Frederick Kerr Movies and Career Information

Frederick Kerr (1858–1933), was a British actor who appeared on stage in both New York City and London, and in British and American films; he also worked as a major theatrical manager in London. Frederick Grinham Keen was born October 11, 1858, in London, England, United Kingdom. As a youth just out of Cambridge, he came to New York City around 1880 and worked as a sketch artist, when sheer chance turned him into an actor. He was living in a boarding house on 7th Avenue, where a number of theatrical people also lived (among them, Henry Miller, who eventually became Kerr's manager). Osmond Tearle, an actor living there, heard from his own producer that an Englishman was needed for a production of The School for Scandal -- Tearle recruited Frederick, who got the part in January 1882 (which is also likely the moment he took the stage name of Frederick Kerr). Kerr appeared in several more plays in New York City that year, but left for England to appear in a London play in December 1882. Over the next fifty years, he travelled back and forth across the Atlantic more than several times for theatrical work both in New York City and in London. He appeared in 19 films between 1916 and 1933.