Francis L. Sullivan

Known for ActingBorn 1903-01-06Died 1956-11-19Wandsworth, London, England, UK

Francis Loftus Sullivan (6 January 1903, Wandsworth, London - 19 November 1956, New York City) was an English film and stage actor. He attended Stonyhurst, the Jesuit public school in Lancashire, England whose alumni include Charles Laughton and Arthur Conan Doyle. A heavily built man with a striking double-chin and a deep voice, Sullivan made his acting debut at the Old Vic aged 18 in Shakespeare's Richard III and appeared in his first film in 1932. Some of his notable film roles include Mr. Bumble in Oliver Twist (1948) and Phil Nosseross in the film noir Night and the City (1950). Sullivan also played the part of Jaggers in two versions of Charles Dickens's Great Expectations - in 1934 and 1946. He appeared in a fourth Dickens film, the 1935 Universal Pictures version of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, in which he played Crisparkle. In 1938, he was featured in The Citadel, starring Robert Donat, and a decade later, he played the role of Pierre Cauchon in the technicolor version of Joan of Arc, starring Ingrid Bergman. Also in 1938 he starred in a revival of the Stokes' brothers play Oscar Wilde at London's Arts Theatre. Sullivan also acted in light comedies, notably My Favorite Spy (1951), starring Bob Hope and Hedy Lamarr, in which he played an enemy agent, and the comedy Fiddlers Three (1944), portraying Nero. He also played the role of Pothinus in the 1945 film version of George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra. The film was directed by Gabriel Pascal, and was the last film personally supervised by Shaw himself. Sullivan later reprised the role in a stage revival of the play. Sullivan, who eventually became a naturalized US citizen, won a Tony Award in 1955 for the Agatha Christie play Witness for the Prosecution. Earlier, he had played Hercule Poirot at the Embassy Theatre (London) in the Christie play, Black Coffee (1930). He died of a heart attack, aged 53 (some sources claim he died from an unspecified "lung ailment"). Description above from the Wikipedia article Francis L. Sullivan, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.Read more

Movies & web series

Drums of Tahiti

Called Back

Fine Feathers

Fiddlers Three

Kate Plus Ten

Take My Life

Spy of Napoleon

Her Last Affaire

The Right to Live

Oliver Twist

Night and the City

Sure As Fate

The Laughing Lady

The Lady from Lisbon

Great Expectations

The Wandering Jew

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars

"Pimpernel" Smith

Ingrid Bergman Remembered

Climbing High

The Winslow Boy

Action for Slander

General Electric Theater

Strange Wives

Cheating Cheaters

Great Expectations

Sangaree

Red Wagon

The Ed Sullivan Show

When London Sleeps

The Chinese Puzzle

The Missing Rembrandt

The Man Within

Lux Video Theatre

The Red Danube

The Philco Television Playhouse

Non-Stop New York

The Four Just Men

The Foreman Went to France

F.P.1

The Citadel

Caribbean

Plunder of the Sun

The Ware Case

Young Man's Fancy

The Butler's Dilemma

Behave Yourself!

Joan of Arc