#ManCrushMonday #MemorableSupportingActor #HalloweenEdition Dwight Frye

Dwight Frye was best known as a comic actor on stage and the silent screen before being nicknamed as "The Man with the Thousand-Watt Stare" and "The Man of a Thousand Deaths" with his portrayals as madmen in horror movies. He is best known as the insane Renfield in Tod Browning's "Dracula" (1931).

Frye was born in 1899 in Salina, Kansas to farmers, but with their surname spelled without an "e," and moved to Denver Colorado at a young age. At age 9, Frye had ambitions to be a concert pianist, having started playing at a young age until having been bit by the bug when he performed in his high school theater production of "The Honeymoon." To soothe his highly religious parents' nerves of his acting ambitions after having graduated, Frye worked at a business firm while being trained by Douglas Fairbanks's acting teacher Margaret Fealy. Fealy gave him a leg into the business by contacting Denver's Denim Stock Company's manager and he was immediately hired. His first role was in "The Man from Mexico" in June 16, 1918 and toured until he found himself in New York doing Vaudeville. Frye joined the Colonial Theater Troupe in 1922 which gained him a Broadway contract and eventually on the list of the 10 Best Stars of Broadway. In 1925's "Puppet," Frye performed his first villainous role and was considered to be one of the first to unconsciously use Method acting.

Hollywood didn't come calling, but Frye moved to Los Angeles after the stock market crashed and started in the theater instead. The decision paid off and he received his first screen credit in 1930's "The Doorway to Hell." He would be cast as the realtor-turned-madman "Renfield" in "Dracula" (1931) which he immediately sank his Method teeth into. The success of the film led to even more character roles in "The Maltese Falcon" (1931) and "Frankenstein," where he played a hunchbacked assistant to the doctor. He continued to do theater in New York and touring the East Coast while coming back to Hollywood for his already typecasted character actor career which wore on him considerably. His character Karl in "Bride of Frankenstein" had less screen time due to edits for the running time and the budding production code. With "Son of Frankenstein," Frye's small part was completely cut, having to resort to a night job as a tool designer at the Douglas aircraft company to make ends meet. His last horror film was "Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman" (1943). In 1943, Frye was able to pick up a role as Woodrow Wilson's secretary of war in Fox's color biopic "Wilson," but had a heart attack in a bus aisle after taking his family to a double-bill show of "A Lady Takes a Chance" and "Sherlock Holmes Faces Death" at the Pantages Theater on November 7, 1943. Frye passed away just before getting to the hospital at the age of 44. On his death certificate, his occupation was listed as a tool designer.


Links to Check Out
Dwight Frye | Stuff You Missed in History Class