Eduard Franz

Eduard Franz

1902-10-31 – 1983-02-10 (age 80) Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
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Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eduard Franz (born Eduard Franz Schmidt; October 31, 1902 – February 10, 1987) 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). By 1936, Franz 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 and 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.

Franz performed in a number of television series, including Gunsmoke; Have Gun - Will Travel; The Law and Mr. Jones; The Barbara Stanwyck Show and Cimarron City. Franz was cast as psychiatric clinic director Dr. Edward Raymer in 30 episodes of the weekly ABC medical drama Breaking Point

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Known For

The Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments

1956

as Jethro

Twilight Zone: The Movie
Hatari!
Hatari!

1962

as Doctor Sanderson

Johnny Got His Gun
Johnny Got His Gun

1971

as Col. / Gen. Tillery

The Story of Ruth
The Story of Ruth

1960

as Jehoam

Broken Lance
Broken Lance

1954

as Two Moons

The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel
The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel

1951

as Col. Klaus von Stauffenberg

Whirlpool
Whirlpool

1950

as Martin Avery

Madame Bovary
Madame Bovary

1949

as Rouault

Living It Up
Living It Up

1954

as Dr. Nassau (uncredited)

Sign of the Pagan
Sign of the Pagan

1954

as Astrologer

The Indian Fighter
The Indian Fighter

1955

as Red Cloud

Dream Wife
Dream Wife

1953

as Khan

Hollow Triumph
Hollow Triumph

1948

as Frederick Muller

Lady Godiva of Coventry
Lady Godiva of Coventry

1955

as King Edward

Cyborg 2087
Cyborg 2087

1966

as Prof. Sigmund Marx

The Burning Hills
The Burning Hills

1956

as Jacob Lantz

Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast

1962

as Orsini

The Last Command
The Last Command

1955

as Lorenzo de Quesada