He played a fire chief in his final picture, Key to the City, filmed in 1949 but released posthumously in 1950. Occasionally a co-star (as in The Human Comedy, and, once established, invariably a featured player), he also saw the occasional lead deep in his Hollywood career, as the philanthropic tycoon falsely accused of murder in 1941's Washington Melodrama and The Great Morgan (in which he is the Morgan of the title, the picture's central player).ĭuring the 1940s Morgan appeared in such diverse genres and roles as an oil wildcatter in Boom Town (supporting Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, and Claudette Colbert) Tortilla Flat in 1942 (based on the John Steinbeck book, again supporting Tracy) a jungle doctor in White Cargo (supporting Walter Pidgeon and Hedy Lamarr) a shepherd in the Courage of Lassie in 1946 a doctor again in Green Dolphin Street in 1948 in support of Lana Turner, Van Heflin, and Donna Reed King Louis XIII in The Three Musketeers in 1948, supporting Gene Kelly and Turner again and as Jimmy Stewart’s boss in The Stratton Story in 1949. MGM's musical comedy film The Great Morgan (1946), is a compilation film featuring Frank Morgan supposedly as himself but playing the familiar bumbler. Ferris in Casanova Brown (1944), as he was with more serious, troubled characters like Hugo Matuschek in The Shop Around the Corner (1940), Professor Roth in The Mortal Storm (1940) and Willie Grogan in The Human Comedy (1943). Fields was originally chosen for the part of the Wizard, but the studio ran out of patience after protracted haggling over his fee.Īn actor with a wide range, Morgan was equally effective playing comical, befuddled men such as Jesse Kiffmeyer in Saratoga (1937) and Mr. Morgan was cast in the role on September 22, 1938. Morgan is best remembered for his performance in The Wizard of Oz (1939), in which picture he played a total of six roles, most notably the Wizard, which included the carnival huckster "Professor Marvel", the gatekeeper at the Emerald City, the coachman of the carriage drawn by "The Horse of a Different Color", the Emerald City guard (who initially refuses to let Dorothy and her friends in to see the Wizard), and the Wizard's scary face projection. In 1936 Morgan played alongside Shirley Temple as Professor Appleby in Dimples. By the mid-1930s, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was so impressed by Morgan that they signed him to a lifetime contract. Although the befuddled but good-hearted middle-aged man became his stereotypical role, he played romantic leads in such films as When Ladies Meet (1933) and Enchanted April (1935). Morgan debuted in film The Suspect in 1916 and the following year he starred with John Barrymore in Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman (1917), an independent film produced in and about New York City. Career Film Morgan and Madge Kennedy in the silent film Baby Mine (1917) The family earned their wealth distributing Angostura bitters, allowing Wuppermann to attend Cornell University, where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and the Glee Club. His brother Ralph Morgan was also an actor of stage and screen. His mother was born in the United States, of English ancestry. Wuppermann was born in Venezuela but was brought up in Hamburg, Germany, and was of German and Spanish ancestry. He was the youngest of 11 children and had five brothers and five sisters. Morgan was born on June 1, 1890, in New York City, to Josephine Wright (née Hancox) and George Diogracia Wuppermann. He was also briefly billed early in his career as Frank Wupperman and Francis Morgan. He was best known for his appearances in films starting in the silent era in 1916, and then numerous sound films throughout the 1930s and 1940s, with a career spanning 35 years mostly as a contract player at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with his most celebrated performance playing the title role of The Wizard in the MGM movie The Wizard of Oz (1939). Francis Phillip Wuppermann (J– September 18, 1949), known professionally as Frank Morgan, was an American character actor.
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