Frank Reicher

Biography

Frank Reicher (December 2, 1875 – January 19, 1965) was a German-born American stage and film actor, director and producer. He is best known for playing Captain Englehorn in the 1933 film King Kong. Reicher made his Broadway debut the year he came to America playing Lord Tarquin in Harrison Fiske's production of Becky Sharp, a comedy by Langdon Mitchell based on William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. His early career was spent in legitimate theater on and off Broadway. He was head of the Brooklyn Stock Company when Jacob P. Adler performed The Merchant of Venice in Yiddish while the rest of the cast remained in English. Reicher was for a number of years affiliated with the Little Theatre on West Forty-Fourth Street as an actor and manager and would remain active on Broadway as actor, director or producer well into the 1920s. On stage, Reicher starred in such plays as the first Broadway production of Georg Kaiser's From Morning to Midnight (as the cashier), and the original production of Percy MacKaye's The Scarecrow (in the title role). Frank Reicher is probably more familiar to modern audiences as a supporting character actor in films. He began his cinema career with an uncredited role in the 1915 film The Case for Becky and would go on to work in over two hundred motion pictures. He is probably best remembered for playing the character of Captain Englehorn in King Kong and The Son of Kong, and for his work in such films as The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) and Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950). His last Hollywood role was in the very first theatrical Superman movie, Superman and the Mole Men, in 1951. Frank Reicher died at a hospital in Inglewood, California, aged 89. He was survived by his sister and a brother. His interment was at Inglewood Park Cemetery.

Most Known For

Adventures of Superman

Juarez

as Duc de Morny (uncredited)

King Kong

as Captain Englehorn

Girls' Dormitory

as Dr. Hoffenreich

Ninotchka

as Soviet Lawyer (uncredited)

Mata Hari

as The Cook - Spy

Samson and Delilah

as Village Barber

City Streets

as Dr. Ferenc Waller

Sister Kenny

as Dr. Chuter (uncredited)

Hi, Nellie!

as Danny

British Agent

as Mr. X

Before Dawn

as Joe Valerie

Monsieur Verdoux

as Doctor (uncredited)

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

as Karel Maasdam

Beg, Borrow or Steal

as Monsieur Debillon (uncredited)

To Be or Not to Be

as Polish Official (uncredited)

Stage Door

as Stage Director

Phantoms, Inc.

as Philip Kenneson, Sr.

Woman Doctor

as Dr. Mathews

House of Frankenstein

as Frederick Ullman (uncredited)