Frank Morgan

 ( 1890 Births ) 

After signing a contract with MGM, Morgan starred with Al Jolson in Hallelujah, I'm a Bum in 1933. In 1934, Morgan received an Academy Awards nomination for Best Leading Actor for his performance as Alessandro, Duke of Florence in The Affairs of Cellini. In the next year, he starred as a multimillionaire wooing Margaret Sullavan in The Good Fairy and as Jack Billings in The Great Ziegfeld. In 1936, Morgan played alongside Shirley Temple as Professor Appleby in Dimples. Speaking about Morgan, Temple wrote, " . . Dimples pitted me against an accomplished veteran of the legitimate stage who was not about to let any little curly headed kid steal his scenes. Competition for camera attention had always been a fact of life for me. The kid and the expert could not help but collide."

In The Wizard of Oz (1939), Morgan played five roles: the Wizard, the carnival huckster "Professor Marvel", the "bust my buttons" Gatekeeper (who initially refuses to let Dorothy and her friends into the city), the "horse of a different color" carriage driver of Emerald City, and the Palace Guard (who refuses to let Dorothy and her friends in to see the Wizard). Morgan was cast in the role on September 22, 1938. W. C. Fields was originally chosen for the part of the Wizard, but the studio ran out of patience after protracted haggling over his fee.

An actor with a wide range, Morgan was equally effective playing comical, befuddled men such as Jesse Kiffmeyer in Saratoga (1937) and Mr. Ferris in Casanova Brown (1944), as he was with romantic leads and 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). MGM's musical comedy film The Great Morgan (1946), is a compilation film featuring Frank Morgan supposedly as himself but playing the familiar bumbler. 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).

During 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. He played a fire chief in his final picture, Key to the City, filmed in 1949 but released posthumously in 1950.

Morgan was widely known to be an alcoholic, according to several people who worked with him, including Margaret Hamilton and Aljean Harmetz. Morgan sometimes carried a black briefcase to work, fully equipped with a small mini-bar.

Morgan's niece Claudia Morgan (née Wuppermann) was a stage and film actress, and his brother was playwright Carlos Wuppermann.

Morgan had filmed a few scenes as Buffalo Bill in the musical Annie Get Your Gun (1950) when he died suddenly of a heart attack on September 18, 1949, at the age of 59. He was replaced in the film by Louis Calhern. Morgan is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. His tombstone carries his real name, Wuppermann, as well as his stage name.Wilson, Scott (2001). Resting Places : The Burial Sites of Over 7,000 Famous Persons. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company. p. 258. .

• List of actors with Academy Award nominations

• Rupert Alistair (2025). 9781720038375, Independently published. ISBN 9781720038375