Arthur Franz, 1920-2006

Arthur Franz as The Sniper (1952)

Today is Leap Day, which means that there are fewer famous people who have birthdays than any other day of the year. In a brief post on Leap Day back in 2012, I mentioned that this is the birth anniversary of director William Wellman (born on this day in 1896). The other Hollywood name is not quite as famous, that of character actor Arthur Franz.

Franz's career started after World War II, and one of his earliest roles was as George Raft's murdered brother in the interesting noir Red Light. He was the narrator of Sands of Iwo Jima, which I think I have on a John Wayne war movies box set, although it's not in the queue to watch considering how many war movies I've blogged about recently. I don't remember Franz's role in The Member of the Wedding, and he was part of the crew in The Caine Mutiny.

But probably Franz's biggest triumph would be in The Sniper, an excellent little movie about a man who goes off the deep end and decides to start shooting people sniper-style, while Adolphe Menjou investigates the case.