Fredric March of Our Lives". March also branched out into television, winning Emmy nominations for his third attempt at "The Royal Family" for the series "The Best of Broadway" as well as for television performances as Samuel Dodsworth and Ebenezer Scrooge. On March 25, 1954, March co-hosted the 26th Annual Academy Awards ceremony from New York City, with co-host Donald O'Connor in Los Angeles. March's neighbor in Connecticut, playwright Arthur Miller, was thought to favor March to inaugurate the part of Willy Loman in the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Death of a Salesman" (1949). However, March read the play and turned down the role,
Fredric March whereupon director Elia Kazan cast Lee J. Cobb as Willy, and Arthur Kennedy as one of Willy's sons, Biff Loman, two men that the director had worked with in the film "Boomerang" (1947). March later regretted turning down the role and finally played Willy Loman in Columbia Pictures's 1951 film version of the play, directed by Laslo Benedek, receiving his fifth and final Oscar nomination as well as a Golden Globe Award. March also played one of two leads in "The Desperate Hours" (1955) with Humphrey Bogart. Bogart and Spencer Tracy had both insisted upon top billing and Tracy withdrew,