Saturday, April 25, 2015

Clifford Odets on Franchot Tone

"We suffered that season very seriously from the loss of our leading man. This was a great blow. Toward the end of the summer, Franchot Tone, after being quite erratic in his relationship to the company—he was a spoiled boy in many ways—decided to leave the Group, and everyone was sick. He was very gifted. The two most talented young actors I have known in the American theater in my time have been Franchot Tone and Marlon Brando, and I think Franchot was the more talented. And when he lost what he did, I think a very valuable gift was lost to the American theater. He was our leading man. It was like a beehive had lost its queen. And what do we do? Later we got an actor named Alexander Kirkland, who at least in terms of outward looks could replace Franchot, but not in terms of Franchot's talent."
Source: Hethmon, Robert. Days with the Group Theatre: An Interview with Clifford Odets. Michigan Quarterly Review. Volume XLI, Issue 2, Spring 2002
Permalink: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.act2080.0041.201

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