Francis L. Sullivan

Born: 1903-01-06

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.


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Night and the City

as Philip Nosseross
Released: 1950-06-15

Londoner Harry Fabian is a second-rate con man looking for an angle. After years of putting up...

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Oliver Twist

as Mr. Bumble
Released: 1948-06-28

When 9-year-old orphan Oliver Twist dares to ask his cruel taskmaster, Mr. Bumble, for a second...

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Joan of Arc

as Pierre Cauchon, Count-Bishop of Beauvais
Released: 1948-12-22

In the 15th Century, France is a defeated and ruined nation after the One Hundred Years War...

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Great Expectations

as Mr. Jaggers
Released: 1946-12-26

In this Dickens adaptation, orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious...

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Caesar and Cleopatra

as Pothinus
Released: 1945-12-11

The aging Caesar finds himself intrigued by the young Egyptian queen. Adapted by George Bernard...

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Ingrid Bergman Remembered

as Self (archive footage)
Released: 1996-04-06

Her name conjures up beauty, grace, talent and style. One of the greatest actresses of her time,...

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Broken Journey

as Anton Perami
Released: 1948-04-14

A plane flying over the Swiss Alps develops engine trouble and is forced to crash-land on a...

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Plunder of the Sun

as Thomas Berrien
Released: 1953-08-26

An American insurance adjuster, stranded in Havana, becomes involved with an archaeologist and a...

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My Favorite Spy

as Karl Brubaker
Released: 1951-12-25

A burlesque comic doubles for a spy in Tangier and meets the spy's girlfriend, who is also a spy.

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Christopher Columbus

as Francisco de Bobadilla
Released: 1949-10-12

Christopher Columbus overcomes intrigue at the Spanish court and convinces Queen Isabella that...

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The Citadel

as Ben Chenkin
Released: 1938-10-29

Andrew Manson, a young, idealistic, newly qualified Scottish doctor arrives in Wales takes his...

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The Winslow Boy

as Attorney General
Released: 1948-09-24

In pre-WW1 England, a youngster is expelled from a naval academy over a petty theft, but his...

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The Prodigal

as Bosra
Released: 1955-05-06

A wealthy young Hebrew traveling in Damascus renounces his faith after he is seduced by an...

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Strange Wives

as Bellamy
Released: 1934-11-30

When a young man marries a Russian girl, he finds that he has "married" her entire family.

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Fiddlers Three

as Nero
Released: 1944-10-01

Two British soldiers and a WREN take refuge at Stonehenge during a thunderstorm, they are struck...

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21 Days Together

as Mander
Released: 1940-01-07

After Larry Darrent accidentally kills his lover's blackmailing husband, someone else is...

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Take My Life

as Prosecuting Counsel
Released: 1947-05-30

When her husband is wrongly accused of murder, an opera singer sets out to find the real culprit.

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Hell's Island

as Barzland
Released: 1955-05-06

Down-on-his-luck Mike Cormack is hired to fly to a Caribbean island to retrieve a missing ruby....

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Behave Yourself!

as Fat Freddy
Released: 1951-09-22

A young man takes in a dog that turns out to be wanted by mobsters.

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The Drum

as Governor
Released: 1938-09-29

Set in the India of the British Raj, the evil and untrustworthy Prince Guhl (Raymond Massey)...

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'Pimpernel' Smith

as General von Graum
Released: 1941-07-26

Eccentric Cambridge archaeologist Horatio Smith takes a group of British and American...

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The Day Will Dawn

as Kommandant Ulrich Wettau
Released: 1942-06-08

Sports journalist Colin Metcalfe is picked for the job of foreign correspondent in Norway when...

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Caribbean

as Andrew McAllister
Released: 1952-09-01

Francis Barclay, a former member of the British Admiralty, who was captured in the early 1700s,...

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Red Wagon

as Cranley
Released: 1933-12-06

Adapted from Lady Eleanor Smith’s novel, this 1934 feature tells the story of Joe Prince, an...

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Cheating Cheaters

as Dr. George Brockton
Released: 1934-11-05

The Palmers, an apparently wealthy family, move into the house next door to the Lazarres....

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What Happened Then?

as Richard Bentley, Prosecution Counsel
Released: 1934-09-24

Young Raymond Rudford,sculptor, is on trial for slitting the throat of his uncle, who had...

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The Wandering Jew

as Juan de Texada (Phase IV)
Released: 1933-11-15

Old Jerusalem: Matathias, spiteful over his lover's illness, spits on Jesus along the road to...

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Climbing High

as Madman
Released: 1938-10-31

Wealthy Nicky finds himself engaged to gold-digger Lady Constance, but he really loves scatty...

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The Red Danube

as Colonel Humphrey 'Blinker' Omicron
Released: 1949-10-14

A Russian ballerina in Vienna tries to flee KGB agents and defect.

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Young Man's Fancy

as Blackbeard, Vincent St George
Released: 1939-07-31

An aristocrat falls in love with a human cannonball

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Sangaree

as Dr. Bristol
Released: 1953-05-17

Lamas plays an indentured servant who rises to power in Georgia shortly after the Revolutionary War.

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Her Last Affaire

as Sir Julian Weyre
Released: 1935-10-21

Desperate to prove his father innocent of treason, a secretary arranges a clandestine...

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Great Expectations

as Jaggers
Released: 1934-10-22

A young boy, Pip, encounters an escaped prisoner, Magwitch, and steals food for him. After the...

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Called Back

as Kaledin
Released: 1933-06-05

'Spain. Revolutionary doctor foiled by blind man and amnesiac girl.' (British Film Catalogue)

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Pontius Pilate

as Herod Antipas
Released: 1952-04-07

The story, set 15 years after the Crucifixion, of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, who is...

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The Lady from Lisbon

as Minghetti
Released: 1942-09-01

When she learns that the Nazis have confiscated Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece Mona Lisa,...

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The Man Within

as Mr. Braddock
Released: 1947-05-19

A man goes on the run from hardened smugglers.

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The Right to Live

as Roger Stoneham
Released: 1933-01-01

A shady financier tries to acquire a new chemical

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Chu Chin Chow

as The Caliph
Released: 1934-05-01

Musical retelling of the "Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves" Arabian Nights tale.

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The Butler's Dilemma

as Leo Carrington
Released: 1943-11-29

Rodney Playfair is persuaded, by a promise to meet his gambling debts, to impersonate a...

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The Mystery of Edwin Drood

as Rev. Mr. Septimus Crisparkle
Released: 1935-02-04

A choirmaster addicted to opium and obsessed with a beautiful young woman will stop at nothing...

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The Fire Raisers

as Stedding
Released: 1934-01-22

Jim Bronton is an insurance investigator, but he's unhappy with his work and gets involved with...

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The Foreman Went to France

as French Skipper
Released: 1942-06-22

Based on the true story of Melbourne Johns, an aircraft factory foreman sent to France to...

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When London Sleeps

as Rodney Haines
Released: 1932-07-22

Slippery Rodney Haines runs a high-class gambling joint in Hampstead, while elsewhere in London...

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Dinner at the Ritz

as Brogard
Released: 1937-11-26

The daughter of a murdered financier works as a jewelry salesperson while she tracks her...

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The Four Just Men

as Leon Poiccard
Released: 1939-06-01

The Four Men of the title are British WWI veterans who decide to work secretly against enemies...

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Kate Plus Ten

as Lord Flamborough
Released: 1938-03-17

Kate is secretary to Lord Flamborough. But she is also leader of a criminal gang. Can Mike...

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Non-Stop New York

as Hugo Brant
Released: 1937-09-13

A young woman finds herself as the intended victim of a murder plot on a transatlantic flight...

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The Ware Case

as Attorney General
Released: 1938-12-02

An aristocrat won't economize, then his rich brother in law is found murdered in the grounds of...

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The Return of Bulldog Drummond

as Carl Peterson
Released: 1934-04-19

Bulldog Drummond forms a gang to rescue his wife and thwart his nemesis, Carl Peterson.

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F.P.1

as A Sailor
Released: 1933-04-02

Urged by famous airman Ellissen the Lennartz Company puts into reality the project proposed by...

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Drums of Tahiti

as Commissioner Pierre Duvois
Released: 1954-04-23

A smuggler (Dennis O'Keefe) buys a bride (Patricia Medina) in San Francisco to help him run guns...

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The Missing Rembrandt

as Baron von Guntermann
Released: 1932-02-12

Holmes goes on the trail of a Rembrandt painting, stolen by a drug-addicted artist.

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Robert Montgomery Presents

as uncredited
First aired: 1950-01-30

Robert Montgomery Presents is an American dramatic television series which was produced by NBC...

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The Philco Television Playhouse

as uncredited
First aired: 1948-10-03

The Philco Television Playhouse is an American anthology series that was broadcast live on NBC...

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Studio One

as Herod Antipas
First aired: 1948-11-07

An American radio–television anthology series, created in 1947 by Canadian director Fletcher...

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Studio One

as Long John Silver
First aired: 1948-11-07

An American radio–television anthology series, created in 1947 by Canadian director Fletcher...

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The Ed Sullivan Show

as Self
First aired: 1948-06-20

The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June...

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Cavalcade of America

as uncredited
First aired: 1952-10-01

Cavalcade of America is an anthology drama series that was sponsored by the DuPont Company,...

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Lux Video Theatre

as Detective Yates
First aired: 1950-10-02

Lux Video Theatre is an American anthology series that was produced from 1950 until 1959. The...

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Lights Out

as uncredited
First aired: 1949-07-19

Lights Out was an extremely popular American old-time radio program, an early example of a...

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Suspense

as uncredited
First aired: 1949-01-06

Suspense is an American television anthology series that ran on CBS Television from 1949 to...

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General Electric Theater

as uncredited
First aired: 1953-02-01

General Electric Theater is an American anthology series hosted by Ronald Reagan that was...

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General Electric Theater

as Captain William Bligh
First aired: 1953-02-01

General Electric Theater is an American anthology series hosted by Ronald Reagan that was...

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Schlitz Playhouse of Stars

as uncredited
First aired: 1951-10-05

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars is an anthology series that was telecast from 1951 until 1959 on CBS....

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Schlitz Playhouse of Stars

as Garman
First aired: 1951-10-05

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars is an anthology series that was telecast from 1951 until 1959 on CBS....

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