Home >

Francis L. Sullivan

Francis L. Sullivan

Birthday: 1903-01-06 | Place of Birth: Wandsworth, London, England

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.

...

Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

1955
Hell's Island

as    Barzland

1954
Drums of Tahiti

as    Commissioner Pierre Duvois

1953
Plunder of the Sun

as    Thomas Berrien

1952
Caribbean

as    Andrew McAllister

1951
Behave Yourself!

as    Fat Freddy

1951
My Favorite Spy

as    Karl Brubaker

1951
Oliver Twist

as    Mr. Bumble

1950
Night and the City

as    Philip Nosseross

1949
The Red Danube

as    Colonel Humphrey 'Blinker' Omicron

1949
Christopher Columbus

as    Francisco de Bobadilla

1948
Joan of Arc

as    Pierre Cauchon, Count-Bishop of Beauvais

1947
Take My Life

as    Prosecuting Counsel

1946
Great Expectations

as    Mr. Jaggers

1946
Caesar and Cleopatra

as    Pothinus

1942
'Pimpernel' Smith

as    General von Graum

1942
The Day Will Dawn

as    Kommandant Ulrich Wettau

1940
21 Days Together

as    Mander

1939
The Four Just Men

as    Leon Poiccard

1938
The Citadel

as    Ben Chenkin

1938
The Drum

as    Governor

1938
Kate Plus Ten

as    Lord Flamborough

1937
Dinner at the Ritz

as    Brogard

1937
Non-Stop New York

as    Hugo Brant

1935
The Mystery of Edwin Drood

as    Rev. Mr. Septimus Crisparkle

1934
The Return of Bulldog Drummond

as    Carl Peterson

1934
Great Expectations

as    Jaggers

1934
The Fire Raisers

as    Stedding