Florenz Ames

Florenz Ames was an American actor, dancer and singer who came to performing relatively late, beginning in vaudeville as a singer and dancer before he made his name on Broadway. He was born in Rochester, New York, into a family of German descent, and his older brother, the playwright and producer Winthrop Ames, helped him get his start. He worked on Broadway from before World War I into the Korean War, in shows and musicals including Of Thee I Sing, Oklahoma! and several Gilbert and Sullivan operas. On television, between 1950 and 1956, he was Inspector Richard Queen in the first adaptation of the Ellery Queen detective stories, a part shared with Lee Bowman. His screen career expanded between 1950 and 1958, when he appeared in many films and television shows and worked alongside major Hollywood stars of the decade. He died in 1961.