CRAVEN, FRANK

(1875-1945)

   Born in Boston, Craven acted from childhood and toured widely in the 1900s. The New York Times review of his performance in Bought and Paid For (27 September 1911) noted that the role of Gilley "provides the first real New York opportunity that has come to a very excellent character actor, Frank Craven, who, as fat as the part is, succeeds in extracting every bit of fat there is in it and adds his own value in a personality and method that suit the part exactly." From the 1910s, he wrote many of his own vehicles: Too Many Cooks (1914), This Way Out (1917), The First Year (1920), Money from Home (1927), The Nineteenth Hole (1927). Then he went into motion pictures, but returned to Broadway occasionally, most notably to originate the role of the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder's* Our Town.*