Fletcher Markle (March 27, 1921 – May 23, 1991) was a Canadian actor, screenwriter, television producer and director. Markle began a radio career in Canada, then worked in radio, film and television in the United States.
Early years
Fletcher Markle and Madeleine Carroll at a rehearsal of "A Farewell to Arms" for Studio One (1948)
Markle began his career at age 17 in Vancouver, British Columbia, doing radio dramas.[3] He created the Phoenix Theater, which began with stage productions and then went on radio for a 68-week series of hour-long plays [5]
He worked with a group whose members included John Drainie, Lister Sinclair, and Alan Young on such local stations as CJOR, CKWX and the CBC network.[6] During World War II, he served in the Royal Canadian Air Force.[2] During that service he acted in the film Journey Together during some of his off-duty time.[5]
In 1945, Markle received a $1,500 grant from Twentieth Century Fox to finish his partly autobiographical novel There Was A Young Man. The award came while he was working on the Radio Folio series for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).[2] The CBC had commissioned Markle to write that program, which consisted of self-contained complete episodes that ranged from light to serious in content. Markle had earlier written the Baker's Dozen series on CBC.[7]
The group moved to Toronto, and Markle had a role as an actor in Journey Together (1946). Markle then moved to New York City, and although not listed in the credits, contributed to the screenplay for Orson Welles's The Lady from Shanghai (1947).[citation needed]
During his time in New York, he contributed to the CBS radio anthology, Studio One. In late 1952, he was brought in to replace Worthington Miner on the TV version of that program.[8]
In 1956, Markle and his wife, Mercedes McCambridge, launched a company to produce feature films and content for independent television. Cubano Productions initially gained rights to 23 stories by Burnham Carter. The stories, which had been published in The Saturday Evening Post, centered around a young Cuban couple and their Cafe Mosca in Havana. They were to form the basis of a 30-minute TV series, Tonight in Havana. Markle and McCambridge also planned to develop the stories into feature films.[10]
Markle received an Academy Award nomination for the documentary film The V-1: Story of the Robot Bomb,[1] which he wrote and narrated.[12]
Personal life
Markle married Helen Blanche Willis in Toronto in 1944, and they divorced on June 14, 1949.[13] They had a son, actor and writer Stephen Markle.[1] He later married actress Mercedes McCambridge,[14] and they divorced in 1962[15] after 12 years of marriage, during which he adopted her son.[16] Markle's third marriage was to Dorothy Conradt, from 1963 until his death in 1991.
^ ab"Fletcher Markle (1921-1991)". History of Canadian Broadcasting. Canadian Communications Foundation. Archived from the original on March 12, 2021. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
