Arthur Franz

Early life

Franz was born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. His interest in acting developed while he was still a student in high school.

Military service

During World War II, Franz served as a B-24 Liberator navigator in the United States Army Air Forces. He was shot down over Romania and incarcerated in a POW camp, from which he later escaped.

Stage

Franz's Broadway credits include Command Decision (1947), The Moon Vine (1942), Little Darling (1942), and Hope for a Harvest (1941).

Film

Franz made his screen debut in Jungle Patrol (1948). He appeared in Roseanna McCoy (1949), Eight Iron Men (1952), Invaders From Mars (1953), Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951), and The Unholy Wife (1957), among many others. In The Sniper (1952), he played a rare lead in the film's title role as a tormented killer; earlier, he co-starred with John Wayne in the World War II film Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) and with Ronald Reagan in Hellcats of the Navy (1957).

Franz's last role was in 1982 film That Championship Season.

Television

Franz portrayed automobile magnate Henry Ford in the 1955 television film, A Story About Henry Ford, with Karen Sharpe as Ford's wife, Clara Bryant Ford.

Franz was also a familiar face on American television series; he made five guest appearances on Perry Mason, twice playing the defendant and one time the murderer. In 1958 he played the title role of Danny Harrison in "The Case of the Married Moonlighter," and in 1959 he played Richard Vanaman in "The Case of the Golden Fraud." In 1962 he played murderer Mr. Evans in "The Case of the Captain's Coin." He appeared on dozens of other series, including Schlitz Playhouse, Science Fiction Theatre, Crossroads, Ripcord, Primus, Tarzan, Land of the Giants, The Alaskans, Mr. Novak, The F.B.I., The Mod Squad, Hawaii Five-O, Rich Man, Poor Man Book II, Custer, Mission: Impossible, Mannix, The Rookies, Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law, Storefront Lawyers, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Invaders, The Waltons, Room 222, The Virginian, Gunsmoke, Rawhide, Police Story, Medical Story, The Outcasts, McCloud, Lancer and Barnaby Jones.

Franz played the role of U. S. president James Madison in the 1965 episode "George Mason" of the NBC documentary series Profiles in Courage. William Bakewell played George Wythe, and Laurence Naismith played the title role of George Mason.

Franz portrayed U. S. representative Charles A. Halleck of Indiana in the 1974 made-for-television film The Missiles of October, based on the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Personal life

Franz's third wife, Doreen Lang, died in 1999. He had previously been divorced twice. He married his fourth wife, Sharon, on February 14, 2006.

Death

Franz died in Oxnard, California, at the age of 86 from emphysema and heart disease. He was survived by his wife, two daughters, a son, and two grandchildren.