Frank Shields
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Francis Xavier ("Frank") Shields (November 18, 1909, in New York City - August 19, 1975 in New York City) was an outstanding amateur American tennis player of the 1920s and 1930s.
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[edit] Tennis career
Between 1928 and 1945 he was ranked eight times in the U.S. Top Ten, reaching Number 1 in 1933 and Number 2 in 1930.
[edit] Davis Cup
He competed for the Davis Cup in 1931, 1932, and 1934, winning 19 of 25 matches, and was the non-playing captain in 1951, when the team won four matches.
In 1951 he was at the center of a controversy that resulted in Dick Savitt, reigning US singles champion, quitting competitive tennis at the age of 25 after Shields snubbed him by failing to let Savitt play for the U.S. Davis Cup team. Savitt had played and won his three early 1951 Cup matches, winning 9 of 10 sets, en route to leading the American team into the championship round against Australia.[1] Shields did not permit Savitt to compete against the Aussies whom, only months earlier, Savitt had dominated at Wimbledon and in Australia. Savitt had trounced Australia’s top seed Ken McGregor in three straight sets to win at Wimbledon and won the Australian Singles championship, becoming the first non-Aussie to win that title in 13 years. Ted Schroeder, who had lost every one of his Davis Cup matches the year before and was in semi-retirement, was chosen instead. Without Savitt playing singles, the United States lost the 1951 Davis Cup to Australia.
[edit] Marriages
His first wife was Rebecca Tenney; they were married in 1932 and divorced in 1940, on the grounds of his "habitual intemperance."
His second wife, whom he married in 1940 and later divorced, was the Italian Princess Donna Marina Torlonia di Civitella-Cesi. She was a daughter of Marino Torlonia, 4th prince of Civitella-Cesi and the American heiress Mary Elsie Moore (1888 - 1941), and a sister of Don Alessandro Torlonia, 5th Prince di Civitella-Cesi, the husband of the Spanish Infanta Beatriz de Borbón. Shields had two children by Marina Torlonia: a son, Francis Alexander Shields (the father of actress Brooke Shields), and a daughter, Cristiana Marina Shields.
His third wife, whom he married in 1949, and also later divorced, was Katharine Mortimer, a daughter of financier Stanley Grafton Mortimer Sr. and the former wife of Oliver Cadwell Biddle. By his third marriage he had two children,Katharine Shields and William Xavier Shields. He also had a stepdaughter, Christine Mortimer Biddle.
[edit] Acting career
Shields appeared in the following films:
- Murder in the Fleet - 1935 as "Lieutenant Arnold"
- I Live My Life - 1935 as "outer office secretary"
- Come and Get It - 1936 - as "Tony Schwerke"
- The Affairs of Cappy Ricks - 1937 - as "Waldo Bottomley, Jr."
- Hoosier Schoolboy - 1937 - as "Jack Matthews. Jr."
- Dead End - 1937 - as "well-dressed man"
- The Goldwyn Follies - 1938 - as "assistant director"
[edit] International Tennis Hall of Fame
Shields was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island in 1964.
[edit] Career highlights
- Cincinnati Singles Champion, 1930
- U.S. Singles finalist, 1930
- U.S. Singles Mixed doubles finalist, 1930
- Wimbledon Singles finalist, 1931
- U.S. Singles Doubles finalist, 1933
- Davis Cup Team Member 1931-32, 1934
