Fredric March - ©Theda Bara

The actor I present in this post is the American Fredric March, the only one to have won the most prestigious awards in both American theater and cinema more than once, becoming one of the biggest Hollywood stars of his time.

Fredric March participated in something unprecedented at the Oscar ceremony for Best Actor, sharing the 1932 statuette with: Wallace Beery (1885-1949). March won for his dual role in one of cinema's all-time classics: “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” (1931/1932). The Oscar was supposed to be valid for 1933, but there was no Oscar ceremony that year, a fact that was never repeated again.

In addition to the Oscar for Best Actor (shared) in 1933, he won another Oscar in the same category, in 1947, for: “The Best Years of Our Lives” (1946), in the role of the Prosperous Banker: “Al Stephenson”. The actor also won two Tonys in 1947 and 1957, and in 1952 he won a Golden Globe and the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival in Italy.

Fredric March has his star on the Los Angeles Walk of Fame, at 1620 Vine Street, in the Cinema category.

The actor was born Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel, in Racine, Wisconsin, United States, on August 31, 1897 and died in Los Angeles, California, United States, on April 14, 1975, aged 77.

Fredric March was twice married to two American Broadway actresses. The first wife was Ellis Baker (1898-1984), from 1924 to 1927; in the same year of the separation, he was married to: Florence Eldridge (1901-1988) from 1927 to 1975, when the actor died.