Eduard Franz

Eduard Franz
Franz in Hollow Triumph (1948)
Born	Eduard Franz Schmidt (1902-10-31)October 31, 1902 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
Died	February 10, 1983(1983-02-10) (aged 80) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1918–1983
Spouse	Margaret Franz

Eduard Franz Schmidt (October 31, 1902 – February 10, 1983) was an American actor of theatre, film and television. Franz portrayed King Ahab in the 1953 biblical low-budget film Sins of Jezebel, Jethro in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956), and Jehoam in Henry Koster's The Story of Ruth (1960).

Life and career

Franz was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His childhood ambition was to become a commercial artist, a goal that led him to enroll later at the University of Wisconsin, where he joined the Wisconsin Players Theater, a new student group. Performing in the theater's 1922-1923 season reignited his ambition to become an artist, although one of a different type, an actor. A year later, he was cast in Chicago productions of the Coffee-Miller Players. Dropping his surname, Franz next acted with the Provincetown Players in New York's Greenwich Village, a hothouse of theatrical ferment that had first brought the world the dramatic works of writers Eugene O'Neill, Susan Glaspell, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. Franz also appeared with Paul Robeson in The Emperor Jones and with Walter Huston in Desire Under the Elms. He continued to perform until his stage work was interrupted by the Great Depression.

Franz (center) in the trailer for The Ten Commandments

By then married to his wife Margaret, he tried to eke out a living as chicken farmers in Texas. The young couple soon returned to Wisconsin, where Franz acted in regional theater while teaching art to pay the bills. By 1936, he was a player on the national stage, performing from coast to coast. He became a leading Broadway actor for nearly 30 years, in such plays as First Stop to Heaven, Home of the Brave, Embezzled Heaven, and Conversation at Midnight. He made his film debut in a bit part, in 1947, in Killer at Large, but followed that brief appearance the next year with a memorable role in the motion picture The Scar (also titled Hollow Triumph). His fourth movie saw him acting with John Wayne in Wake of the Red Witch, in 1948. He portrayed Chief Broken Hand in White Feather. He played such intellectuals as Dr. Stern in The Thing from Another World (1951), a university professor in The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (1959), and Justice Louis Brandeis in The Magnificent Yankee (1950), a role he reprised in the 1965 television adaptation. He appeared in a 1957 television adaptation of A. J. Cronin's novel Beyond This Place, which was directed by Sidney Lumet.

Franz performed as well in two separate remakes of Al Jolson's 1927 cinema classic The Jazz Singer, each time playing the key role of the aged and ailing synagogue cantor upset by his son's decision to pursue a secular show-business career rather than continue the family tradition and follow in his father's religious footsteps. Those remakes were the 1952 film version of the story starring Danny Thomas and the 1959 television version starring Jerry Lewis.

In 1956, Franz appeared on a first-season episode of Gunsmoke titled "Indian Scout", performing in the role of Amos Cartwight, a scout for the United States cavalry who knowingly leads the troopers into an ambush by a Comanche war party. That same year he guest-starred with Joan Fontaine in the episode "The De Santre Story" of the NBC anthology series The Joseph Cotten Show. Later, In 1958, Franz was cast in the second season of Zorro, playing the role of Señor Gregorio Verdugo. He guest-starred as Jules Silberg in the 1960 episode "The Test" of CBS's anthology series The DuPont Show with June Allyson.

In 1961, Franz starred in the episode "The Duke of Texas" of Western series Have Gun - Will Travel. Also, in that same year, Franz guest-starred as Gustave Helmer in the ABC legal drama The Law and Mr. Jones with James Whitmore in the title role and Jack Mullaney as a second guest star. About that same time, he portrayed characters on NBC's anthology series The Barbara Stanwyck Show and on the NBC Western Cimarron City. Always dedicated to the theater, despite his television work, Franz in 1961 performed in the world premiere in Los Angeles of Edna St. Vincent Millay's poetic drama Conversation at Midnight, co-starring with James Coburn and Jack Albertson. In 1962 acted in Beauty and the Beast. Two years later, Franz was cast as psychiatric clinic director Dr. Edward Raymer in 30 episodes of the weekly ABC medical drama Breaking Point with co-star Paul Richards. Then, in 1964, he reprised his role in Conversation at Midnight at Broadway's Billy Rose Theatre. Both that stage version of Millay's work and the one done in 1961 were produced by Worley Thorne in association with Susan Davis.

Franz made his final film appearance in a segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). He died in February, 1983, five months before the film's release.

Filmography

Source:

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1948	The Iron Curtain	Maj. Semyon Kulin
	Hollow Triumph	Frederick Muller
	Wake of the Red Witch	Harmenszoon Van Schreeven
1949	Outpost in Morocco	Emir of Bel-Rashad
	Madame Bovary	Rouault
	Oh, You Beautiful Doll	Gottfried Steiner
1950	Whirlpool	Martin Avery
	Francis	Colonel Pepper
	The Vicious Years	Emilio Rossi
	Emergency Wedding	Doctor Heimer
	The Du Pont Story	Eleuthère Irénée du Pont
	The Magnificent Yankee	Judge Louis Brandeis
	The Goldbergs	Alexander 'Abie' Abel
1951	The Thing from Another World	Doctor Stern
	The Great Caruso	Giulio Gatti-Casazza
	The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel	Colonel Klaus von Stauffenberg
	The Unknown Man	Andrew Jason 'Andy' Layford
1952	Shadow in the Sky	The Doctor
	One Minute to Zero	Dr. Gustav Engstrand
	Because You're Mine	Albert Parkson Foster
	Everything I Have Is Yours	Phil Meisner
	The Jazz Singer	Cantor David Golding
1953	Three Lives		Short
	Cavalcade of America	Samuel Morse	Episodes "Mightier Than the Sword" and "What God Hath Wrought"
	Dream Wife	Khan of Bukistan
	Latin Lovers	Doctor Lionel Y. Newman
	Sins of Jezebel	King Ahab
1954	Beachhead	Bouchard, French Planter
	Living It Up	Doctor Nassau	Uncredited
	Broken Lance	Two Moons
	Treasury Men in Action	Ed Emery	Episode "The Case of the Man Outside"
	Sign of the Pagan	Astrologer
1955	White Feather	Chief Broken Hand
	The Ford Television Theatre	Paul	Episode "Tomorrow We'll Love"
	The Last Command	Lorenzo de Quesada
	Lux Video Theatre	Emil	Episodes "Return to Alsace" and "The Last Confession"
	Lady Godiva of Coventry	King Edward
	The Indian Fighter	Red Cloud
1956	Casablanca	Ben Hassan	Episode "The Alley"
	Three for Jamie Dawn	Anton Karek
	The Burning Hills	Jacob Lantz - Tracker
	The Ten Commandments	Jethro
	The Joseph Cotten Show: On Trial	De Santre	Episode "The De Santre Story"
1957	Crossroads		Episode "Weekend Minister"
	Man Afraid	Carl Simmons
	Wagon Train	Dr. Rand, Les Rand's Father	Episode "The Les Rand Story" October 16, 1957
	Collector's Item: The Left Fist of David	Dr. Peasley
1958	Day of the Badman	Andrew Owens
	The Restless Gun	The Peddler	Episode "The Peddler"
	The Last of the Fast Guns	Padre Jose
	A Certain Smile	M. Vallon
1959	The Jazz Singer	Cantor Rabinowitz	Episode of Lincoln-Mercury Startime, October 13, 1959
	The Miracle	Priest	Uncredited
	The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake	Jonathan Drake
1960	The Story of Ruth	Jehoam
	Gunsmoke	Amos Cartwright	Episode 1.23 "Indian Scout"
1961	The Fiercest Heart	Hugo Baumon
	The Law and Mr. Jones	Gustave Helmer	Episode "The Concert"
	Francis of Assisi	Pietro Bernardone
1962	Hatari!	Dr. Sanderson
	Beauty and the Beast	Orsini
	Stoney Burke	Terry Meade	Episode: "Child of Luxury"
1963	Bonanza	Marius Angerville	Episode: "Marie, My Love", Season 4, #20
1966	Cyborg 2087	Prof. Sigmund Marx
	The Fugitive	Edward Roland	Episode: "The Sharp Edge of Shivalry"
	The F.B.I.	Dr. Keeler	Episode: "The Plague Merchant"
1967	The Invaders	Premier Thor Halvorsen	Episode: "Summit Meeting"
	The F.B.I.	Gerald Salzman	Episode: "A Sleeper Wakes"
	The President's Analyst	Ethan Allan Cocket
1971	Johnny Got His Gun	Col. / Gen. Tillery
1973	The Waltons	Uncle Cody Nelson, banker	Episode: "The Courtship", Season 1, #18
1976	The Waltons	The Colonel	Episode “The Collision”, Season 4 #25
1978	Hawaii Five-O	Thomas Barlow	Episode: "Invitation to Murder"
1982	Hart to Hart	Walter Hampel	Episode: "To Coin a Hart"
1983	Twilight Zone: The Movie	Old Man	(Segment #4) (final film role)

External links

• Eduard Franz at IMDb
• Eduard Franz at the Internet Broadway Database