- Born
- Died
- Birth nameFrancis William Weaver
- Height6′ 2¾″ (1.90 m)
- Fritz Weaver, the American actor, was born on January 19, 1926, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He served in Civilian Public Service as a conscientious objector during World War II, breaking into acting in the early 1950s. He made his Broadway debut in October 1955 in "The Chalk Garden," which garnered five Tony Award nominations, including one for Weaver as Best Featured Actor in a Play. He also won a 1956 Theatre World Award for his performance.
The first of literally scores of television appearances came in 1957, in "The Playwright and the Stars" broadcast as part of the drama omnibus Studio One (1948). He continued to appear on Broadway, winning a Tony Award for Best Actor in Play his performance as Jermome Malley in Robert Marasco's "Child's Play." Though Weaver has appeared in many movies, it generally was as a supporting actor or in small parts, and the role of Malley was given to James Mason in the 1972 film version (Child's Play (1972)) of the play.
His most memorable role, arguably, was that of the doomed German Jewish patriarch Dr. Josef Weiss in the watershed TV mini-series Holocaust (1978), for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series. Since 1995, Weaver is known as the narrator of programs on the History Channel.
- IMDb mini biography by: Jon C. Hopwood
- SpousesRochelle Oliver(1997 - November 26, 2016) (his death)Sylvia Short(February 7, 1953 - 1979) (divorced, 2 children)
- ChildrenLydia WeaverAnthony Weaver
- RelativesMary Dodson(Sibling)
- Deep smooth voice
- The voice of History Channel specials.
- Had played the first THRUSH villain on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964).
- Had made guest appearances on both The Twilight Zone (1959) and The Twilight Zone (1985).
- Won Broadway's 1970 Tony Award as Best Actor (Dramatic) for "Child's Play". He had previously been nominated as Best Supporting or Featured Actor (Dramatic) in 1956 for Enid Bagnold's "The Chalk Garden".
- A tall man -- Fritz stood 6-foot-3 -- who was blessed with a deep resonant voice. Fritz found roles in every medium, often cast as the aristocratic villain. Weaver, a Tony Award-winning character actor, who played Sherlock Holmes and Shakespearian kings on Broadway while he created memorable roles on television and film from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) to Marathon Man (1976).
- [on acting in plays written by William Shakespeare] The old boy -- he's the one who makes the maximum challenge to the actor. That high charge on all the lines he writes -- you've got to measure up. You just can't saunter into that stuff; you've got to bring your whole life into it.
- [from an interview in 1988] When you play the great roles, you get spoiled and think you'll have a whole career playing nothing but great roles and of course you can't. You play a lot of junk most of the time. Television is junk, most of it.
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