Frederick March, born in Wisconsin in 1897, received a primary education from Winslow Elementary School, graduated from Racine High School, worked as a bank teller during his high school holidays, and later earned a degree in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He developed an interest in acting from an early age, but after completing his studies decided to pursue a more stable career.
He served for a year in the U.S. Army during World War I as a lieutenant in the artillery unit and was awarded the rank of lieutenant in the Army. He moved to New York a year after joining the army, working as a cashier and intern at the First National Bank of New York until he developed appendicitis and was on the verge of death from an emergency appendectomy due to an appendix rupture. Realizing that life was short, he decided to pursue his acting dreams after his recovery and moved to New York.
Frederick's stage play in David Bellascu premiered in Baltimore, and he later broke into Broadway to become a film extra. In 1924, director John Cromwell persuaded him to change his name, Cromwell thought that "Beckle" didn't sound like a Hollywood star, and Frederick's first wife wanted him to use his middle name and hers: McIntyre Ellis, but he rejected the idea and eventually changed his name to Frederick March, an abbreviated version of his mother's maiden name Marcher.
He later met and married actress Florence Eldridge while performing in Denver. In 1970 he attended a performance in the Theater Guild with his wife, where he was diagnosed with prostate cancer for the first time and received treatment.
He was selected by director Rubin Mamorian to star in the horror film Dr. Jack Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and with the help of styling makeup and special effects photography, his performance was a huge success, and he became the first actor to win an Oscar for his role in a horror film. During filming, due to the character's makeup being very heavy, it almost permanently damaged his appearance and led to his hospitalization for three weeks .
In 1930, he was nominated for an Oscar for the first time with "Royal Family", and "Doctor Incarnate" and "Golden Age" were twice crowned as the emperor of the Academy Awards. In addition, he won the Tony Award for Stage Drama twice until he faded out of the film industry in the 1960s, and died of illness in 1975 at the age of 87.