Frazer Coulter
Frazer Coulter, sometimes given as Fraser Coalter, (August 20, 1848 – January 26, 1937) was a Canadian-born American actor. He had a lengthy stage career in New York, making his Broadway debut in the late 1870s in The School for Scandal and his final appearance in Oh, Promise Me in 1931. [1] He also appeared in several silent films during the 1910s and 1920s.[2]
Life and career
Frazer Coulter was born on August 20, 1848 in Smiths Falls, Ontario, Canada.[3] He started performing full time as an actor in 1876, having appeared previously in a few amateur and professional productions.[4] He began his career performing as Harry Coulter, and changed his stage name to Frazer Coulter in 1879.[5] From 1881-1885 he was a member of the Boston Theatre Stock Company.[6] He had a prolific career on Broadway; starring in productions from the 1870s until his retirement more than 50 years later.[1]
Coulter was active as a silent film actor during the 1910s and 1920s. His first film was The Prisoner of Zenda (1913) in which he played the role of as Colonel Sapt.[7] This was followed by appearances in Body and Soul (1915, as Dr. McDonald),[8] The Face at Your Window (1920, as Nicholas Harding),[9] His Brother's Keeper (1921, as William Harding),[10] Love's Redemption (1921, as Club Steward),[11] The Heart Raider (1923, as Reginald Gray),[12] The Governor's Lady (1923, as George Strickland),[13] and A Society Scandal (1924, as Schuyler Burr);[14] the latter of which starred Gloria Swanson.[2] His final film appearance was as the lawyer in the Ben Lyon and Lois Moran picture Prince of Tempters (1926).[15]
After retiring from the stage in 1931 he lived at the Percy Williams Home for Actors in East Islip, New York.[1] He died in East Islip on January 26, 1937 at the age of 88.[3]
Partial list of Broadway credits
- William Ranney Wilson's The Inspector (1890, title role, Park Theatre)[16][17][18]
- Sutton Vane's Humanity (1895, as Major Fordyce Dangerfield at Haverly's 14th Street Theatre)
- Augustus Thomas's The Capitol (1895, as Mr. Carroll at the Standard Theatre)
- Sydney Rosenfeld's A House of Cards (1896, as Peter Burlap at the Fifth Avenue Theatre)
- Joseph I. C. Clarke's Her Majesty, the Girl Queen of Nordenmark (1900, as Baron Hausman at the Manhattan Theatre)
- Richard Harding Davis's Ranson's Folly (1904, as Captain Chase at the Hudson Theatre)[19]
- Henri Dumay's Mademoiselle Marni (1905, as General Stanislaus Newville at Wallack's Theatre)[20]
- Charles Klein's The Lion and the Mouse (1905, Ex-Judge Stott at the Lyceum Theatre)[21]
- Louis Evan Shipman's The Grain of Dust (1912, as Isaac Burroughs at the Criterion Theatre)[22]
- Silvio Hein and Philip Bartholomae's When Dreams Come True (1913, as Jerome K. Hedges at the Lyric Theatre)[23]
- Thompson Buchanan's Life (1914-1915, as William Van Rensselaer Stuyvasant at the Manhattan Opera House)[24]
- George V. Hobart's Experience (1918, Wealth at the Manhattan Opera House)[25]
- James W. Elliott's The Man in the Making (1921, Theodore Barco, Hudson Theatre)
- Samuel Shipman's Lawful Larceny (1922, Mr. Davis at the Theatre Republic)[26]
- Rudolf Besier and May Edginton's Secrets (1922-1923, Dr. Arbuthnot at the Fulton Theatre)[27]
- Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer (1924, Sir Charles Marlow at the Empire Theatre)[28]
- Walter Archer Frost's Cape Smoke (1925, Doctor Hammerstone at the Martin Beck Theatre)[29]
- Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 (1926, Earl of Northumberland at the Knickerbocker Theatre)[30]
- William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (1927, Popilius Lena at the New Amsterdam Theatre)[31]
- Margaret Ayer Barnes's The Age of Innocence (1928-1929, Mr. Henry van der Luyden at Empire Theatre)[32]
- Langdon Elwyn Mitchell's Becky Sharp (1929, as Lord Southdown at the Knickerbocker Theatre)[33][34]
- Austin Strong and Lloyd Osbourne's The Little Father of the Wilderness (1930, as Lieutenant General Dulong at Empire Theatre)[35]
- Howard Lindsay and Bertrand Robinson's Oh, Promise Me (1930-1931, as Judge Hawley at Morosco Theatre)[36][37]
References
Citation
- 1 2 3 "FRAZER COULTER, LONG ACTOR, DEAD; Appeared on New York Stage for More Than Half Century in Noted Productions". January 27, 1937. p. 21.
- 1 2 Ragan 1992, p. 339.
- 1 2 Vazzana 1995, p. 72.
- ↑ Austin & Browne 1908, p. 99.
- ↑ "Dramatic and Musical". Boston Post. July 21, 1879. p. 3.
- ↑ Durham 1986, p. 100.
- ↑ American Film Institute 1988, p. 741.
- ↑ American Film Institute 1988, p. 85.
- ↑ American Film Institute 1988, p. 256.
- ↑ American Film Institute 1971, p. 351.
- ↑ American Film Institute 1971, p. 464.
- ↑ American Film Institute 1971, p. 333.
- ↑ American Film Institute 1971, p. 308.
- ↑ American Film Institute 1971, p. 740.
- ↑ American Film Institute 1971, p. 618.
- ↑ Witmark & Goldberg 1976, p. 84.
- ↑ "Byrnes in Dramatic Form. A Play Containing a Likeness of a Police Official". New York Herald. November 14, 1890. p. 3.
- ↑ Dale, Alan (November 14, 1890). "The Inspector". The Evening World. p. 2.
- ↑ "Theatrical Incidents and News Notes". New-York Tribune. January 17, 1904. p. 24.
- ↑ "Wallack's: Mademoiselle Marni". The Cast: 222. March 13, 1905.
- ↑ Hischak 2009, p. 259.
- ↑ "Hackett Makes a Miss in The Grain of Dust". Brooklyn Eagle. January 2, 1912. p. 6.
- ↑ Norton 2002, p. 32.
- ↑ "Thrills Comes Fast as Life Unfolds". New York Herald. October 26, 1914. p. 7.
- ↑ Norton 2002, p. 138.
- ↑ "The Girls Show How 'Tis Done in Lawful Larceny". New York Daily News. January 5, 1922. p. 17.
- ↑ Hornblow, Arthur, ed. (February 1923). "Mr. Hornblow Goes to the Play". Theatre Magazine. p. 15.
- ↑ The Players. New York: The Players Club. 1924. p. 62.
- ↑ Hischak 2009, p. 68.
- ↑ "The Play Shop". The Brooklyn Daily Times. May 6, 1926. p. 13.
- ↑ "Both Sides of the Curtain". The Brooklyn Daily Times. June 5, 1927. p. 29.
- ↑ Mantle 1929, p. 428.
- ↑ "Knickerbocker: Becky Sharp". Billboard. Vol. 41, no. 36. September 7, 1929. p. 87.
- ↑ Mantle 1929, p. 509.
- ↑ "Empire: Milestones". Billboard. June 14, 1930. p. 7.
- ↑ Hischak 2009, p. 337.
- ↑ Bordman 1996, p. 15.
Bibliography
- American Film Institute (1971). Munden, Kenneth W. (ed.). The American Film Institute film catalog of motion pictures produced in the United States : feature films, 1921-1930. R. R. Bowker Company.
- American Film Institute (1988). The American Film Institute film catalog of motion pictures produced in the United States : feature films, 1911-1920. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520063013.
- Austin, Frederick Arnold; Browne, Walter, eds. (1908). "Coulter, Frazer". Who's Who on the Stage: The Dramatic Reference Book and Biographical Dictionary of the Theatre, Containing Records of the Careers of Actors, Actresses, Managers and Playwrights of the American Stage. B.W. Dodge & Company.
- Bordman, Gerald (1996). American Theatre: A Chronicle of Comedy and Drama, 1930–1969. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-535808-2. OCLC 252547085.
- Durham, Weldon B. (1986). American Theatre Companies, 1749-1887. Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313208867.
- Hischak, Thomas S. (2009). Broadway Plays and Musicals: Descriptions and Essential Facts of More Than 14,000 Shows Through 2007. McFarland & Company. ISBN 9780786453092.
- Mantle, Burns, ed. (1929). The Best Plays of 1928-1929 and the Year Book of the Drama in America. Dodd, Mead & Company.
- Norton, Richard C. (2002). A Chronology of American Musical Theater. Vol. 2. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-508888-5.
- Ragan, David (1992). "Coulter, Frazer". Who's Who in Hollywood: The Largest Cast of International Film Personalities Ever Assembled. Facts on File. ISBN 978-0816020119.
- Vazzana, Eugene Michael (1995). Silent Film Necrology: Births and Deaths of Over 9000 Performers, Directors, Producers, and Other Filmmakers of the Silent Era, Through 1993. McFarland & Company. ISBN 9780786401321.
- Witmark, Isidore; Goldberg, Isaac (1976). The Story of the House of Witmark : From Ragtime to Swingtime. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-70686-8.