Background
Fred Fondren was born in Alabama.
Fred Fondren was born in Alabama.
Fred died after the movie was completed and the movie was dedicated to him. Fred, also known affectionately as "Freddie", was enrolled at Chapel Hill, working towards a double major in Psychology and Chemistry, when he attended an intensive Shakespeare Workshop at the Royal Academy in London, changing his life"s course.
He played the role of Alfred Moore, a man dying from Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, in the 1993 production, Joey Breaker. Upon his return, he worked closely with a company of friends, doing theatre wherever they could. He remained there for the rest of his life, producing countless shows.
Most everyone assumed Fred to be British, with his crisp diction, erect posture, and manners befitting a squire—until he spoke with relatives on the phone, and within seconds the "y"alls" fell like rain, exposing his Southern roots.
Freddie was the quintessential gentleman..he was exceedingly kind and generous, genuinely gracious, and, definitively, "ate, drank, and breathed theatre". He was a bit of "the last of his kind", having ridden the last waves of the off-off-Broadway movement begun in the Sixties, presenting theatre in storefronts and basements..any hole in the wall, until rents began to sky-rocket, and theatre morphed into corporate enterprises.
Through all those years, Fred remained true to himself, never less than another dying breed..a true gentleman.