Frank Wise

Frank Wise (19*-19*) Actor.

Biography

He hails from Eastbourne from where he migrated to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

Career

In Bulawayo he distinguished himself in amateur plays but the war interrupted his activities. After demobbing he settled in South Africa. He worked with the Nan Munro Company, Davis-Vanne Company and then joined Brian Brooke's Repertory Group in Cape Town.

Was a member of the National Theatre Organisation's English company from 1948-1962.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

In South Africa he first appeared with the Nan Munro Company in Pygmalion and The Philadelphia Story. He played Arthur Birling in An Inspector Calls (NTO 1948).

He starred in Ben Jonson’s hit show Volpone which was directed by Leonard Schach for the National Theatre at the Reps Theatre in 1952. Also starring Pieter Geldenhuys, Gerrit Wessels, Edna Jacobson, Siegfried Mynhardt and Vivienne Drummond. Volpone enjoyed another run at the Benoni Town Hall later that same year. He starred in Twelfth Night (NTO 1953), The School for Scandal (NTO 1958), A Majority of One together with Sarah Sylvia. Leonard Schach directed this play which opened in January 1960.

Other productions include The Dam, Anna Christie, Bell, Book and Candle, The Cocktail Party, Come Back, Little Sheba, Dear Brutus, Design for Living, The Glass Menagerie, Hassan, You Never Can Tell, Tobias and the Angel, The Winslow Boy, The Silver Cord, While the Sun Shines, Quiet Weekend, The Fall, The Flashing Stream, The Anniversary (by Anton Chekhov), The Dove Returns, Candida, A Month in the Country, Saint Joan, Dangerous Corner, Becket (1963), The Physicists, She Stoops to Conquer, Antigone (by Jean Anouilh), Hamlet (as "Caludio", 1963).

Sources

Tucker, 1997.

An Inspector Calls programme notes, 1948.

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