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Frank Vosper


1899 - 1937

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The actor Frank Vosper was active at the theater in the first place but he also took part in movies time and again. He was already grasped by the acting bug as a boy and at the age of 17 he attended the F.R. Benson and afterwards the Ben Greet Players instead of a college. 

After first roles on stages he served in World War I but was lucky to be employed by Captain Basil Dean's entertainment unit. The experiences he made there underpinned his intention to learn the profession of an actor seriously.
After the war he soon became established on British stages where he often impersonated old men at the beginning of his career.

He made his film debut in 1926 with the silent movies "The  Woman Juror" and "Blinkeyes". 
He wrote his first play in 1927 with the title The Combined Maze", which was praised as an outstanding modern theater play by the critics. It followed other plays, from thrillers to comedies.

He experienced the height of his career in the 30's and was highly esteemed as an actor as well as an author of movies theater plays.
To his well-known movies belong "Rome Express" (32), "Dick Turpin" (33), "Red Ensign" (34) directed by Michael Powell, "Jew Süss" (34), Alfred Hitchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (34) where he impersonated the assassin, "Royal Cavalcade" (35) and "Spy of Napoleon" (36). 
When Frank Vosper went on holiday to Jamaica in 1936 he went to New York afterwards in order to help to set up one of his plays for the theater. On the way back to London with the liner "Paris" the unthinkable happened.

In the last night before the arrivel he took part at a party of the British beauty queen Muriel Oxford. Finally he wanted to retire because he felt tired, he was seen at the window outside of Muriel Oxford's room the last time, after that he was missed. His body was found floating in the sea days later near Oxford. The investigation came to the conclusion that the death was induced by accident. The newspapers were busy with the case for weeks before the official judgment of the accidental death was announced.
 

Other movies with Frank Vosper:
The Last Post (29) Waltzes from Vienna (33) Strange Evidence (33) Open All Night (34) Blind Justice (34) Königsmark (35) Heart's Desire (35) Secret of Stamboul (36) 

Writer:
Murder on the Second Floor (32) Rome Express (32) No Funny Business (33) On Secret Service (33) Love from a Stranger (37) 


 
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