Born Today October 11: Frederick Kerr

As Baron von Frankenstein

1858-1933

Actor of stage and screen, and man of the theater, Frederick (or Fred) Kerr, Frederick Grinham Kenn, was born on this day in London, England.  It would be easy to suppose that he got his start on the London stage given that he was born there; when he, in fact, got his start in acting by more or less stumbling into it in New York City.  Kenn left Britain for New York sometime just before or after 1880 in his early 20's.  When Kenn arrived in New York he managed to find work as a sketch artist and lived in a boarding house.  It just so happened that given it's location on 7th Ave., it was full of actors.  It just so happened, that a producer was looking for an English actor for his production of Sheridan's A School For Scandal.  An actor living at the boarding house heard this and alerted Kenn to the part, which he got in 1882.  It is thought that he changed his last name at this time, but no one can be sure, and it just as likely could have come at a later date.  He established himself solidly as a stage actor that year in New York, and eventually longed for the stage in London.  He left for his native UK late in 1882, making his London debut in December 1882.  He spent the next decades travelling back and forth across the Atlantic to appear in stage production in both countries.  He eventually got into theater management in London and found success there as well.  By the mid 1890's, he had married and started a family.  Kerr was late to film acting, appearing in his first film at the age of 58 in a comedic short that started as a live benefit play in the UK: The Real Thing At Last in 1916.  He only appeared in 4 films in the silent era, all of them in the 1910's and all of them UK productions.  His last silent film was 12:10 a mystery thriller, featuring his son Geoffrey Kerr, in 1919.  He did not appear in another film until 1930, when he played the role of Lord Trench opposite Nance O'Neil's Lady Trench in the MGM produced romantic comedy The Lady of Scandal, which also starred Basil Rathbone.  With movies now sporting sound, he found regular work in front of the camera as the character actor grandfather type up until the time of his death.  Of course, the most famous role that he would take was that of Baron Frankenstein, father of mad scientist Henry, in James Whale's horror classic Frankenstein.   Kerr developed lung cancer and died fairly quickly from the disease in 1933.  His last film was the UK picture Lord Of The Manor. Kerr passed away in London on the 3rd of May in 1933 at the age of 74.  He had been set to reprise his role as the Baron in The Bride Of Frankenstein, which was released in 1935, but in deference to him, the role was written out.  He was cremated at London's famed Golders Green, and was interred there.  In addition to his son following him into the profession, Kerr was also the grandfather of of John Kerr (as a fun fact, since it's the Halloween season, John Kerr had a role in the Vincent Price/Barbara Steele Pit And The Pendulum (1961)-directed by Roger Corman).

IMDb

Find A Grave