FRITZ WEAVER

(19 January 1926 - 26 November 2016)

American actor Fritz Weaver made his Broadway acting debut in Enid Bagnold’s The Chalk Garden in 1955, for which he earned a Tony Award nomination. He won a Best Actor Tony for Robert Marasco’s Child’s Play but lost out to James Mason in the film version of 1972. He had been in television since 1948 and continued for much of his career on the small screen. Never perhaps a star, Weaver was always a reliable character actor who brought dignity to any role he played. He was in more films as his career progressed, from his first, Sidney Lumet’s Fail-Safe (1964), through Guy Green’s A Walk in the Spring Rain (1970), Mike Nichols’ The Day of the Dolphin, Marathon Man, Frankenheimer’s Black Sunday, Donald Cammell’s Demon Seed, Lumet’s Power, the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair, and The Cobbler (2014), with Adam Sandler. His last film in 2016 was The Congressman, with Treat Williams.

MICHAEL DARVELL