Director · Actor
Francis Lederer
14 credited titles on WatchWise
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Francis Lederer (November 6, 1899 – May 25, 2000) was a Czech-born film and stage actor with a successful career, first in Europe, then in the United States. His original name was František Lederer. Lederer's first American movies were Man of Two Worlds (1934), Romance in Manhattan (1934), with Ginger Rogers, The Gay Deception (1935), with Frances Dee, and One Rainy Afternoon (1936). He was cast as the lead with Katharine Hepburn in the 1935 film Break of Hearts, but the producers replaced him with Charles Boyer. It was Irving Thalberg's plan to make Lederer "the biggest star in Hollywood" but the death of Thalberg ended this possibility. Although he continued to play leads occasionally – notably when he was a playboy in Mitchell Leisen's Midnight with Claudette Colbert and John Barrymore in 1939 – in the late 1930s Lederer began to expand his character parts, even playing villains. Edward G. Robinson praised Lederer's performance as a German American Bundist in Confessions of a Nazi Spy in 1939, and he earned plaudits for his portrayal of a fascist in The Man I Married (1940) with Joan Bennett. He also played Count Dracula for The Return o
Associated performance by genre
Worldwide gross by tagged contribution — US$.
Bankability assessment
Films measured × gross-vs-budget efficiency, weighted by billing prominence — lead roles and directing count fully, minor roles fractionally. Association, not attribution — not a claim that this individual caused the revenue.
Filmography cards
Each title carries role, budget, worldwide gross and commercial verdict.
Based on 4 of 14 catalogued titles with reported budget and worldwide gross — figures from TMDB and Wikipedia (reused under CC BY-SA), shown in US$. Coverage varies by title; figures are estimates, not audited trade data.
Directed (1)
Acted in (13)
Titles are ones WatchWise has catalogued so far — not necessarily a complete filmography.
