Frank Ferrante is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 stage

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

 actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

, comedian

Comedian

A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...

 and director known for his stage portrayals of legendary American comedian Groucho Marx

Groucho Marx

Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...

 in the Arthur Marx

Arthur Marx

Arthur Julius Marx was an American author, a former ranked amateur tennis player, and son of entertainer Groucho Marx and his first wife, Ruth Johnson....

/Robert Fisher play Groucho: A Life in Revue

Groucho: A Life in Revue

Groucho: A Life in Revue is a stage play written by Groucho Marx's son Arthur Marx and Robert Fisher. It is a look at the life and career of the famous entertainer Groucho Marx of the Marx Brothers and You Bet Your Life fame. It opened off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre on October 8, 1986...

and his own touring An Evening With Groucho.

Biography

Born in Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

, Frank Ferrante was raised in Sierra Madre, California

Sierra Madre, California

The city of Sierra Madre is a municipality in Los Angeles County, California whose population was 10,917 at the 2010 census, up from 10,580 at the time of the 2000 census. The city is located in the Foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains below the southern edge of the Angeles National Forest. ...

  by the offspring of Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

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

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 schools including Christian Brothers

Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools

The Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools is a Roman Catholic religious teaching congregation, founded in France by Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle and now based in Rome...

-run La Salle High School

La Salle High School (Pasadena, California)

La Salle High School is a private, Roman Catholic college preparatory high school in Pasadena, California. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.La Salle High School, founded in 1956, is a Lasallian school...

 in Pasadena, California

Pasadena, California

Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...

 where he first performed comedy.

Career

Discovered in 1985 by Groucho's son playwright Arthur Marx when Ferrante was attending the University of Southern California

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

 Division of Drama, Ferrante went on to portray Groucho from age 15 to 85 in the New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and PBS television

Public Broadcasting Service

The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

 versions of Arthur's play. Ferrante was 23 years old when Groucho: A Life in Revue opened off-Broadway

Off-Broadway

Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

 at the Lucille Lortel

Lucille Lortel

Lucille Lortel was an American actress and theater producer who is remembered as the namesake of an off-Broadway playhouse and theatrical award....

 Theatre in 1986.

Ferrante played the Groucho inspired roles off-Broadway in The Cocoanuts in 1996 and regional productions of Animal Crackers at Goodspeed Opera House, The Huntington Theatre, Atlanta's Alliance Theatre, Paper Mill Playhouse

Paper Mill Playhouse

Paper Mill Playhouse is a regional theatre with approximately 1200 seats, located in Millburn, New Jersey, less than 25 miles from Manhattan. Due to its location, it can draw from the pool of actors who live in New York City. Its location, as well as its focus on producing large-scale shows, makes...

  and Arena Stage

Arena Stage

Arena Stage is a not-for-profit regional theater based in Southwest Washington, D.C. Its declared mission"is to produce huge plays of all that is passionate, exuberant, profound, deep and dangerous in the American spirit. Arena has broad shoulders and a capacity to produce anything from vast epics...

.

Ferrante acts and directs throughout the regions most notably at Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theatre

Walnut Street Theatre

The Walnut Street Theatre , located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at 825 Walnut Street, is the oldest continuously operating theatre in the English-speaking world and the oldest in the United States...

 where he directed and developed the premiere of the Pulitzer Prize

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

 finalist Old Wicked Songs. There Ferrante starred as playwright/director George S. Kaufman

George S. Kaufman

George Simon Kaufman was an American playwright, theatre director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals, notably for the Marx Brothers...

 in the one-man play written by Frank entitled By George.

Since 2001, Ferrante performs his improvisationally based comedy in the European style cirque show Teatro ZinZanni

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 San Francisco, California The Embarcadero....

playing an outrageous Latin lover named Caesar. In Zinzanni, Ferrante played opposite legendary cabaret star Liliane Montevecchi

Liliane Montevecchi

Liliane Montevecchi is a French actress, dancer, and singer.Montevecchi began her career as a prima ballerina in Roland Petit's dance company...

, Joan Baez

Joan Baez

Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....

, Sally Kellerman

Sally Kellerman

Sally Clare Kellerman is an American actress and singer known for her role as Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan in the film MASH , for which she was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.-Early life:...

 and The Motels

The Motels

The Motels are a New Wave music band from the Los Angeles area best known for "Only the Lonely" and "Suddenly Last Summer", each of which peaked at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982 and 1983, respectively. Their song "Total Control" reached #4 on the Australian charts in 1980...

' Martha Davis

Martha Davis

Martha Davis may refer to:*Martha Davis , lead singer of the new wave band The Motels*Martha Davis , vocalist and pianist who performed as "Martha Davis and Spouse"*Martha Davis , who wrote "Brutal Need"...

. In 2004, he became a question on the television program Jeopardy.

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 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)

External links

• http://www.grouchoworld.com