Sig Frohlich

Biography

Sig Frohlich was born in what is now the Ukraine. Frohlich's size became his greatest asset. was his size. Since Frohlich wasn't the biggest of people this enabled him to specialize in playing things like seaman in the early 1930s. He was also able to wear costumes like he did a winged monkey in The Wizard of Oz. By the late 1930s, Frohlich's biggest once again came because of his size and stature because he became the regular the stand-in and stunt double for Mickey Rooney. A lot of extras were envious of Frohlich. Unlike many other stand-ins, Frohlich constantly got taken on location by Mickey Rooney. There was some speculation that Frohlich helped Rooney out when he was in a financial crisis and Rooney never forgot that. Nobody ever found out what it was but it lead to a steady stream of income until Rooney's work started to dry up and by the mid-1950s, Frohlich started finding work elsewhere as an extra and a stand-in. His suave appearance made him the idea person to play a waiter so he was frequently cast as one in television shows. Luckily for Frohlich, Mickey Rooney started to gain some work again and Frohlich resumed his role as Rooney's stand-in for all of his films. He constantly worked all throughout the filming of It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World and also appeared on screen as an air traffic controller. It was during this time that Frohlich started to appear as croupiers and waiters in many television shows that were filmed at Universal Studios. He regularly could be spotted in Mannix and Mission Impossible and in some of the upper class dress extra scenes. Like many extras, Sig eventually came at a crossroads. Since he was extremely well known and respected among the extras, he started obtaining work as an assistant director. He would keep track of all of extras on set and even was taken on location during the movie 1941 where he assisted Robert Buckingham as an extras casting director. During the 1980s, Frohlich was still used as a stand-in and was frequently upgraded to bit roles in movies like Airplane where he can be seen as the window washer of the airplane. He continued his usual roles through the late 1980s until he decided to retire. Frohlich loved every aspect of the motion picture industry and was always happy to tell stories about his career when he stayed at the Motion Picture Retirement Home until he passed away in 2005.