY; Helen Menken's Evening". The New York Times. Retrieved April 10, 2020.
"The Triumph of X". Internet Broadway Database.
"Frank Morgan, Local Property Owner, Dies". The Desert Sun. Palm Springs, Calif. September 20, 1949. p. 8 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
Fuhrmann, Doug. "Pop Culture History: Wizard of Oz televised (1950s)". The Daily Journal. Vineland, NJ. Archived from the original on August 24, 2014. Retrieved April 10, 2020.
"Those Were The Days". Nostalgia Digest. 41 (3): 32–39. Summer 2015.

External links

Frank Morgan on IMDb
Frank Morgan at the TCM Movie Database
Frank Morgan at the Internet Broadway Database
Frank Morgan at Find a Grave

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[WVobit-1] Obituary Variety, September 21, 1949, page 63.

[2] White, James Terry, ed. (1967). Frank Morgan Wuppermann. The National cyclopaedia of American biography. University Microfilms. p. 26. Retrieved April 10, 2020.

[3] New England Vintage Film Inc Society (December 1, 2010). Playbills to Photoplays. pp. 488–523. ISBN 978-1453587751. Retrieved April 10, 2020.

[mafia-4] "Frank Morgan". Hollywood's Irish Mafia. Archived from the original on 5 August 2009. Retrieved 18 September 2009.

[gc1985p377-5] Grand Catalogue of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity (Twelfth ed.). Bernard C. Harris. 1985. p. 377.

[6] Slon, Michael (January 1, 1998). Songs from the Hill: A History of the Cornell University Glee Club. Cornell University Glee Club. ISBN 978-0962010316.

[dunningota-7] Dunning, John (1998). The Frank Morgan Show, comedy-variety. On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio (Revised ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 259–260. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3. Retrieved 2019-09-16.

[8] Woollcot, Alexander (August 25, 1921). "THE PLAY; Helen Menken's Evening". The New York Times. Retrieved April 10, 2020.

[9] "The Triumph of X". Internet Broadway Database.

[10] "Frank Morgan, Local Property Owner, Dies". The Desert Sun. Palm Springs, Calif. September 20, 1949. p. 8 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.

[fuhrmann-11] Fuhrmann, Doug. "Pop Culture History: Wizard of Oz televised (1950s)". The Daily Journal. Vineland, NJ. Archived from the original on August 24, 2014. Retrieved April 10, 2020.

[12] "Those Were The Days". Nostalgia Digest. 41 (3): 32–39. Summer 2015.