Frank Fay (comedian)

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Frank Fay (born Francis Anthony Donner; November 17, 1891 – September 25, 1961) was an American vaudeville comedian, film actor, and stage actor. Considered an important pioneer in comedy, he has been referred to as "the first stand-up". For a time he was a well known and influential star, vaudeville's highest-paid headliner, earning $17,500 a week in the 1920s, but he later fell into obscurity, in part because of his abrasive personality and fascist political views. He played the role of Elwood P. Dowd in the 1944 Broadway play Harvey by the American playwright Mary Coyle Chase. He is best known as the first husband of actress Barbara Stanwyck. Frank Fay was notorious for his narcissism, bigotry, and alcoholism, and according to the American Vaudeville Museum, "even when sober, he was dismissive and unpleasant, and he was disliked by most of his contemporaries". Although very talented, Fay offended most of the people he worked with because of his enormous ego. Former vaudevillian and radio...

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