Frederic Downs; Actor Over Five Decades

Frederic Downs, 81, whose five-decade acting career ranged from Broadway to films to both the infancy and maturity of television. He worked at nearly all the major film studios and on the top three commercial TV networks, as well as touring with Lotte Lenya in “Three Penny Opera.” He also was in the original cast of “Fiorello” on Broadway in 1957. Additionally, Downs wrote drama, including a play about Abraham Lincoln he called “Lincoln’s Scrapbook.” His major movies included “The Cotton Club,” “I, the Jury” and “Splendor in the Grass.” In 1974 he received the Los Angeles Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in “Bus Stop.” At the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills on April 24.