Occupation Actor Years active 1931–61 | Name Frank Marlowe | |
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Full Name Frank Marlowe Riggi Born January 20, 1904 ( 1904-01-20 ) Massachusetts, United States Died March 30, 1964(1964-03-30) (aged 60)
Hollywood, California, United States | ||
Frank Marlowe, also known as Frank Riggi and Frank Marlo (January 20, 1904 – March 30, 1964) was an American character actor from the 1930s until the 1960s. During Marlowe's 30-year career he would appear in over 200 feature films, as well as dozens of television shows.
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Early life
Born on January 20, 1904 in Massachusetts, he entered the film industry in the early 1930s; while some sources have him in films as early as 1931, the American Film Institute has his earliest film appearance in Howard Hawk's 1934 film, Twentieth Century, starring John Barrymore and Carole Lombard.
Career
Marlowe's prolific film career involved small roles in many notable films. Some of those films include: the 1935 John Ford comedy, The Whole Town's Talking, starring Edward G. Robinson and Jean Arthur; Howard Hawk's classic romantic comedy, Bringing Up Baby (1938), starring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn; 1940's My Favorite Wife, againg starring Grant, this time with Irene Dunne; the two classic biopics One Foot in Heaven (1941), starring Fredric March and Martha Scott, and Sergeant York (1941) starring Gary Cooper; Alfred Hitchcock's 1942 thriller, Saboteur, with Robert Cummings and Priscilla Lane; the 1945 musical Anchors Aweigh, starring Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, and Kathryn Grayson; 1942's Bob Hope and Bing Crosby buddy film, Road to Utopia; the 1942 Danny Kaye vehicle, The Kid from Brooklyn, which also stars Virginia Mayo; Michael Curtiz's classic biopic of Cole Porter, Night and Day (1946), starring Cary Grant and Alexis Smith; Hitchcock's 1946 thriller, Notorious, with Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains; The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), again starring Kaye and Mayo; and the 1948 classic swashbuckler, The Three Musketeers, starring Gene Kelly, Lana Turner and an all-star cast.
The 1950s would see Marlowe continue his numerous film appearances, while he would also branch out into the new medium of television. Notable films in which he appeared during the decade include: Joan of Arc (1950), starring Ingrid Bergman; 1951's Flying Leathernecks, starring John Wayne and Robert Ryan; Trouble Along the Way (1953), another Wayne film, this time also starring Donna Reed and Charles Coburn; the classic 1954 version of A Star Is Born, with James Mason and Judy Garland; Otto Preminger's classic drama The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), starring Sinatra, Eleanor Parker, and Kim Novak; Joanne Woodward's tour de force in The Three Faces of Eve (1957). Although the Internet Movie Database has him appearing in two films in 1961, AFI has his final film appearance as one of the taxi drivers in Hitchcock's classic thriller North by Northwest in 1959, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason. Interspersed with his film performances, Marlowe would make dozens of television appearances. His TV work included guest roles on: The Abbott and Costello Show, Adventures of Superman, The Millionaire, Dragnet, Perry Mason, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
Death
Marlowe died on March 30, 1964 at the age of 60 in Hollywood, California.