Charles Frank
Encyclopedia
Charles R. Frank is an American
actor
noted for playing Bret Maverick
's cousin Ben Maverick in the 1978 TV-movie The New Maverick
with James Garner
and Jack Kelly
, and in the short-lived 1979 television series Young Maverick
. Graduated with the class of 1969 from MIddlebury College.
soap opera
All My Children
. In 2006, it was announced that the character would be taken over by John James
, former of Dynasty
.
He also appeared twice on two episodes of M*A*S*H and once on the CBS
family drama, Three for the Road
. In 1977 Frank costarred with Deborah Winters
and Claude Akins
in the television horror film, Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo
, directed by Stuart Hagmann.
In 1979, he appeared as Lester Hackett in four episodes in the CBS miniseries
The Chisholms
; when the production resumed in 1980, he was replaced in the role by Reid Smith
. In 1982, Frank portrayed independently wealthy Stanley Beck on the short lived series Filthy Rich
. Frank played astronaut Scott Carpenter
in the movie version of Tom Wolfe
's novel The Right Stuff
(1983). He costarred with Dennis Weaver
in CBS's short-lived (1983–1984) Emerald Point N.A.S.
. Frank played Jack Warren, who was married to Susan Dey
's character, Celia Mallory, who in the series divorce
s him to marry another lieutenant, Simon Adams, played by Richard Dean Anderson
, later ABCs
MacGyver
.
Frank was reunited with former co-star Dixie Carter
(she played his snide and snobby sister in-law, Carlotta) on her CBS series, Designing Women
. In a 1992 episode, Frank played Mark, a date of her character, Julia.
In 2004, Frank narrated C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America
, a mockumentary
based in an alternate timeline in which the Confederacy won the American Civil War
.
that Frank met his wife Susan Blanchard
, who played his character's wife, Mary Kennicott Martin. They married in 1977 and have one child.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
noted for playing Bret Maverick
Bret Maverick
Bret Maverick is an American Western series starring James Garner in the role that made him famous in the 1957 series Maverick: a professional poker player traveling alone year after year through the Old West from riverboat to saloon...
's cousin Ben Maverick in the 1978 TV-movie The New Maverick
The New Maverick
The New Maverick is a 1978 made-for-TV movie based on the 1957 television series Maverick, with James Garner as Bret Maverick, Charles Frank as newcomer cousin Ben Maverick , Jack Kelly as Bart Maverick, and Susan Sullivan as "Poker Alice" Ivers. The TV-movie was a pilot for the series Young...
with James Garner
James Garner
James Garner is an American film and television actor, one of the first Hollywood actors to excel in both media. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades...
and Jack Kelly
Jack Kelly (actor)
Jack Kelly was an American film and television actor most noted for the role of "Bart Maverick" in the TV series Maverick, which ran on ABC from 1957 to 1962...
, and in the short-lived 1979 television series Young Maverick
Young Maverick
Young Maverick is a 1979 television series that unsuccessfully attempted to recapture some of the magic of the highly successful 1957 series Maverick, which had starred James Garner as roving gambler Bret Maverick. Charles Frank played Ben Maverick, the son of Beau Maverick, making him Bret's...
. Graduated with the class of 1969 from MIddlebury College.
Career
From 1970 to 1974 (and again in 1988 and 1995), Frank played Dr. Jeff Martin on the ABCAmerican Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
All My Children
All My Children
All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...
. In 2006, it was announced that the character would be taken over by John James
John James (actor)
John James Anderson is an American actor, best known to television audiences for playing the character of Jeff Colby in both the prime-time soap opera Dynasty and its spin-off series The Colbys throughout the 1980s....
, former of Dynasty
Dynasty (TV series)
Dynasty is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 12, 1981 to May 11, 1989. It was created by Richard & Esther Shapiro and produced by Aaron Spelling, and revolved around the Carringtons, a wealthy oil family living in Denver, Colorado...
.
He also appeared twice on two episodes of M*A*S*H and once on the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
family drama, Three for the Road
Three for the Road (TV series)
Three for the Road was a 12-episode CBS drama television series about a recently widowed father and his two sons who in an attempt to assuage their grief, sell their house, procure a recreational vehicle, called the "Zebec", and travel around the United States...
. In 1977 Frank costarred with Deborah Winters
Deborah Winters
Deborah Winters is an American actress and businesswoman. Winters is probably most remembered for her roles in Kotch, The People Next Door, Class of '44, and The Winds of War...
and Claude Akins
Claude Akins
Claude Marion Akins was an American actor with a long career on stage, screen and television.Powerful in appearance and voice, Akins could be counted on to play the clever tough guy, on the side of good or bad, in movies and television. He is best remembered as Sheriff Lobo in the 1970s TV series...
in the television horror film, Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo
Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo
Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo is a 1977 television horror film directed by Stuart Hagmann. The production stars Claude Akins, Charles Frank and Deborah Winters. Matthew Laborteaux and Pat Hingle costar...
, directed by Stuart Hagmann.
In 1979, he appeared as Lester Hackett in four episodes in the CBS miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
The Chisholms
The Chisholms
The Chisholms is a CBS western miniseries starring Robert Preston, which aired thirteen episodes from March 29, 1979, to April 19, 1979, and from January 19, 1980, to March 15, 1980. The 1979 episodes showed the family moving from Virginia to Wyoming...
; when the production resumed in 1980, he was replaced in the role by Reid Smith
Reid Smith
Reid Smith is a wealthy Los Angeles, California, real estate businessman, who maintained a sporadic acting career from 1970 until about 1990.-Acting career:...
. In 1982, Frank portrayed independently wealthy Stanley Beck on the short lived series Filthy Rich
Filthy Rich (1982 TV series)
Filthy Rich is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from August 1982 to July 1983. Starring Dixie Carter and Delta Burke, the series satirized prime-time soap operas such as Dallas and Dynasty.-Plot:...
. Frank played astronaut Scott Carpenter
Scott Carpenter
Malcolm Scott Carpenter is an American engineer, former test pilot, astronaut, and aquanaut. He is best known as one of the original seven astronauts selected for NASA's Project Mercury in April 1959....
in the movie version of Tom Wolfe
Tom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly "Tom" Wolfe, Jr. is a best-selling American author and journalist. He is one of the founders of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s.-Early life and education:...
's novel The Right Stuff
The Right Stuff (book)
The Right Stuff is a 1979 book by Tom Wolfe about the pilots engaged in U.S. postwar experiments with experimental rocket-powered, high-speed aircraft as well as documenting the stories of the first Project Mercury astronauts selected for the NASA space program...
(1983). He costarred with Dennis Weaver
Dennis Weaver
William Dennis Weaver was an American actor, best known for his work in television, including roles on Gunsmoke, as Marshal Sam McCloud on the NBC police drama McCloud, and the 1971 TV movie Duel....
in CBS's short-lived (1983–1984) Emerald Point N.A.S.
Emerald Point N.A.S.
Emerald Point N.A.S is an American television drama starring Dennis Weaver that premiered on CBS on Monday, September 26, 1983. It was cancelled in 1984 after twenty-two weeks, its final episode airing March 12, 1984....
. Frank played Jack Warren, who was married to Susan Dey
Susan Dey
Susan Dey is an American actress, known primarily for her roles in film and television. Her more prominent parts came as elder daughter, Laurie Partridge, on the 1970s sitcom The Partridge Family, and as Grace Van Owen, a California assistant district attorney and judge on the dramatic series, L.A...
's character, Celia Mallory, who in the series divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
s him to marry another lieutenant, Simon Adams, played by Richard Dean Anderson
Richard Dean Anderson
Richard Dean Anderson is an American television and film actor, producer and composer. He began his television career in 1976 as Dr. Jeff Webber in the American soap opera series General Hospital, then rose to prominence as the lead actor in the television series MacGyver...
, later ABCs
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
MacGyver
MacGyver
MacGyver is an American action-adventure television series created by Lee David Zlotoff. Henry Winkler and John Rich were the executive producers. The show ran for seven seasons on ABC in the United States and various other networks abroad from 1985 to 1992. The series was filmed in Los Angeles...
.
Frank was reunited with former co-star Dixie Carter
Dixie Carter
Dixie Virginia Carter was an American film, television and stage actress, best known for her role as Julia Sugarbaker in the CBS sitcom Designing Women...
(she played his snide and snobby sister in-law, Carlotta) on her CBS series, Designing Women
Designing Women
Designing Women is an American television sitcom that centered on the working and personal lives of four Southern women and one man in an interior design firm in Atlanta, Georgia. It aired on the CBS television network from September 29, 1986 until May 24, 1993. The show was created by head writer...
. In a 1992 episode, Frank played Mark, a date of her character, Julia.
In 2004, Frank narrated C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America
C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America
C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America is a 2004 mockumentary directed by Kevin Willmott. It is a fictional "tongue-in-cheek" account of an alternate history, in which the Confederates won the American Civil War, establishing the new Confederate States of America...
, a mockumentary
Mockumentary
A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...
based in an alternate timeline in which the Confederacy won the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.
Personal life
It was on the set of All My ChildrenAll My Children
All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...
that Frank met his wife Susan Blanchard
Susan Blanchard (actress)
Susan Blanchard-Frank is an American actress, best known for playing Mary Kennicott Martin, R. N. #2 on the ABC soap opera All My Children from 1971 to 1975....
, who played his character's wife, Mary Kennicott Martin. They married in 1977 and have one child.