Frank Norcross

Frank Norcross was born in Boston on July 10, 1857 (some accounts say 1856) and was educated there. He followed a stage career for about 20 years. His work was varied and included acting and management positions with Daniel Frohman, Kelcey and Shannon, Sweely and Shipman, Kubleck & Co., and others, in Denver, Halifax (Nova Scotia), and elsewhere, primarily on the legitimate stage. For a time he was leading man to Fanny Davenport. A heavy man, in films Frank Norcross was seen as a character actor with Thanhouser, Biograph (various films 1913-1915, including For the Son of the House, The Detective’s Stratagem, By Man’s Law, The Blue or the Gray, and Men and Women, in 1913; and East Lynne, 1915), Fox, Pathé (as Diamond Jim in New York), Premo (Her Husband’s Wife, Devil’s Toy), McClure (6 episodes of the serial, The Seven Deadly Sins), Universal, Peerless, Kalem, Mirror, Rapf, and Metro by 1918. Norcross appeared in a Thanhouser film in 1913, at which time an article described him as having recently arrived from the stage.

The 1918 edition of the Motion Picture Studio Directory noted he was 5’10” tall, weighed 250 pounds, and had a fair complexion, grey hair and gray eyes. At the time his mailing address was the Friars Club (of which he was a founding member), New York City. The actor remained in films until the year of his death. Among his film credits in the 1920s were All Dolled Up, Garments of Truth, The Challenge, The Flaming Forties, The Man From Red Gulch, The Escape, and King of the Pack. His passing occurred in Glendale, California on September 12 (some accounts say the 13th), 1926.