Frazer Coulter

Frazer Coulter, sometimes given as Fraser Coalter, (August 20, 1848 – January 26, 1937) was a Canadian-born American actor. He had a lengthy stage career in New York, making his Broadway debut in the late 1870s in The School for Scandal and his final appearance in Oh, Promise Me in 1931. He also appeared in several silent films during the 1910s and 1920s.

Life and career

Frazer Coulter was born on August 20, 1848 in Smiths Falls, Ontario, Canada. He started performing full time as an actor in 1876, having appeared previously in a few amateur and professional productions. He began his career performing as Harry Coulter, and changed his stage name to Frazer Coulter in 1879. From 1881-1885 he was a member of the Boston Theatre Stock Company. He had a prolific career on Broadway; starring in productions from the 1870s until his retirement more than 50 years later.

Coulter was active as a silent film actor during the 1910s and 1920s. His first film was The Prisoner of Zenda (1913) in which he played the role of as Colonel Sapt. This was followed by appearances in Body and Soul (1915, as Dr. McDonald), The Face at Your Window (1920, as Nicholas Harding), His Brother's Keeper (1921, as William Harding), Love's Redemption (1921, as Club Steward), The Heart Raider (1923, as Reginald Gray), The Governor's Lady (1923, as George Strickland), and A Society Scandal (1924, as Schuyler Burr); the latter of which starred Gloria Swanson. His final film appearance was as the lawyer in the Ben Lyon and Lois Moran picture Prince of Tempters (1926).

After retiring from the stage in 1931 he lived at the Percy Williams Home for Actors in East Islip, New York. He died in East Islip on January 26, 1937 at the age of 88.

Partial list of Broadway credits

William Ranney Wilson's The Inspector (1890, title role, Park Theatre)
Sutton Vane's Humanity (1895, as Major Fordyce Dangerfield at Haverly's 14th Street Theatre)
Augustus Thomas's The Capitol (1895, as Mr. Carroll at the Standard Theatre)
Sydney Rosenfeld's A House of Cards (1896, as Peter Burlap at the Fifth Avenue Theatre)
Joseph I. C. Clarke's Her Majesty, the Girl Queen of Nordenmark (1900, as Baron Hausman at the Manhattan Theatre)
Richard Harding Davis's Ranson's Folly (1904, as Captain Chase at the Hudson Theatre)
Henri Dumay's Mademoiselle Marni (1905, as General Stanislaus Newville at Wallack's Theatre)
Charles Klein's The Lion and the Mouse (1905, Ex-Judge Stott at the Lyceum Theatre)
Louis Evan Shipman's The Grain of Dust (1912, as Isaac Burroughs at the Criterion Theatre)
Silvio Hein and Philip Bartholomae's When Dreams Come True (1913, as Jerome K. Hedges at the Lyric Theatre)
Thompson Buchanan's Life (1914-1915, as William Van Rensselaer Stuyvasant at the Manhattan Opera House)
George V. Hobart's Experience (1918, Wealth at the Manhattan Opera House)
James W. Elliott's The Man in the Making (1921, Theodore Barco, Hudson Theatre)
Samuel Shipman's Lawful Larceny (1922, Mr. Davis at the Theatre Republic)
Rudolf Besier and May Edginton's Secrets (1922-1923, Dr. Arbuthnot at the Fulton Theatre)
Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer (1924, Sir Charles Marlow at the Empire Theatre)
Walter Archer Frost's Cape Smoke (1925, Doctor Hammerstone at the Martin Beck Theatre)
Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 (1926, Earl of Northumberland at the Knickerbocker Theatre)
William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (1927, Popilius Lena at the New Amsterdam Theatre)
Margaret Ayer Barnes's The Age of Innocence (1928-1929, Mr. Henry van der Luyden at Empire Theatre)
Langdon Elwyn Mitchell's Becky Sharp (1929, as Lord Southdown at the Knickerbocker Theatre)
Austin Strong and Lloyd Osbourne's The Little Father of the Wilderness (1930, as Lieutenant General Dulong at Empire Theatre)
Howard Lindsay and Bertrand Robinson's Oh, Promise Me (1930-1931, as Judge Hawley at Morosco Theatre)

References

Citation

1 2 3 "FRAZER COULTER, LONG ACTOR, DEAD; Appeared on New York Stage for More Than Half Century in Noted Productions". January 27, 1937. p. 21.
1 2 Ragan 1992, p. 339.
1 2 Vazzana 1995, p. 72.
↑ Austin & Browne 1908, p. 99.
↑ "Dramatic and Musical". Boston Post. July 21, 1879. p. 3.
↑ Durham 1986, p. 100.
↑ American Film Institute 1988, p. 741.
↑ American Film Institute 1988, p. 85.
↑ American Film Institute 1988, p. 256.
↑ American Film Institute 1971, p. 351.
↑ American Film Institute 1971, p. 464.
↑ American Film Institute 1971, p. 333.
↑ American Film Institute 1971, p. 308.
↑ American Film Institute 1971, p. 740.
↑ American Film Institute 1971, p. 618.
↑ Witmark & Goldberg 1976, p. 84.
↑ "Byrnes in Dramatic Form. A Play Containing a Likeness of a Police Official". New York Herald. November 14, 1890. p. 3.
↑ Dale, Alan (November 14, 1890). "The Inspector". The Evening World. p. 2.
↑ "Theatrical Incidents and News Notes". New-York Tribune. January 17, 1904. p. 24.
↑ "Wallack's: Mademoiselle Marni". The Cast: 222. March 13, 1905.
↑ Hischak 2009, p. 259.
↑ "Hackett Makes a Miss in The Grain of Dust". Brooklyn Eagle. January 2, 1912. p. 6.
↑ Norton 2002, p. 32.
↑ "Thrills Comes Fast as Life Unfolds". New York Herald. October 26, 1914. p. 7.
↑ Norton 2002, p. 138.
↑ "The Girls Show How 'Tis Done in Lawful Larceny". New York Daily News. January 5, 1922. p. 17.
↑ Hornblow, Arthur, ed. (February 1923). "Mr. Hornblow Goes to the Play". Theatre Magazine. p. 15.
↑ The Players. New York: The Players Club. 1924. p. 62.
↑ Hischak 2009, p. 68.
↑ "The Play Shop". The Brooklyn Daily Times. May 6, 1926. p. 13.
↑ "Both Sides of the Curtain". The Brooklyn Daily Times. June 5, 1927. p. 29.
↑ Mantle 1929, p. 428.
↑ "Knickerbocker: Becky Sharp". Billboard. Vol. 41, no. 36. September 7, 1929. p. 87.
↑ Mantle 1929, p. 509.
↑ "Empire: Milestones". Billboard. June 14, 1930. p. 7.
↑ Hischak 2009, p. 337.
↑ Bordman 1996, p. 15.

Bibliography

American Film Institute (1971). Munden, Kenneth W. (ed.). The American Film Institute film catalog of motion pictures produced in the United States : feature films, 1921-1930. R. R. Bowker Company.
American Film Institute (1988). The American Film Institute film catalog of motion pictures produced in the United States : feature films, 1911-1920. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520063013.
Austin, Frederick Arnold; Browne, Walter, eds. (1908). "Coulter, Frazer". Who's Who on the Stage: The Dramatic Reference Book and Biographical Dictionary of the Theatre, Containing Records of the Careers of Actors, Actresses, Managers and Playwrights of the American Stage. B.W. Dodge & Company.
Bordman, Gerald (1996). American Theatre: A Chronicle of Comedy and Drama, 1930–1969. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-535808-2. OCLC 252547085.
Durham, Weldon B. (1986). American Theatre Companies, 1749-1887. Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313208867.
Hischak, Thomas S. (2009). Broadway Plays and Musicals: Descriptions and Essential Facts of More Than 14,000 Shows Through 2007. McFarland & Company. ISBN 9780786453092.
Mantle, Burns, ed. (1929). The Best Plays of 1928-1929 and the Year Book of the Drama in America. Dodd, Mead & Company.
Norton, Richard C. (2002). A Chronology of American Musical Theater. Vol. 2. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-508888-5.
Ragan, David (1992). "Coulter, Frazer". Who's Who in Hollywood: The Largest Cast of International Film Personalities Ever Assembled. Facts on File. ISBN 978-0816020119.
Vazzana, Eugene Michael (1995). Silent Film Necrology: Births and Deaths of Over 9000 Performers, Directors, Producers, and Other Filmmakers of the Silent Era, Through 1993. McFarland & Company. ISBN 9780786401321.
Witmark, Isidore; Goldberg, Isaac (1976). The Story of the House of Witmark : From Ragtime to Swingtime. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-70686-8.

External links

Frazer Coulter at the Internet Broadway Database
Frazer Coulter at IMDb

[obit-1] 1 2 3 "FRAZER COULTER, LONG ACTOR, DEAD; Appeared on New York Stage for More Than Half Century in Noted Productions". January 27, 1937. p. 21.

[FOOTNOTERagan1992339-2] 1 2 Ragan 1992, p. 339.

[FOOTNOTEVazzana199572-3] 1 2 Vazzana 1995, p. 72.

[FOOTNOTEAustinBrowne190899-4] Austin & Browne 1908, p. 99.

[5] "Dramatic and Musical". Boston Post. July 21, 1879. p. 3.

[FOOTNOTEDurham1986100-6] Durham 1986, p. 100.

[FOOTNOTEAmerican_Film_Institute1988741-7] American Film Institute 1988, p. 741.

[FOOTNOTEAmerican_Film_Institute198885-8] American Film Institute 1988, p. 85.

[FOOTNOTEAmerican_Film_Institute1988256-9] American Film Institute 1988, p. 256.

[FOOTNOTEAmerican_Film_Institute1971351-10] American Film Institute 1971, p. 351.

[FOOTNOTEAmerican_Film_Institute1971464-11] American Film Institute 1971, p. 464.

[FOOTNOTEAmerican_Film_Institute1971333-12] American Film Institute 1971, p. 333.

[FOOTNOTEAmerican_Film_Institute1971308-13] American Film Institute 1971, p. 308.

[FOOTNOTEAmerican_Film_Institute1971740-14] American Film Institute 1971, p. 740.

[FOOTNOTEAmerican_Film_Institute1971618-15] American Film Institute 1971, p. 618.

[FOOTNOTEWitmarkGoldberg197684-16] Witmark & Goldberg 1976, p. 84.

[17] "Byrnes in Dramatic Form. A Play Containing a Likeness of a Police Official". New York Herald. November 14, 1890. p. 3.

[18] Dale, Alan (November 14, 1890). "The Inspector". The Evening World. p. 2.

[19] "Theatrical Incidents and News Notes". New-York Tribune. January 17, 1904. p. 24.

[20] "Wallack's: Mademoiselle Marni". The Cast: 222. March 13, 1905.

[FOOTNOTEHischak2009259-21] Hischak 2009, p. 259.

[22] "Hackett Makes a Miss in The Grain of Dust". Brooklyn Eagle. January 2, 1912. p. 6.

[FOOTNOTENorton200232-23] Norton 2002, p. 32.

[24] "Thrills Comes Fast as Life Unfolds". New York Herald. October 26, 1914. p. 7.

[FOOTNOTENorton2002138-25] Norton 2002, p. 138.

[26] "The Girls Show How 'Tis Done in Lawful Larceny". New York Daily News. January 5, 1922. p. 17.

[27] Hornblow, Arthur, ed. (February 1923). "Mr. Hornblow Goes to the Play". Theatre Magazine. p. 15.

[28] The Players. New York: The Players Club. 1924. p. 62.

[FOOTNOTEHischak200968-29] Hischak 2009, p. 68.

[30] "The Play Shop". The Brooklyn Daily Times. May 6, 1926. p. 13.

[31] "Both Sides of the Curtain". The Brooklyn Daily Times. June 5, 1927. p. 29.

[FOOTNOTEMantle1929428-32] Mantle 1929, p. 428.

[33] "Knickerbocker: Becky Sharp". Billboard. Vol. 41, no. 36. September 7, 1929. p. 87.

[FOOTNOTEMantle1929509-34] Mantle 1929, p. 509.

[35] "Empire: Milestones". Billboard. June 14, 1930. p. 7.

[FOOTNOTEHischak2009337-36] Hischak 2009, p. 337.

[FOOTNOTEBordman199615-37] Bordman 1996, p. 15.