Biography

A popular vaudeville star, on stage from age 4, Fay was known for his clever wit and uncontrollable ego. He once, when asked during a court appearance, what his profession was, exclaimed "I'm the greatest comedian in the world." He later told his exasperated attorney, "I was under oath, wasn't I?".

In Hollywood, everywhere he went, Frank Fay did not make a lot of friends. A standard joke of the time went "who's got the biggest prick in Hollywood?" Answer: "Barbara Stanwyck." The womanizing, alcoholic Fay's career floundered, while Stanwyck's flourished for decades. In 1935 the two were divorced, and Fay continued his downward spiral, until 1944, when he was chosen to play Elwood P. Dowd in the original New York City Broadway production of "Harvey".

Through his friend Oscar Levant, Frank Fay met and married Stanwyck, a former chorus girl who had just gotten her first acting role on Broadway (in "Burlesque", 1927). In 1929, they performed a dramatic sketch as "Fay and Stanwyck" at the Palace. Later that year, they were called to Hollywood, so Fay could star in the film Show of Shows (1929). Their marriage and experiences in Hollywood later reportedly was a basis of the iconic and oft-remade film, A Star Is Born (1937).

Severe alcoholism was the purported reason his marriage to Barbara Stanwyck failed. It nearly obliterated his career until he revived himself in the 1940s, starring in the play "Harvey" as the lead character, Elwood P. Dowd, whose friend is an invisible rabbit. However, James Stewart played the role in the film version.

A week before his death in 1961, he was confined to a hospital in St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California and deemed legally incompetent. He was interred in Calvary Cemetery, Los Angeles (Section F, Lot 1583, Grave 12).