Fritz Leiber (Sr.)

This article refers to the actor. For his son, the science fiction writer, see Fritz Leiber.

Fritz Leiber
Leiber with Theda Bara in Cleopatra (1917)
Born	Fritz Reuter Leiber, Sr. (1882-01-31)31 January 1882 Chicago, Illinois
Died
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1916–1949
Spouse(s)	Virginia Bronson (1885-1970)
Children	Fritz Leiber

Fritz Reuter Leiber Sr. (January 31, 1882 – October 14, 1949), was an American actor. A Shakespearean actor on stage, he also had a successful career in film. He was the father of science fiction and fantasy writer Fritz Leiber, Jr., who was also an actor for a time.

Life

Born in Chicago, Leiber was based there for most of his pre-Hollywood career. He married Virginia Bronson, who like him was a Shakespearian performer. Leiber died from a heart attack at the age of 67.

Career

Leiber and his wife spent much of their time touring in a Shakespearian acting company, known by the 1930s as Fritz Leiber & Co. Leiber made his film bow in 1916, playing Mercutio in the Francis X. Bushman version of Romeo and Juliet. With his piercing eyes and shock of white hair, Leiber seemed every inch the priests, professors, musical professors, and religious fanatics that he was frequently called upon to play in films. His many silent-era portrayals included Caesar in Theda Bara's 1917 Cleopatra and Solomon in the mammoth 1921 Betty Blythe vehicle The Queen of Sheba.

He thrived as a character actor in sound films, usually in historical roles. In the film Champagne Waltz, he portrayed an orchestra maestro; the role required him to play classical music on a violin and jazz on a clarinet. One of Leiber's larger assignments of the 1940s, and his most notable musical role, was as Franz Liszt in the Claude Rains remake of Phantom of the Opera (1943).

Leiber appears together with his son Fritz Leiber, Jr. in the wedding-feast scene of Greta Garbo's film Camille (1936) and in Warner Bros.' The Great Garrick (1937). Leiber also appeared with his son Fritz Leiber, Jr. in The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1939 but Fritz Leiber Jr. was not credited for his small speaking part.

Late in his career, Leiber performed briefly opposite Charles Chaplin as the priest who visits Monsieur Verdoux in his prison cell.

Portrait collection

For most or all of his long acting career, Leiber had a hobby: each time he performed a new role, he had his likeness or portrait made in costume and make-up for that role. Since Leiber was not an especially protean actor, he tended to look the same in every part: therefore, to bring some variety to his portrait collection, he varied the format and media of each likeness: one was a full-length oil painting, another a charcoal sketch of his upper body; one a sculpted bust, one a clay bas-relief, and so forth. After the actor's death, all of his surviving portraits passed to his son, Fritz Leiber Jr., who found himself in the awkward situation of sharing a cramped residence with more than two hundred copies of his father's face; Leiber Jr. later used this experience as the basis of his 1963 story "237 Talking Statues, Etc."

Filmography

• Devil's Doorway (1950)
• Samson and Delilah (1949)
• Bagdad (1949)
• Bride of Vengeance (1949)
• Song of India (1949)
• Inner Sanctum (1948)
• Another Part of the Forest (1948)
• To the Ends of the Earth (1948)
• Adventures of Casanova (1948)
• High Conquest (1947)
• The Web (1947)
• Dangerous Venture (1947)
• Bells of San Angelo (1947)
• Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
• Humoresque (1946)
• Strange Journey (1946)
• Angel on My Shoulder (1946)
• A Scandal in Paris (1946)
• Scarlet Street (1945)
• The Spanish Main (1945)
• This Love of Ours (1945)
• Son of Lassie (1945)
• The Cisco Kid Returns (The Daring Adventurer) (1944)
• Youth Runs Wild (1944)
• Cry of the Werewolf (1944)
• Cobra Woman (1944)
• The Impostor (1944)
• The Song of Bernadette (1943)
• The Desert Song (1943)
• Phantom of the Opera (1943)
• Salute to the Marines (1943)
• First Comes Courage (1943)
• Crossroads (1942)
• Aloma of the South Seas (1941)
• Lady with Red Hair (1940)
• All This, and Heaven Too (1940)
• The Sea Hawk (1940), as Inquisitor
• The Way of All Flesh (1940)
• The Mortal Storm (1940)
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
• Pack Up Your Troubles (1939)
• Nurse Edith Cavell (1939)
• They Made Her a Spy (1939)
• Gateway (1938)
• Flight Into Nowhere (1938)
• The Jury's Secret (1938)
• The Great Garrick (1937)
• The Prince and the Pauper (1937)
• Under Southern Stars (1937)
• Champagne Waltz (1937)
• Sins of Man (1936)
• Under Two Flags (1936)
• The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936)
• Anthony Adverse (1936)
• Camille (1936)
• Hearts in Bondage (1936)
• Down to the Sea (1936)
• A Tale of Two Cities (1935)
• The Queen of Sheba (1921)
• The Song of the Soul (1920)
• If I Were King (1920)
• Cleopatra (1917)
• The Primitive Call (1917)
• Romeo and Juliet (1916)

External links

• Fritz Leiber at the Internet Movie Database
• Fritz Leiber's Photo & Gravesite