Upton, Frances, 1904-1975

Frances Upton (April 15, 1904 – November 27, 1975 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was a Broadway actress and comedian.Upton attended a business college after she finished high school, and she worked in a store's music department. She also took dancing lessons, which helped her get a part in a benefit production. Director Julian Mitchell saw her perform and offered her an opportunity to go on Broadway. On Broadway, Upton starred with Eddie Cantor in Whoopee! (1928) and the Ziegfeld Follies of 1927 (1927). Her other Broadway credits included Hold Your Horses (1933), Talk About Girls (1927), Lady Do (1927), Twinkle, Twinkle (1926), My Girl (1924), Little Jessie James (1923), and Pins and Needles (1922).She also performed in vaudeville.

Upton had a featured role in the early sound film Night Work. In 1929, she performed on a network shortwave radio program specially broadcast to Richard Byrd's expedition to the South Pole. In 1931, she starred in one of the first experimental television broadcasts in New York City, appearing with Gertrude Lawrence, Lionel Atwill, and boxer Primo Carnera.

Her father, Frank was a World War I veteran and New York City detective sergeant who apprehended the accomplices of Charles Becker in the 1912 murder of Herman Rosenthal. Her grandfather, William C. Upton, was a member of Ireland's Fenian movement of the late 19th century, and wrote a novel, Uncle Pat's Cabin (1882), about life under English rule.

On January 4, 1934, she married Philadelphia Eagles owner Bert Bell, later commissioner of the National Football League. They had three children, sons Bert, Jr. and Upton, and daughter Jane. Frances Upton died on November 27, 1975, in Lankenau Hospital at age 71.