Frank Vincent Ferrante (born April 26, 1963) is an American stage actor, comedian and director known for his inspired improvisation and audience interactive comedy. His lengthy, acclaimed stage runs as the legendary American comedian Groucho Marx in the

Arthur Marx Arthur Julius Marx (July 21, 1921April 14, 2011) was an American writer, the son of entertainer Groucho Marx and his first wife, Ruth Johnson. Marx spent his early years accompanying his father around vaudeville circuits in the United States a ...

/ Robert Fisher play '' Groucho: A Life in Revue'', and his own internationally touring ''An Evening With Groucho'', established his portrayal as one of the world's top historic solo shows alongside

Hal Holbrook Harold Rowe Holbrook Jr. (February 17, 1925 – January 23, 2021) was an American actor, television director, and screenwriter. He first received critical acclaim in 1954 for a one-man stage show that he developed called '' Mark Twain Tonight!'' ...

's ''Mark Twain Tonight.'' Ferrante was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for 'Comedy Performance of the Year' for the title role in ''Groucho: A Life in Revue'' in London's West End in 1987. Prior, he won New York's 1987 Theatre World Award for 'Outstanding Debut' for the same role.

Biography

Born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, Ferrante was raised in Sierra Madre, California by the offspring of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

immigrants Dominic and Theresa (Torres) Ferrante. His father was a stockbroker; his mother was a housewife and preschool teacher. He attended

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

schools including Christian Brothers-run La Salle High School in Pasadena, California where he first performed comedy. At eleven, Ferrante received his first paying theater job at the Sierra Madre Puppet Theater Workshop operating marionettes for puppeteer Virginia Austin Curtis who sculpted the ventriloquist doll Mortimer Snerd for legendary Edgar Bergen.

Career

While performing on campus in 1985, Ferrante was discovered by Groucho's son, the playwright

, when Ferrante was attending the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

Division of Drama. Ferrante went on to portray Groucho from age 15 to 85 in the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and

PBS television The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educati ...

versions of Arthur's play. Ferrante was 23 years old when ''Groucho: A Life in Revue'' opened off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in 1986. Ferrante played the Groucho inspired roles Off-Broadway in ''

The Cocoanuts ''The Cocoanuts'' is a 1929 pre-Code musical comedy film starring the Marx Brothers (Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, and Zeppo Marx in his first starring role). Produced for Paramount Pictures by Walter Wanger, who is not credited, the fil ...

'' in 1996 and regional productions of '' Animal Crackers'' at

Goodspeed Opera House Goodspeed Musicals is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and advancement of musical theater and the creation of new works, located in East Haddam, Connecticut. A distinctive feature of the view from the Connecticut River, th ...

, The Huntington Theatre, Atlanta's Alliance Theatre,

Paper Mill Playhouse Paper Mill Playhouse is a regional theater with approximately 1200 seats, located in Millburn, New Jersey on the Rahway River. Due to its relatively close location to Manhattan, it draws from the pool of actors (and audience members) who live i ...

and

Arena Stage Arena Stage is a not-for-profit regional theater based in Southwest, Washington, D.C. Established in 1950, it was the first racially integrated theater in Washington, D.C. and its founders helped start the U.S. regional theater movement. It is ...

. In July 2018, Ferrante reprised his role in ''The Cocoanuts'' directing it for the Heritage Theatre Festival in

Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...

. Ferrante acts and directs throughout the regions most notably at Philadelphia's

Walnut Street Theatre The Walnut Street Theatre, founded in 1809 at 825 Walnut Street, on the corner of S. 9th Street in the Washington Square West neighborhood of Philadelphia, is the oldest operating theatre in the United States. The venue is operated by the Walnu ...

where he directed and developed the premiere of the Pulitzer Prize finalist ''Old Wicked Songs''. At the Walnut, he directed ''Groucho: A Life in Revue'' playing the title role, the Sid Caesar based character Max Prince in two productions of Neil Simon's ''Laughter On The 23rd Floor'' as well as directing Simon's ''Lost in Yonkers,'' ''The Sunshine Boys,'' ''Brighton Beach Memoirs,'' ''Biloxi Blues'' and ''Broadway Bound.'' At the Walnut in 2017, Ferrante directed and starred as Pseudolus in the Stephen Sondheim musical ''A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'' and he was picked as a top ten performance of 2017 by The Wall Street Journal. In 2019, Ferrante returned to the Walnut Street Theatre to direct and play the lead Tito Merelli in ''Ken Ludwig's A Comedy of Tenors.'' There Ferrante also starred as playwright/director George S. Kaufman in the one-man play entitled ''By George'' written by Ferrante. Since 2001, Ferrante performs his improvisationally based comedy in the European style cirque show ''

Teatro ZinZanni Teatro ZinZanni is a circus dinner theater that began in the neighborhood of Lower Queen Anne in Seattle, Washington. It has since expanded to a site on the waterfront at Pier 29 on The Embarcadero in San Francisco, California. History Teatr ...

'' playing an outrageous Latin lover named Caesar. In ''ZinZanni'', Ferrante played opposite legendary cabaret star

Liliane Montevecchi Liliane Montevecchi (October 13, 1932 – June 29, 2018) was a French-Italian actress, dancer, and singer. Career Montevecchi took her first dance classes at 8 with Pierre Duprez, primo ballerino of the Opera in Paris, France. She entered the Co ...

Joan Baez Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...

Sally Kellerman Sally Clare Kellerman (June 2, 1937 – February 24, 2022) was an American actress and singer whose acting career spanned 60 years. Her role as Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan in Robert Altman's film '' M*A*S*H'' (1970) earned her an Oscar n ...

and

The Motels The Motels are an American new wave band from Berkeley, California, that is best known for the singles "Only the Lonely" and "Suddenly Last Summer", each of which peaked at No. 9 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, in 1982 and 1983, respectively. In ...

' Martha Davis. Ferrante spent years performing the role in San Francisco, Seattle, Amsterdam and Chicago. Critic Chris Jones of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'' chose Ferrante's performance as The Caesar at ''Teatro ZinZanni'' as one of the 'top ten' of 2019. As a voice actor in animation, Ferrante played Lyman in a 2012 special of ''

The Garfield Show ''The Garfield Show'' is a CGI animated television series produced by Dargaud Media and Paws, Inc.. It is based on the American ''Garfield'' comic strip created by Jim Davis. The animated series focuses on a new series of adventures for the ...

''. In 2015, he played the role of Stockholder Eel in the ''

SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American animated comedy television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It chronicles the adventures of the title character ...

'' episode ''The Executive Treatment,'' in which the character references Groucho Marx. Ferrante guest starred as a talking mime in Robert Corrdry's Emmy Award-winning Adult Swim series ''Childrens Hospital''. In 2004, he became a question on the television program ''

Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given gene ...

''. Ferrante currently stars as The Caesar in the YouTube series ''All Hail Caesar: An American Love Story''.

Awards and nominations

* 1987 New York Theater World Award (For Outstanding New Talent) * 1987 New York Outer Critics Circle Nomination (Most Striking Debut) * 1987 Laurence Olivier Award Nomination (Comedy Performance of the Year) * 1992

Connecticut Critics Circle The Connecticut Critics Circle is an organization of reviewers, feature writers, columnists, and broadcasters throughout Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York. It was founded in 1990 Mission statement "To honor the actors, director ...

Award (Best Actor in a Musical) * 1999 Connecticut Critics Circle Award (Best Actor in a Play) * 1999 Helen Hayes Award Nomination (Best Actor in a Musical)

References

External links

Excerpts from Frank Ferrante in ''An Evening With Groucho''

Frank Ferrante as The Caesar in ''Teatro ZinZanni''

Frank Ferrante on YouTube Series ''All Hail Caesar: An American Love Story'' (Guest Star Joan Baez)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrante, Frank 1963 births Living people American theatre directors American male stage actors USC School of Dramatic Arts alumni American people of Italian descent American male comedians Male actors from Los Angeles People from Sierra Madre, California Comedians from California 21st-century American comedians