Frank Langella

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Frank Langella

Born Frank A. Langella Jr.
January 1, 1940 (1940-01-01) (age 68)
Bayonne, New Jersey
Years active 1965 - present
Spouse(s) Ruth Weil (1977-1996)

Frank A. Langella, Jr. (born January 1, 1940) is an American stage and film actor. He has won three Tony Awards, two for Best Featured Actor in a Play for Edward Albee's Seascape (1975), and Ivan Turgenev's Fortune's Fool (2002), and for Best Leading Actor in a Play for his performance as Richard Nixon in Peter Morgan's Frost/Nixon (2007). Langella was nominated for two other Best Leading Actor in a Play Tonys; first in 1978 for the Edward Gorey-designed revival of Bram Stoker's Dracula and again in 2004 for Stephen Belber's Match.

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[edit] Personal life

Langella, an Italian American,[1] was born in Bayonne, New Jersey,[2] the son of Frank A. Langella, Sr., a business executive,[3] and graduated from Syracuse University in 1959 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in drama. He remains a brother of the Alpha Chi Rho fraternity. Prior to graduating Syracuse University, Frank Langella attended Washington Elementary School and Bayonne High School in Bayonne.[4]

[edit] Career

Langella was best known early in his career for his success in the title role of the Broadway production of Dracula. In a recent interview, Langella commented that people (in fact, mostly men) always complimented him on the sexual energy of his stage performance as the Count, telling him, "Boy, did my wife make love to me that night!" after seeing him onstage. Despite his initial misgivings about continuing to play the role, he was persuaded to star opposite Laurence Olivier in the subsequent film version directed by John Badham. Langella reports that on his last day of shooting he hung the cloak on a costume rack firmly knowing he could never pick it up again for fear of being typecast. Langella reminisced on filming with Olivier. In the The Complete Films of Laurence Olivier (Jerry Vermilye, Citadel Press), Langella says.....

"The thing about him that's pretty wonderful is that when we were on the set together there was no such thing as the legend, the reputation, the past. There was only the moment, how we work this moment and 'Oh, dear boy, what do you think we should do about this?' and 'Oh, my God, will you help me out?' - all those wonderful things he does to make you feel relaxed."

He went on to play Sherlock Holmes in an HBO adaptation (1981) of William Gillette's famous stage play. He repeated the role on Broadway in 1987 in Charles Marowitz's play Sherlock's Last Case. That same year (1987), Langella would also portray the villain Skeletor in Masters of the Universe.

For years afterward, Langella largely avoided acting on film in order to seriously pursue theatre. He has done more film and television work in recent years after finding a niche; in 1993 he made a memorable three-episode appearance on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as the devious Jaro Essa. He also appeared in a 2003 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and as a villainous pirate in the summer 1995 release Cutthroat Island. He also had a recurring role as 'Pino' in the 2005 short-lived sitcom 'Kitchen Confidential'. He picked up the Peter Sellers role in Adrian Lyne's remake of Lolita (which gave him a still-controversial frontal-nude scene, much to Langella's outrage and embarrassment).[citation needed] More recently, he appeared in George Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) as former CBS chief executive William S. Paley and in Bryan Singer's Superman Returns (2006) as Daily Planet editor Perry White. He received the Boston Society of Film Critics Award in 2007 for his sensitive performance as an elderly novelist in Starting Out in the Evening.

Langella is still best known as an accomplished stage actor, most recently appearing in Peter Morgan's Frost/Nixon which received enthusiastic reviews during a run at the Donmar Warehouse and Gielgud Theatre in London before moving to New York's Bernard B. Jacobs Theater in April 2007. Langella has reprised his Tony Award winning role as Richard Nixon in the upcoming film adaptation directed by Ron Howard, to be released later this year. He has also appeared in notable off-Broadway productions, including in the title role of Robert Kalfin's Chelsea Theater Center production of The Prince of Homburg, which was filmed by PBS for the Theatre in America series.[5]

[edit] Filmography

[edit] References

  1. ^ Roberts, Sheila. "Frank Langella Interview, Starting out in the Evening", MoviesOnline, 2007-11-22. Retrieved on 2007-12-04. 
  2. ^ Peter Marks (11 February 1996). Frank Langella Stamps 'The Father' as His Own. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-04-10.
  3. ^ Frank Langella Biography. filmreference (2008). Retrieved on 2008-04-10.
  4. ^ Coutros, Evonne E. "PLAYING A WICKED STREAK FOR ALL IT'S WORTH", The Record (Bergen County), January 23, 1994.
  5. ^ Napoleon, David (1991). Chelsea on the Edge: The Adventures of an American Theater. Iowa State University Press. ISBN 0813817137. 

[edit] External links


Awards
Preceded by
-		 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play
1974-1975
for Seascape		 Succeeded by
Judd Hirsch
for Knock Knock
Preceded by
Ralph Fiennes
for Hamlet		 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play
1995-1996
for The Father		 Succeeded by
David Morse for How I Learned to Drive and Christopher Plummer for Barrymore
Preceded by
Richard Griffiths
for The History Boys		 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play
2006-2007
for Frost/Nixon		 Succeeded by
Mark Rylance
for Boeing Boeing
v • d • e
Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play

Arthur Kennedy (1949) · Eli Wallach (1951) · John Cromwell (1952) · John Williams (1953) · John Kerr (1954) · Francis L. Sullivan (1955) · Ed Begley (1956) · Frank Conroy (1957) · Henry Jones (1958) · Charlie Ruggles (1959) · Roddy McDowall (1960) · Martin Gabel (1961) · Walter Matthau (1962) · Alan Arkin (1963) · Hume Cronyn (1964) · Jack Albertson (1965) · Patrick Magee (1966) · Ian Holm (1967) · James Patterson (1968) · Al Pacino (1969) · Ken Howard (1970) · Paul Sand (1971) · Vincent Gardenia (1972) · John Lithgow (1973) · Ed Flanders (1974) · Frank Langella (1975)
v • d • e
Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play

Robert Sean Leonard (2001) · Frank Langella (2002) · Denis O'Hare (2003) · Brían F. O'Byrne (2004) · Liev Schreiber (2005) · Ian McDiarmid (2006) · Billy Crudup (2007)
v • d • e
Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play

Richard Easton (2001) · Alan Bates (2002) · Brian Dennehy (2003) · Jefferson Mays (2004) · Bill Irwin (2005) · Richard Griffiths (2006) · Frank Langella (2007)