Frank Vosper

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Frank Permian Vosper (born December 15, 1899 in London , † March 6, 1937 drowned at sea near Plymouth ) was a British actor and playwright .

Signature of Frank Vosper

Life

Frank Vosper was the second of three children of the doctor Percy Vosper (1874-1958) and his wife Blanche May Permain (1875-1951). His younger sister Margery (1912–1981) was a screenwriter and theater agent.

Theater and film career

Vosper discovered his passion for theater in his youth. Instead of college , he joined Frank Benson at the age of 17 and then the Ben Greet Players and played minor roles. He was able to do his military service during the First World War in the entertainment unit of Captain Basil Dean .

In 1919 he played his first major stage role in Julius Caesar . At the time he was a member of a theater company that performed in and around the Far Eastern part of the British Empire . Vosper's repertoire comprised over 130 roles, but for a long time he felt trapped in character roles , for example as an actor of old men, and wanted to get out of this situation.

At this time, he started writing works for the stage . His first stage play was The Combined Maze in 1927 and was hailed by critics as an outstanding piece of modern theater . Murder on the Second Floor followed in 1929 and People Like Us towards the end of the year . He wrote Murder on the Second Floor in an adaptation of Agatha Christie's short story Haus Nachtigall ( Philomel Cottage ). People Like Us was based on the case of Edith Thompson (1893-1923) and Frederick Bywaters (1902-1923), British lovers who were sentenced to death for the murder of Thompson's husband Percy. After a performance at the Strand Theater , in which Atholl Fleming starred , the play was banned by Lord Chamberlain and had its first performance only afterwards at Wyndham's Theater in 1948 , played by Miles Malleson , George Rose , Robert Flemyng and Kathleen Michael .

As early as 1926, Vosper had devoted himself again to acting, which he had deliberately neglected in the meantime for the reason mentioned, from now on primarily in the field of film, with which he became internationally successful. In 1934 he appeared as contract killer Frank Vosper in Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much on the side of Peter Lorre and Leslie Banks . After a vacation trip to Jamaica, he moved to the United States at the end of 1936 . Vosper was considered one of England's “brilliant young man” of the theater.

His return to England, planned for early March 1937, ended fatally for him.

Vosper's mysterious drowning death

Vosper had an intimate friendship with the actor Peter Willes (1913–1991). With him he traveled on the " SS Paris " from New York City to Plymouth. On March 6, 1937, early in the morning before arriving, both apparently celebrated a “ champagne party” in the cabin of the actress, revue dancer and Miss England 1935 Muriel Elaine Oxford, who was also traveling on board after a charity dance event on board . About two hours before entering Plymouth, Vosper went overboard and drowned in the Atlantic . His lifeless and unclothed body was later washed ashore at Beachy Head (between East Dean and Eastbourne ) and ultimately identified by his father. He died at the age of 37.

Speculation about the causes of Vosper's going overboard, such as suicide , jealousy , depression or drunkenness , could not be confirmed in the course of the investigation. Allegedly, Oxford stormed out of her cabin shouting that Vosper had committed suicide. The alarm on board was triggered accordingly. The jealousy argument was mainly based on the testimony of Ernest Hemingway , who was traveling with him , and who later said that Vosper was angry that Oxford paid more attention to his friend Willes than to himself. Allegedly one passenger also testified that he had heard on board that someone said: "If you don't marry me, I'll jump overboard". According to other information, such a statement could also have come from Willis. Apparently he even admitted this. Oxford denied such an event in this context.

According to media reports, the statements about the course of the night appeared somewhat contradictory in relation to later statements. Here, too, only individual statements can be reproduced without any claim to an objective summary. After the arrival of the "Paris", Oxford announced, according to media reports, that shortly before the time of the accident, she spoke to Vosper outside her cabin on the veranda and then returned to the cabin with her other guests. Vosper did not return to the cabin. She ruled out that he would jump overboard because of her. According to initial statements, she was apparently the last person Vosper saw. Willes initially suspected that Vosper might have slipped trying to get off the porch onto the deck below. He also said friends took Vosper out of bed to take him to the champagne party in Oxford's cabin. According to later statements from Oxford and Willes, however, Vosper left the cabin because he was tired. The steward also testified that he entered the cabin when Willes, Oxford and Vosper were in the cabin; Willes was sitting on the couch with Oxford and Vosper was standing in front of it. After the steward reentered the cabin a few minutes later, Vosper was no longer there. The captain of the "Paris", Étienne Payen de La Garanderie (1887-1982), later the Normandy captain, ruled out that the corpulent Vosper had unfortunately fallen out of the narrow cabin window, as, for example, the coroner considered. After inspecting the cabin window, Vosper's father was satisfied that it was only an accident .

Even if Vosper's death was ultimately judged as an accident after the investigation on behalf of Scotland Yard , it nonetheless remained inexplicable and therefore mysterious . Mike Holgate dealt with the events of the unlucky night in more detail in his treatise Agatha Christie's True Crime Inspirations . The Australian writer Patrick White also dealt with the case in his autobiography Flaws in the Glass: A Self-Portrait (Eng. Risse im Spiegel, 1994).

Trivia

According to the Daily Express Fiction Library about Murder on the Second Floor , Vosper had an accident on the " SS Normandie ", the ship on which Étienne Payen de La Garanderie was later captain.

Stage works

Filmography

The stage works for Murder on the Second Floor and Love from a Stranger were also the basis for further film adaptations.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ List of Fellows and Members of the Royal College of Physicians , 1909, p. 270.
  2. ↑ Frank Vosper Permain , gritquoy.com.
  3. ↑ a b c Frank Vosper Biography , fandango.com.
  4. ↑ Scotland Yard Couldn't Solve This! . The Fresno Bee , Fresno , May 16, 1937, p. 44.
  5. ^ Music and Drama: Chicago's New Opera House , Sydney Morning Herald , December 21, 1929, p. 10.
  6. ^ A b English Actor Vanishes At Sea During Gay Party , The Nevada Daily , March 8, 1937, p. 5.
  7. ↑ Miss Muriel Oxford married . In: The Glasgow Herald , April 14, 1938, p. 13.
  8. ↑ Body Washed to Shore Identified As Vosper's , Reading Eagle , March 23, 1937.
  9. ↑ Frank's father and friend evidence at resumed inquest. Jury unable to return a verdict. ... , description of the photo from March 31, 1937 on europeana.
  10. ↑ a b c Jealousy And Drink - Death of Passenger on Liner , The Examiner , Launceston , April 9, 1937, p. 8.
  11. ^ A b c British Actor Vanishes In Sea Mystery , Reading Eagle, March 6, 1937.
  12. ↑ Ship Mystery Is reenacted in New sample , The Binghamton Press , March 8, 1937 p. 23
  13. ↑ a b c Frank Vosper: Love From a Stranger . In: Mike Holgate: Agatha Christie's True Crime Inspirations , The History Press , 2011.
  14. ↑ Étienne Payen de La Garanderie , geneanet.org.
  15. ^ Actor's Death - Open Verdict - Party on French Ship , The Argus , Melbourne , April 8, 1937, p. 12.
  16. ^ Vosper, Frank: Murder on the second floor , Daily Express Fiction Library, 1938.
personal data
SURNAME Vosper, Frank
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vosper, Frank Permian (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actor and playwright
DATE OF BIRTH December 15, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH March 6, 1937
Place of death at Plymouth