Dwight Frye

February 22, 1899 - November 7, 1943
Born Dwight Iliff Fry in Salina, Kansas, USA

See Internet Movie Database Filmography

A Few Favorite Memories of Dwight Frye

• As "Monk, a Gangster," in The Doorway to Hell (1930), starring Lew Ayres, and featuring a good part for young Jimmy Cagney. Dwight's tough thug dominates the very first scenes in the film, packing up his chopper in an instrument case and mowing down a stoolie on his front stoop.
  
  
• As everybody's favorite horror movie lunatic, "Renfield" the fly-eater, driven crazy by his enslavement to the vampire in Dracula (1931). Directed by Tod Browning, and starring Dwight's old Broadway pal Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, Edward Van Sloan, David Manners, Carla Laemmle and Michael Visaroff.
  
  
• As "Wilmer Cook," "the gunzel," in the early version of The Maltese Falcon (1931), starring Ricardo Cortez, Bebe Daniels and Dudley Digges.
  
  
• As "Jessop," the butler in the early Charlie Chan mystery The Black Camel (1931), starring Warner Oland, Bela Lugosi and C. Henry Gordon.
  
  
• As "Fritz," the hunchbacked dwarf, causing lots of problems for his employer with his clumsiness in James Whale's archetypal Frankenstein (1931), starring Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, Edward Van Sloan, John Boles, and "?" as the Monster.
  
  
• As "Dick Lewis," hotheaded brother of the heroine in the Tim McCoy western The Western Code (1932).
  
  
• In a bit part as a reporter in James Whale's The Invisible Man (1933), starring Claude Rains, Gloria Stuart, William Harrigan, Henry Travers and Una O'Connor.
  
  
• As "Herman Gleib," the unfortunate village idiot in The Vampire Bat (1933), starring Fay Wray, Lionel Atwill and Melvyn Douglas.
  
  
• As "Karl," a hard-working grave robber and occasional murderer assisting TWO mad doctors in James Whale's masterpiece Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Dwight is right at home with a brilliant cast including Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson, Ernest Thesiger, O. P. Heggie and Una O'Connor.
  
  
• Hard to recognize under heavy makeup, but unmistakable when he screams, as "Roger Unthank" in The Great Impersonation (1935), starring Edmund Lowe and Valerie Hobson.
  
  
• As a fellow doctor in The Crime of Dr. Crespi (1935), with Erich Von Stroheim and Paul Guilfoyle.
  
  
• In a small role as "Professor Anderson" in Chapter 5 of the excellent Republic serial Drums of Fu Manchu (1940), starring Henry Brandon and Luana Walters.
  
  
• As a secretary at the Russian embassy in The Son of Monte Cristo (1940), with a great cast including Louis Hayward, Joan Bennett, George Sanders, Montagu Love, Ian Wolfe, Ralph Byrd, Clayton Moore and Michael Visaroff.
  
  
• As a ticked-off villager inciting the mob to violence in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), supporting Cedric Hardwicke, Lon Chaney Jr., Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, Evelyn Ankers and Ralph Bellamy.
  
  
• As "Zolarr," hunchbacked crony of the evil vampire twin brother in Dead Men Walk (1943), starring TWO George Zuccos and Mary Carlisle.
  
  
• As a Czech patriot waiting to be executed by the Nazis in Fritz Lang's Hangmen Also Die (1943), starring Brian Donlevy, Walter Brennan and Anna Lee.
  
  
• As "Rudi," another angry villager, in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), starring Lon Chaney Jr., Bela Lugosi, Maria Ouspenskaya, Patric Knowles, Ilona Massey, Lionel Atwill, Dennis Hoey and Adia Kuznetzoff. Faro la, faro li!

Last revised May 9 2021 by George "E-gor" Chastain.

Maintained by George "E-gor" Chastain (e-mail: egorschamber@gmail.com)