Francis L. Sullivan

Biography

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

Juan de Texada (Phase IV)

The Wandering Jew

Mr. Bumble

Oliver Twist

Pothinus

Caesar and Cleopatra

Colonel Humphrey 'Blinker' Omicron

The Red Danube

Mr. Jaggers

Great Expectations

Pierre Cauchon, Count-Bishop of Beauvais

Joan of Arc

General von Graum

'Pimpernel' Smith

Mander

21 Days Together

Barzland

Hell's Island

Philip Nosseross

Night and the City

Ben Chenkin

The Citadel

Rev. Mr. Septimus Crisparkle

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Thomas Berrien

Plunder of the Sun

Attorney General

The Winslow Boy

Karl Brubaker

My Favorite Spy

Carl Peterson

The Return of Bulldog Drummond

Prosecuting Counsel

Take My Life

Commissioner Pierre Duvois

Drums of Tahiti

Kaledin

Called Back

Francisco de Bobadilla

Christopher Columbus

Nero

Fiddlers Three

Dr. Bristol

Sangaree

Minghetti

The Lady from Lisbon

Leon Poiccard

The Four Just Men

Anton Perami

Broken Journey

Hugo Brant

Non-Stop New York

Governor

The Drum

Cranley

Red Wagon

Andrew McAllister

Caribbean

Chief of Police

Spy of Napoleon

Attorney General

The Ware Case

A Sailor

F.P.1

Bellamy

Strange Wives

Lord Flamborough

Kate Plus Ten

Sir Quinton Jessops (as Francis Sullavan)

Action for Slander

Rodney Haines

When London Sleeps

Self (archive footage)

Ingrid Bergman Remembered

The Caliph

Chu Chin Chow

Stedding

The Fire Raisers

Madman

Climbing High

Leo Carrington

The Butler's Dilemma

Kommandant Ulrich Wettau

The Day Will Dawn

Prosecuting Counsel (uncredited)

The Warren Case

Richard Bentley, Prosecution Counsel

What Happened Then?

Dr. George Brockton

Cheating Cheaters

Herman Strumm

The Chinese Puzzle

Baron von Guntermann

The Missing Rembrandt

Roger Stoneham

The Right to Live

Sir Julian Weyre

Her Last Affaire

Bosra

The Prodigal

Herod Antipas

Pontius Pilate

Jaggers

Great Expectations

French Skipper

The Foreman Went to France

Fat Freddy

Behave Yourself!

Brogard

Dinner at the Ritz

Mr. Braddock

The Man Within

Blackbeard, Vincent St George

Young Man's Fancy

Hugo Steinway

Fine Feathers

Sir Williams Tremayne

The Laughing Lady

Prosecutor

A Woman Alone