Frank Orth
Acting
Born 1880-02-20
Died 1962-03-17
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
129 credits
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Frank Orth was an American actor born in Philadelphia. He is probably best remembered for his portrayal of Inspector Faraday in the 1951-1953 television series “Boston Blackie”. By 1897, Orth was performing in vaudeville with his wife, Ann Codee, in an act called “Codee and Orth.” In 1909, he expanded into song writing, with songs such as “The Phone Bell Rang” and “Meet Me on the Boardwalk, Dearie.” His first contact with motion pictures was in 1928, when he was part of the first foreign-language shorts in sound produced by Warner Bros. He and his wife also appeared together in a series of two-reel comedies in the early 1930s. Orth's first major screen credit was in “Prairie Thunder,” a Dick Foran western, in 1937. From then on, he was often cast as bartenders, pharmacists, and grocery clerks, and always distinctly Irish. He had a recurring role in the Dr. Kildare series of films and also in the Nancy Drew series as the befuddled Officer Tweedy. Among his better roles were the newspaper man Cary Grant telephones early in “His Girl Friday,” one of the quartet singing “Gary Owen” in “They Died with Their Boots On” (thereby giving Errol Flynn as Gen. Custer the idea of associating the tune with the 7th Cavalry), and as the little man carrying the sign reading “The End Is Near” throughout Colonel Effingham's Raid. However, Orth is probably best remembered for his portrayal of Inspector Faraday in the 1951-1953 television series “Boston Blackie.” A short, plump, round-faced man, often smoking a cigar, Orth as Faraday wore his own dark-rimmed spectacles, though rarely in feature films. In 1959, Orth retired from show business after throat surgery. His wife died in 1961 after around fifty years of marriage. Orth died on March 17, 1962. He is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in the Hollywood Hills next to his wife.
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Filmography
— top 60 of 129
Acting
58 credits
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
Boston Blackie
His Girl Friday
Sergeant York
The Lost Weekend
They Died with Their Boots On
Double Dynamite
Father of the Bride
Cheaper by the Dozen
Young Mr. Lincoln
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
Tall in the Saddle
The Ox-Bow Incident
Houdini
The Big Clock
Lady in the Lake
At the Circus
Boom Town
Roxie Hart
Roger Touhy, Gangster
Greenwich Village
Brother Orchid
The Great Rupert
Tales of Manhattan
Idiot's Delight
I Wake Up Screaming
The Strawberry Blonde
Tell It to a Star
Come Live with Me
Red Light
Broadway Serenade
Wilson
My Gal Sal
Nancy Drew… Detective
It Had to Be You
Stanley and Livingstone
Father Is A Prince
Michael Shayne: Private Detective
Sweet Rosie O'Grady
San Quentin
Summer Storm
Two Against the World
The Hoodlum Saint
Unwelcome Stranger
So This Is New York
Something to Live For
Coney Island
The Impatient Years
Florian
Broadway Limited
The Doctor Takes a Wife
Dust Be My Destiny
Right to the Heart
Nancy Drew... Reporter
Fast and Furious
Gold Rush Maisie
You, the People
'Til We Meet Again
Other credits
2 credits
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