Editing Francis Lederer (section)

==Acting career==

===Europe===
Lederer started acting when he was young and was trained at the Academy of Music and Academy of Dramatic Art in [[Prague]].<ref name=amgbio>Erickson, Hal [http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:41306~T0 Biography (Allmovie)]</ref> After service in the Austrian-Hungarian Imperial Army in [[World War I]], he made his stage debut as an apprentice with the New German Theater, a walk-on in the play ''Burning Heart''.<ref name=tcmbio /> He toured [[Moravia]] and [[central Europe]], making a name for himself as a matinee idol in theaters in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria and Germany. Notable among his performances was a turn as Romeo in [[Max Reinhardt]]'s staging of ''Romeo and Juliet''.<ref name=tcmbio>TCM [https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/110749%7C52654/Francis-Lederer/|52654&afiPersonalNameId=null Biography]</ref>

Lederer worked with [[G.W. Pabst]] in ''[[Pandora's Box (1929 film)|Pandora's Box]]'', starring [[Louise Brooks]], and ''Atlantic'' (both 1929).<ref name=amgbio /> He was also in ''The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrovna'' in the same year. Lederer, billed as "Franz" at this time, made the transition from [[silent film]]s to sound films.

===America===
In 1931, Lederer was in London to perform on stage in ''[[Volpone]]'' and the next year in ''Autumn Crocus'' by [[Dodie Smith]], which he then performed on Broadway<ref name=ibdb>{{IBDB name|49275}}</ref> – using the name "Francis" – where it played for 210 performances in 1932 and 1933.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/11679 |title=''Autumn Crocus'' |website=IBDB.com |publisher=[[Internet Broadway Database]] }}</ref> He also performed the play in Los Angeles.<ref name=tcmbio /> As the rise of the [[Nazi]] movement and the institutionalization of [[anti-Semitism]] spread throughout Europe and the political situation there deteriorated, Lederer, who was Jewish, chose to remain in America rather than return home.<ref name=tcmbio /> He became a U.S. citizen in 1939.<ref>Frantisek Lederer, Petition for Naturalization, U.S. District Court of Los Angeles, Jan. 21, 1939. Ancestry.com. ''Selected U.S. Naturalization Records: Original Documents, 1790–1974 (World Archives Project)'' [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2009.</ref>

Although he continued to play leads occasionally – notably as a playboy in [[Mitchell Leisen]]'s ''[[Midnight (1939 film)|Midnight]],'' with [[Claudette Colbert]] and [[John Barrymore]] in 1939<ref name=tcmbio /> – in the late 1930s Lederer began to expand his character parts to include villains.<ref name=tcmbio /> [[Edward G. Robinson]] praised Lederer's performance as a [[German American Bund]]ist in ''[[Confessions of a Nazi Spy]]'' in 1939,<ref name=amgbio /> and he earned plaudits for his portrayal of a fascist in ''[[The Man I Married]]'' (1940) with [[Joan Bennett]].<ref name=tcmbio /> He also played [[Count Dracula]] in ''[[The Return of Dracula]],'' in 1958.

[[File:Emil-Edwin Reinert, Joan Camden, Francis Lederer, Vienna 1952.jpg|thumb|left|240px|Francis Lederer, [[Joan Camden]] and [[Emil-Edwin Reinert]] during production of ''Stolen Identity'', Vienna, 1952]]
Throughout his career, Lederer, who studied with [[Elia Kazan]] at the [[Actors Studio]] in New York City, continued to take theater acting seriously, and he performed on stage often in New York City and elsewhere. He appeared in stage productions of ''[[Golden Boy (play)|Golden Boy]]'' (1937); ''[[Seventh Heaven (play)|Seventh Heaven]]'' (1939); ''[[No Time for Comedy]]'' (1939), in which he replaced [[Laurence Olivier]];<ref name=tcmbio /> ''[[The Play's the Thing (play)|The Play's the Thing]]'' (1942); ''[[A Doll's House]]'' (1944); ''[[Arms and the Man]]'' (1950); ''[[The Sleeping Prince (play)|The Sleeping Prince]]'' (1956); and ''[[The Diary of Anne Frank]]'' (1958).<ref name=tcmbio /><ref name=ibdb />

In 1941, he took a break from making films in order to concentrate on his stage work. He returned to the silver screen in 1944, appearing in ''[[Voice in the Wind]]'' and ''[[The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1944 film)|The Bridge of San Luis Rey]]'', and went on to play in films such as [[Jean Renoir]]'s ''[[The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946 film)|The Diary of a Chambermaid]]'' (1946) and ''[[Million Dollar Weekend]]'' (1948). He took another break from Hollywood in 1950, after making ''[[Surrender (1950 film)|Surrender]]'' (1950), and returned in 1956 with ''[[Lisbon (1956 film)|Lisbon]]'' and the light comedy ''[[The Ambassador's Daughter (1956 film)|The Ambassador's Daughter]],'' with [[Olivia de Havilland]].  His final film appearance was in ''[[Terror Is a Man]]'' in 1959. 

During the 1950s, he served as honorary mayor of [[Canoga Park]].

Lederer continued to appear on television over the next 10 years in such shows as ''[[Sally (1957 TV series)|Sally]]'', ''[[The Untouchables (1959 TV series)|The Untouchables]]'', ''[[Ben Casey]]'', ''[[Blue Light (TV series)|Blue Light]]'', ''[[Mission: Impossible (1966 TV series)|Mission: Impossible]]'' and ''[[That Girl]]''. His final television appearance was in a 1971 episode of [[Rod Serling]]'s ''[[Night Gallery]]'' called "The Devil Is Not Mocked". In it, he reprised his role as Dracula from ''[[The Return of Dracula]]''.