Francis Lederer
Birthday:
6 November 1899, Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary [now Czech Republic]
Birth Name:
Frantisek Lederer
Height:
183 cm
Frantisek Lederer was born on November 6th, 1899, in Czechoslovakia. His father was a leather merchant, and young Frantisek began his working life as a department store delivery boy in Prague. He fell in love with acting from a young age, and was soon on stage touring Moravia and then all over Central Europe with people like Peter Lorre.Lederer was...
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Frantisek Lederer was born on November 6th, 1899, in Czechoslovakia. His father was a leather merchant, and young Frantisek began his working life as a department store delivery boy in Prague. He fell in love with acting from a young age, and was soon on stage touring Moravia and then all over Central Europe with people like Peter Lorre.Lederer was easily lured into film by German actress Henny Porten and her producer husband. And it wasn't long before he was starring in the legendary German silent movie Die Büchse der Pandora (1929).Whilst Lederer, who was using the German name of Franz, shifted from silents to talkies easily and was fast becoming one of Germany's top stars, he hadn't yet learned to speak any English.By 1934, Lederer, (now using Francis), had begun working in America. And he was getting top billing too. Irving Thalberg had planned to make Lederer "the biggest star in Hollywood" but Thalberg's untimely death put a stop to that. But Lederer continued successfully in film and TV for many years.After two brief marriages his third lasted 59 years. He invested in property well and made a fortune in the Canoga Park, California area. He founded the National Academy of Performing Arts on which his close friend Joan Crawford was on the Advisory Board. He loved to teach.Lederer was still teaching the week before he died in 2000, aged 100 years. Show less «
My theory about acting was created by the fact that I had the good fortune immediately to play important parts on the stage and on the scree...Show more »
My theory about acting was created by the fact that I had the good fortune immediately to play important parts on the stage and on the screen with these big stars, and I acquired a a theory that I still pursue, and that is concentration on what the whole situation, what the whole scene is about. Show less «
You read the script, and you find out what the author had in mind. That's basically the essence of it. I don't believe in actors and actress...Show more »
You read the script, and you find out what the author had in mind. That's basically the essence of it. I don't believe in actors and actresses having their own individual conception. In my opinion, the actor is a tool of the writer, and his sole ambitions should be to fulfill his conception of the work. Show less «
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