Name
Francis L. Sullivan
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1903-01-06
Deathday
1956-11-19 (53 years old)
Place of Birth
Wandsworth, London, England, UK
Biography
Francis Loftus Sullivan (6 January 1903, Wandsworth, London - 19 November 1956, New York City) was an English film and stage actor. He attended Stonyhurst, the Jesuit public school in Lancashire, England whose alumni include Charles Laughton and Arthur Conan Doyle.
A heavily built man with a striking double-chin and a deep voice, Sullivan made his acting debut at the Old Vic aged 18 in Shakespeare's Richard III and appeared in his first film in 1932. Some of his notable film roles include Mr. Bumble in Oliver Twist (1948) and Phil Nosseross in the film noir Night and the City (1950). Sullivan also played the part of Jaggers in two versions of Charles Dickens's Great Expectations - in 1934 and 1946. He appeared in a fourth Dickens film, the 1935 Universal Pictures version of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, in which he played Crisparkle.
In 1938, he was featured in The Citadel, starring Robert Donat, and a decade later, he played the role of Pierre Cauchon in the technicolor version of Joan of Arc, starring Ingrid Bergman. Also in 1938 he starred in a revival of the Stokes' brothers play Oscar Wilde at London's Arts Theatre.
Sullivan also acted in light comedies, notably My Favorite Spy (1951), starring Bob Hope and Hedy Lamarr, in which he played an enemy agent, and the comedy Fiddlers Three (1944), portraying Nero. He also played the role of Pothinus in the 1945 film version of George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra. The film was directed by Gabriel Pascal, and was the last film personally supervised by Shaw himself. Sullivan later reprised the role in a stage revival of the play.
Sullivan, who eventually became a naturalized US citizen, won a Tony Award in 1955 for the Agatha Christie play Witness for the Prosecution. Earlier, he had played Hercule Poirot at the Embassy Theatre (London) in the Christie play, Black Coffee (1930). He died of a heart attack, aged 53 (some sources claim he died from an unspecified "lung ailment").
Description above from the Wikipedia article Francis L. Sullivan, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
7.299
In this Dickens adaptation, orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysteri...
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Londoner Harry Fabian is a second-rate con man looking for an angle. After years of puttin...
6.2
At the height of the Roman Civil War, an aging Julius Caesar finds himself intrigued by th...
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Young, idealistic, newly qualified Scottish doctor Andrew Manson arrives in Wales and take...
6.2
In the 15th Century, France is a defeated and ruined nation after the One Hundred Years Wa...
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A burlesque comic doubles for a spy in Tangier and meets the spy's girlfriend, who is also...
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Eccentric Cambridge archaeologist Horatio Smith takes a group of British and American arch...
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Down-on-his-luck Mike Cormack is hired to fly to a Caribbean island to retrieve a missing ...
- 1933 The Wandering Jew as Juan de Texada (Phase IV)
- 1948 Oliver Twist as Mr. Bumble
- 1945 Caesar and Cleopatra as Pothinus
- 1949 The Red Danube as Colonel Humphrey 'Blinker' Omicron
- 1946 Great Expectations as Mr. Jaggers
- 1948 Joan of Arc as Pierre Cauchon, Count-Bishop of Beauvais
- 1941 "Pimpernel" Smith as General von Graum
- 1940 21 Days as Mander
- 1955 Hell's Island as Barzland
- 1950 Night and the City as Philip Nosseross
- 1938 The Citadel as Ben Chenkin
- 1935 The Mystery of Edwin Drood as Rev. Mr. Crisparkle
- 1953 Plunder of the Sun as Thomas Berrien
- 1948 The Winslow Boy as Attorney General
- 1951 My Favorite Spy as Karl Brubaker
- 1934 The Return of Bulldog Drummond as Carl Peterson
- 1947 Take My Life as Prosecuting Counsel
- 1954 Drums of Tahiti as Commissioner Pierre Duvois
- 1933 Called Back as Kaledin
- 1949 Christopher Columbus as Francisco de Bobadilla
- 1944 Fiddlers Three as Nero
- 1953 Sangaree as Dr. Bristol
- 1942 The Lady from Lisbon as Minghetti
- 1939 The Four Just Men as Leon Poiccard
- 1948 Broken Journey as Anton Perami
- 1937 Non-Stop New York as Hugo Brant
- 1938 The Drum as Governor
- 1933 Red Wagon as Cranley
- 1952 Caribbean as Andrew McAllister
- 1936 Spy of Napoleon as Chief of Police
- 1938 The Ware Case as Attorney General
- 1933 F.P.1 as A Sailor
- 1934 Strange Wives as Bellamy
- 1938 Kate Plus Ten as Lord Flamborough
- 1937 Action for Slander as Sir Quinton Jessops (as Francis Sullavan)
- 1932 When London Sleeps as Rodney Haines
- 1996 Ingrid Bergman Remembered as Self (archive footage)
- 1934 Chu Chin Chow as The Caliph
- 1934 The Fire Raisers as Stedding
- 1938 Climbing High as Madman
- 1943 The Butler's Dilemma as Leo Carrington
- 1942 The Day Will Dawn as Kommandant Ulrich Wettau
- 1934 The Warren Case as Prosecuting Counsel (uncredited)
- 1934 What Happened Then? as Richard Bentley, Prosecution Counsel
- 1934 Cheating Cheaters as Dr. George Brockton
- 1932 The Chinese Puzzle as Herman Strumm
- 1932 The Missing Rembrandt as Baron von Guntermann
- 1933 The Right to Live as Roger Stoneham
- 1935 Her Last Affaire as Sir Julian Weyre
- 1955 The Prodigal as Bosra
- 1952 Pontius Pilate as Herod Antipas
- 1934 Great Expectations as Jaggers
- 1942 The Foreman Went to France as French Skipper
- 1951 Behave Yourself! as Fat Freddy
- 1937 Dinner at the Ritz as Brogard
- 1947 The Man Within as Mr. Braddock
- 1939 Young Man's Fancy as Blackbeard, Vincent St George
- 1937 Fine Feathers as Hugo Steinway
- 1946 The Laughing Lady as Sir Williams Tremayne
- 1936 A Woman Alone as Prosecutor
- 1948 Studio One ( 1 episode ) as Herod Antipas
- 1953 General Electric Theater ( 1 episode )
- 1950 Lux Video Theatre ( 1 episode ) as Detective Yates
- 1951 Schlitz Playhouse of Stars ( 1 episode )
- 1948 The Philco Television Playhouse ( 1 episode )
- 1949 Suspense ( 3 episodes )
- 1950 Robert Montgomery Presents ( 1 episode )
- 1952 Cavalcade of America ( 1 episode )
- 1949 Lights Out ( 2 episodes )
- 1950 Sure As Fate ( 20 episodes )
- Soon Destiny ( 0 episode )
- 1953 General Electric Theater ( 1 episode ) as Captain William Bligh
- 1951 Schlitz Playhouse of Stars ( 1 episode ) as Garman
- 1948 The Ed Sullivan Show ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1948 Studio One ( 1 episode ) as Long John Silver
