Arthur Franz

Arthur Sofield Franz (February 29, 1920 – June 17, 2006) was an American actor born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey on a Leap Year Day. His interest in performing took root during his high school years, and he went on to build a career spanning stage, film, and television across four decades.

Before establishing himself professionally, Franz served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II as a navigator aboard a B-24 Liberator. He was shot down over Romania, held in a prisoner of war camp, and subsequently escaped. His Broadway career ran from 1941 to 1947 and encompassed four productions: the drama Hope for a Harvest, the comedies The Moon Vine and Little Darling, both in 1942, and the drama Command Decision in 1947.

Franz made his screen debut in Jungle Patrol in 1948. The following year he co-starred with John Wayne in the World War II film Sands of Iwo Jima and appeared in Roseanna McCoy. His film work in the early 1950s included Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951), Eight Iron Men (1952), and Invaders from Mars (1953). In The Sniper (1952), he took on the title role as a tormented killer, one of the rare lead performances of his film career. He appeared alongside Ronald Reagan in Hellcats of the Navy (1957) and played Lieutenant, Junior Grade H. Paynter Jr. in The Caine Mutiny (1954), a role that became among his most recognized screen credits. Other film appearances included The Unholy Wife (1957) and Monster on the Campus (1958). His final film role came in That Championship Season in 1982.

On television, Franz portrayed automobile magnate Henry Ford in the 1955 television film A Story About Henry Ford, with Karen Sharpe playing Clara Bryant Ford. He made five guest appearances on Perry Mason, twice as the defendant and once as the murderer, including the role of Danny Harrison in the 1958 episode "The Case of the Married Moonlighter" and Richard Vanaman in the 1959 episode "The Case of the Golden Fraud," followed by Mr. Evans in the 1962 episode "The Case of the Captain's Coin." In 1959 he co-starred in the short-lived series World of Giants. He played U.S. President James Madison in the 1965 NBC documentary series Profiles in Courage episode "George Mason," alongside Laurence Naismith in the title role and William Bakewell as George Wythe. In 1974 he portrayed U.S. Representative Charles A. Halleck of Indiana in the television film The Missiles of October, based on the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962.

Franz appeared on Death Valley Days on two occasions: in 1960 as Matt Warner in the episode "The Young Gun," and in 1961 as the historical figure Paine Page Prim, a future chief justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, in "Justice at Jackson Creek," an episode that also featured Dub Taylor, William Schallert, and Bill Bixby. In 1962 he was cast as acting sheriff Asa Moran in the Bonanza episode "The Lawmaker" on NBC. His television work extended across numerous other series, including Gunsmoke, Rawhide, Wagon Train, The Virginian, Have Gun – Will Travel, Mission: Impossible, Mannix, Hawaii Five-O, The Waltons, The Six Million Dollar Man, and Barnaby Jones, among many others.

In his personal life, Franz had been married and divorced twice before his third wife, actress Doreen Lang, died in 1999. He married his fourth wife, Sharon, on February 14, 2006. Franz died in Oxnard, California, at the age of 86 from emphysema and heart disease.