Fred MacMurray was likely the most underrated actor of his generation. True, his earliest work is mostly dismissed as pedestrian, but no other actor working in the 1940s and 50s was able to score so supremely whenever cast against type. Frederick Martin MacMurray was born in Kankakee, Illinois, to Maleta Martin and Frederick MacMurray. His father had Scottish ancestry and his mother's family was German. His father's sister was vaudeville performer and actress Fay Holderness. When MacMurray was five years old, the family moved to Beaver Dam in Wisconsin, his parents' birth state. He graduated from Beaver Dam High School (later the site of Beaver Dam Middle School), where he was a three-sport star in football, baseball, and basketball. Fred retained a special place in his heart for his small-town Wisconsin upbringing, referring at any opportunity in magazine articles or interviews to the lifelong friends and cherished memories of Beaver Dam, even including mementos of his childhood in several of his films. In "Pardon my Past", Fred and fellow GI William Demarest are moving to Beaver Dam, WI to start a mink farm. MacMurray earned a full scholarship to attend Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin and had ambitions to become a musician. In college, MacMurray participated in numerous local bands, playing the saxophone. In 1930, he played saxophone in the Gus Arnheim and his Coconut Grove Orchestra when Bing Crosby was the lead vocalist and Russ Columbo was in the violin section. MacMurray recorded a vocal with Arnheim's orchestra "All I Want Is Just One Girl" -- Victor 22384, 3/20/30. He appeared on Broadway in the 1930 hit production of "Three's a Crowd" starring Sydney Greenstreet, Clifton Webb and Libby Holman. He next worked alongside Bob Hope in the 1933 production of "Roberta" before he signed on with Paramount Pictures in 1934 for the then-standard 7-year contract (the hit show made Bob Hope a star and he was also signed by Paramount). MacMurray married Lillian Lamont (D: June 22, 1953) on June 20, 1936, and they adopted two children. Although his early film work is largely overlooked by film historians and critics today, he rose steadily within the ranks of Paramount's contract stars, working with some of Hollywood's greatest talents, including wunderkind writer-director Preston Sturges (whom he intensely disliked) and actors Humphrey Bogart and Marlene Dietrich. Although the majority of his films of the 30's can largely be dismissed as standard fare there are exceptions: he played opposite Claudette Colbert in seven films, beginning with The Gilded Lily (1935). He also co-starred with Katharine Hepburn in the classic, Alice Adams (1935), and with Carole Lombard in Hands Across the Table (1935), The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936) -- an ambitious early outdoor 3-strip Technicolor hit, co-starring with Henry Fonda and Sylvia Sidney directed by Henry Hathaway -- The Princess Comes Across (1936), and True Confession (1937). MacMurray spent the decade learning his craft and developing a reputation as a solid actor. In an interesting sidebar, artist C.C. Beck used MacMurray as the initial model for a superhero character who would become Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel in 1939. The 1940s gave him his chance to shine. He proved himself in melodramas such as Above Suspicion (1943) and musicals (Where Do We Go from Here? (1945)), somewhat ironically becoming one of Hollywood's highest-paid actors by 1943, when his salary reached $420,000. He scored a huge hit with the thoroughly entertaining The Egg and I (1947), again teamed with Ms. Colbert and today largely remembered for launching the long-running Ma and Pa Kettle franchise. In 1941, MacMurray purchased a large parcel of land in Sonoma County, California and began a winery/cattle ranch. He raised his family on the ranch and it became the home to his second wife, June Haver after their marriage in 1954. The winery remains in operation today in the capable hands of their daughter, Kate MacMurray. Despite being habitually typecast as a "nice guy", MacMurray often said that his best roles were when he was cast against type by Billy Wilder. In 1944, he played the role of "Walter Neff", an insurance salesman (numerous other actors had turned the role down) who plots with a greedy wife Barbara Stanwyck to murder her husband in Double Indemnity (1944) -- inarguably the greatest role of his entire career. Indeed, anyone today having any doubts as to his potential depth as an actor should watch this film. He did another stellar turn in the "not so nice" category, playing the cynical, spineless "Lieutenant Thomas Keefer" in the 1954 production of The Caine Mutiny (1954), directed by Edward Dmytryk. He gave another superb dramatic performance cast against type as a hard-boiled crooked cop in Pushover (1954). Despite these and other successes, his career waned considerably by the late 1950s and he finished out the decade working in a handful of non-descript westerns. MacMurray's career got its second wind beginning in 1959 when he was cast as the dog-hating father figure (well, he was a retired mailman) in the first Walt Disney live-action comedy, The Shaggy Dog (1959). The film was an enormous hit and Uncle Walt green lighted several projects around his middle-aged star. Billy Wilder came calling again and he did a masterful turn in the role of Jeff Sheldrake, a two-timing corporate executive in Wilder's Oscar-winning comedy-drama The Apartment (1960), with Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon -- arguably his second greatest role and the last one to really challenge him as an actor. Although this role would ultimately be remembered as his last great performance, he continued with the lightweight Disney comedies while pulling double duty, thanks to an exceptionally generous contract, on TV. MacMurray was cast in 1961 as Professor Ned Brainerd in Disney's The Absent Minded Professor (1961) and in its superior sequel, Son of Flubber (1963). These hit Disney comedies raised his late-career profile considerably and producer Don Fedderson beckoned with My Three Sons (1960) debuting in 1960 on ABC. The gentle sitcom staple remained on the air for 12 seasons (380 episodes). Concerned about his work load and time away from his ranch and family, Fred played hardball with his series contract. In addition to his generous salary, the "Sons" contract was written so that all the scenes requiring his presence to be shot first, requiring him to work only 65 days per season on the show (the contract was reportedly used as an example by Dean Martin when negotiating the wildly generous terms contained in his later variety show contract). This requirement meant the series actors had to work with stand-ins and posed wardrobe continuity issues. The series moved without a hitch to CBS in the fall of 1965 in color after ABC, then still an also-ran network with its eyes peeled on the bottom line, refused to increase the budget required for color production (color became a U.S. industry standard in the 1968 season). This freed him to pursue his film work, family, ranch, and his principal hobby, golf. Politically very conservative, MacMurray was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party; he joined his old friend Bob Hope and James Stewart in campaigning for Richard Nixon in 1968. He was also widely known one of the most -- to be polite -- frugal actors in the business. Stories floated around the industry in the 60s regarding famous hard-boiled egg brown bag lunches and stingy tips. After the cancellation of My Three Sons in 1972, MacMurray made only a few more film appearances before retiring to his ranch in 1978. As a result of a long battle with leukemia, MacMurray died of pneumonia at the age of eighty-three in Santa Monica on November 5, 1991. He was buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.
Veteran actor Fred Mancuso was born in Massena NY and grew up in Pittsburgh PA, one of four from a model-dancer mother and football playing-engineer father. Coming from a creative family, he began singing, playing the guitar, and acting at age seven. His father passed from brain cancer when he was 12. Fred took his younger brother Kirk under his wing. His mother, a dancer from Richmond VA worked and raised the four retiring from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in (2013). Fred served in the US Air Force from (1986-1990) being stationed in North Carolina until transferring to Los Angeles CA to live with his brother Joe in (1989). Joe graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in music and drama in (1988) as did sister Lauri Mancuso in (1991) in fine arts. Fred went to an open call for the Miami Vice Stunt Show at Universal Studios Tour in (1990) to practice a monologue. Alex Plasschaert and Nicholas Plasschaert cast him as a smuggler for the live action show. He worked bouncing at the Comedy Store and Roxbury night clubs in Hollywood, the latter of which he met Joe Pecoraro who became his manager and Mara Santino then an assistant with the JHR Agency. Mara invited him to wait in the lobby at the acting agency, as he had no formal training or credits, and Cynthia Kazarian signed him commercially. The agency submitted him for a few theatrical roles, one of which came in (1990) when he was cast by John Frank Levey in "Cain," a TV pilot with Maura Tierney and William Morgan Sheppard who became his acting mentor and coach ushering him into the depths of the craft of acting in addition to getting his SAG card. Morgan, a Royal Shakespearean company graduate, spent countless hours giving him and the other actors at the Vincent Chase workshop in Hollywood the tools and method, while being a working actor himself. This priceless education, apprenticeship if you will, was enhanced with Patrick Gorman coming on scene in (1993) when they worked together in the film Gettysburg (1993). Mr. Gorman, a veteran himself of both the Navy and the US Army, is a working actor himself with a black belt in Aikido and roughly 18,000 performances under his belt to date from the time he was age five. With brilliance, honesty, eloquence, and class they helped guide Fred the actor and the man. Fred said of Pat in acting terms, "Patrick brought stillness to the group and that stillness dropped our centers low, which became the inner weight that Morgan talked about as a necessity in transcendent acting. Having a low center refines and adds a foundation and sturdiness to the role." Fred met Robert Blake in Brett Dunham (Meisner) workshop in (1990). These men impacted his life as to the stick-to-it-ness necessary in persevering through life challenges and obstacle that occur in the life of an actor. Fred played Randy Carter, a series regular on the soap opera Dangerous Women (1991), played Rollins in the film The Divine Enforcer (1992), filmed Made in America (1993) opposite Jennifer Tilly playing Bruce, and as Pratt in Sudden Death (1995) with Powers Boothe. The muse led him in July (1996) to the Live Action "Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show" playing a Cowboy and rodeo clown. He returned to the theatre in (1998) playing Lee in "True West" by Sam Shepard in Carson and Virginia Cities NV, followed by Shakespeare's "Cymbeline" with A Noise Within theater group where he interned in (1999) in Los Angeles. Joel Swetow directed him in Shakespeare's "As you Like it" in (2000) at The Actor's CO-OP in Hollywood. In late summer of (2001) Fred was in rehearsals for a stage production of "The Lion in Winter" as Prince Richard at the Newport Center Theatre. The night of September 10th, after rehearsal he worked to finish a handy man job all night arriving home at 8 am the morning of the 11th (2001). Following the terrorist attacks on our country he walked to the US Army recruiter and enlisted that day leaving for basic training in January (2002). He participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom in (2003) with the 1st Brigade/ 3rd Infantry Division "Rock of the Marne", and following his deployment went to SFAS and was selected as a SF recruit. He was inducted into the 1st Regiment/ US Army Special Forces in (2006) and assigned to 10th SF Group as an Engineer Sergeant. He deployed again to Iraq in (2007), (2008), and (2009), and Africa in (2009) and (2010), the latter serving on training and humanitarian aid missions. Fred discharged from the Army in (2012) and returned to Los Angeles and the craft playing Bob in the TV movie Christmas in the City (2013) and played Finbar Skippins in the independent film [error]. In Jan (2014) he produced, directed, and played Lee in Sam Shepard's "True West" at the Whitefire Theatre in Los Angeles. This was a tribute performance to honor SSG Rob Pirelli and others who lost their lives in service to the country. This production solidified his path and direction as an actor after much contemplation considering his awareness and abilities learned in the military and the state of worldly affairs. Fred appreciates the VA in helping him to cope and extend creatively through the post service conditions and abilities. In (2015) he played Marcus Antony in Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" at the Long Beach Shakespeare Co, then as Hook in "Lost Boyz" (2016), an independent TV Pilot. He also co-wrote, produced, and acted in the short film Blind Faith (2015) with Ryan de Quintal and Francisco Ramirez directing. While being represented by Courtney Peldon at Aqua Talent and managed at by Wendy Peldon he had roles on Colony (2016) as the Grey Hat CO (2017), played Vincent in S.W.A.T. (2017) on CBS in (2017), was cast in Grace and Frankie (2015) (2018) as the Angriest Man in the World, as Bounty #1 on Lucifer (2016) in (2018), the Hunter #1 on Escape the Night (2016) in (2018), the mobster Tony Corsetti on FOX' Lethal Weapon (2016) in (2018) directed by April Mullen, and as Scotty on the Netflix series No Good Nick (2019). While filming these Fred produced multiple stage productions and all at the Whitefire Theatre in LA; produced, directed, and starred as Lennie in John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" (2018), produced the World Premier stage production of "The Dogs Pond" by Travis G. Baker along with Derek Long who also directed the piece with Fred starring as Bergsey also in (2018), produced an Equity run of Sam Shepard's "Simpatico" in the spring of (2019) with Derek Long directing and Mancuso starring as Vinnie, followed by Sam Shepard's "Fool for Love" playing the Old Man in the summer (2019) which he also produced and directed. He was briefly married in (2006) but long enough for his then wife to produce two sons Anthony Joseph in (2007) and Ronan Liam in (2008) for which he is grateful. The Boys were born during deployments and are beautiful and gifted miraculous treasures... his constant love and consideration. "The great gift in life is being a father to the boys," said Fred. Speaking about W. Morgan Sheppard (1932-2019) he said, "Morgan compelled us to look at the craft of acting autobiographically, to make adjustments and remain consistently authentic, examining the authors intentions while making strong positive choices, accepting what is the same about us and the character and only altering what is different. He, like Stanislavski, believed in actions as the driving force of any scene and encouraged us to endure and sustain the process of developing them, to making the words springboards for our intention, and to consider every scene is life changing life altering." Fred believes that the very best acting in the actor who listens. "The Groundlings (Improvisation training 1997) showed us that to do good improv we had to listen outside and inside at the same time accepting everything and deny nothing to make it work. It is what being present looks like by definition. Even playing a period or historical piece, our head can be clouded by technique or a historical dissertation of what happened at that time in history, and does nothing but leave us more obstacles to weed through and keeps us stuck in our heads and not able to connect to the other actors presently. I love actors and acting. It's a model for life and the best are fearless. I applaud those who constantly have to consider fame, stardom and other potential me-ism's and keep producing wonderful performances with so much at stake. Morgan was all about the "Kiss" principle of keeping it simple. I leave stooped at the end out. I can never judge myself or others correctly. There's no room for self-loathing. Acceptance is a key. Morgan agreed with Stanislavsky that one can't play the preparation. We just have to put the time in and show up more than ready (says the Green Beret). Having an open mind and listening are necessary elements within the craft of acting, an invitation for the audience to experience a moment themselves being freely inspired through their enthusiasm. It's an intrusion of sorts to dictate or project to the audience members what they should feel or get from a performance. I believe this limits the imagination and spontaneity and therefore our creativity and doesn't give the director anything but a self-absorbed actor that doesn't work... literally and figuratively. The business can be a playground of gossip and speculation and I steer clear at all costs. The entertainment business is the most balanced transitional experience for me and my military experience in the civilian life. I find leaning in creatively is necessary for combat vets. In naming his Preatorean production company he adds, "The Praetorian was guardian of the emperor of Rome. The Preatorean is the Guardian of the Realms of men...all realms and all people within each. ~ De Oppresso Lieber ~" Fred currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.
Fred Martin is an actor, known for The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962) and Objectivement, la vie quotidienne des objets quotidiens (2015).
Fred Mata is known for Frank James (2020), Santa with Muscles (1996) and Hexed (1993).
Fred McCaffrey is an actor, known for Track of the Moon Beast (1976).
Fred McEvoy is an actor, known for Tempus Tormentum (2018).
Fred Meijer is an actor, known for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) and Poketto monsutâ (1997).
Revered character actor Fred Melamed was born in New York City. His birth-parents were unmarried; an American actress and British psychoanalyst. He was adopted as an infant by Manhattanites Lou and Syma Melamed (nee Krichefsky). His adoptive father was an early television producer, having contributed such watershed programs as Car 54, Where Are You?, Sergeant Bilko and Let's Pretend. Fred received his theatrical training at Hampshire College and the Yale School of Drama. While still at Hampshire, he began working with playwrights Jean-Claude Van Itallie and John Guare. He was also influenced by members of The Living Theatre, and Tina Packer and Kristin Linklater, with whom he became a founding member of Shakespeare & Company. For his work with Packer, he was nominated for the Irene Ryan Award, a prize for the most promising young actors in the United States. At Yale, he was a Samuel F. B. Morse Graduate Fellow, and was much influenced by resident artists James Earl Jones, John Madden, Athol Fugard and George Roy Hill. Immediately after graduation, he became a company member of Minneapolis' famed Guthrie Theater, also performing at The Kennedy Center, The Yale Repertory Theater, and New York's West Bank Cafe. In 1983, he made his Broadway debut in the Tony Award-Winning Amadeus. On television, Melamed stars on the Marvel blockbuster WandaVision, the Netflix original series Medical Police, and the Apple+ hit The Morning Show. Past starring parts have included benighted manager Bruce Ben-Bacharach in Lady Dynamite, errant father Charles Cole on the Golden Globe-nominated Casual, and major roles in Emmy-winning programs Fargo, Girls, Brooklyn Nine Nine, New Girl, The Good Wife, and Adventure Time. Other memorable turns have included Larry David's name-dropping psychiatrist Arthur Thurgood from Curb Your Enthusiasm, Ben's father on Superstore, conman Harvey Oberholt on House of Lies, Sir Patrick Stewart's high-strung therapist Dr. Mendelson on Starz's Blunt Talk, sports casting legend Glen Klose on Now We're Talking, philandering professor Donald Holt on Married, blind physician Leonard Hillman on Childrens Hospital, and irascible voiceover legend Fred Melamed opposite Robin Williams on The Crazy Ones. In film, Melamed has had a long association with Woody Allen. He has appeared in 7 Allen films, (more than any other actor besides Mia Farrow and Diane Keaton), including the Oscar-winning Hannah and Her Sisters, Another Woman, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Radio Days, Husbands & Wives, Hollywood Ending, and Shadows and Fog. But it was for his portrayal of "sensitive" villain Sy Ableman, in Joel and Ethan Coen's movie A Serious Man, nominated for Best Picture at the 2010 Academy Awards, that Melamed became most widely known. For his performance, he won the Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award, New York Magazine listed his as among the Best Performances of The Decade, and Empire called Sy Ableman "One of The Best Coen Bros. Characters of All Time." Melamed appeared on the Best Supporting Actor Oscar ballot of several American critics, including A.O. Scott of The New York Times, Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times, and Michael Phillips of The Chicago Tribune. He was named by Harry Domenico Rossi as among The 25 Greatest Screen Villains of All Time. His slate of upcoming films includes Togetherish, where he plays lead Ed Helms's father opposite Nora Dunn; Shiva Baby, in which he portrays an Orthodox Jew who sells medical equipment out of the back of a van; Marzipan, a hallucinogenic look into the life of a washed-up, alcoholic spy; and Rumble, the first feature from Paramount's new animation department, with Will Arnett and Terry Crews. In 2021, Melamed is slated to star in S. Craig Zahler's Hug Chickenpenny, opposite Vince Vaughn. This will be his fourth collaboration with Zahler - previous works have included Dragged Across Concrete, Brawl in Cell Block 99 and Bone Tomahawk. In the past, he starred opposite Lake Bell as voiceover legend Sam Sotto in Bell's Sundance Award-winning debut, In a World...; in The Spy Who Dumped Me with Kate McKinnon and Mila Kunis; the Coen brothers' Hail Caesar, with George Clooney; Lying and Stealing, opposite Emily Ratajkowski and Theo James; Silver Lake, with Martin Starr; the James Brown biopic Get On Up; The Dictator, with Sacha Baron Cohen and Sir Ben Kingsley; Peter Yates' Suspect, with Cher, Dennis Quaid and Liam Neeson; The Good Mother, with Diane Keaton and Jason Robards; The Mission, with Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons; The Pickup Artist, with Robert Downey, Jr. and Dennis Hopper; and Marshall Brickman's Lovesick, with Dudley Moore and Sir Alec Guinness. As a writer, he has produced screenplays including Girl of the Perfume River, A Jones for Gash, and is at work on The Preservationist, a television series inspired by the case of Melamed's college friend, Edward Forbes Smiley III, a renowned cartographic expert and dealer, who admitted to having been the most brazen and prolific map thief of all time. He lives with his wife, Leslee, and twin sons in Los Angeles. Both Melamed children were born with autism, and he and his wife have been involved in advocacy for persons living with autism spectrum disorder and their families.
Fred Menut is an actor, known for De rouille et d'os (2012) and Ligne 208 (2001).