Don Francks

Early life

Don Harvey Francks was born on February 28, 1932, and was adopted shortly after his birth. His mother worked at a music store and his father was an electrician. As a child, he performed on Vancouver radio doing imitations of singers. After dropping out of high school at age 15, he worked in several jobs.

Career

Acting

Francks's acting career began with CBC Television as a regular on Burns Chuckwagon from the Stampede Corral (1955–55) and Riding High (1955), then in the drama The Fast Ones (1959). In 1957 he had a part in the US series The Adventures of Tugboat Annie (actually filmed in Toronto, Ontario), then back to Canada in 1958 for Cannonball and Long Shot (1959). In 1959–60 he starred in the CBC-TV series R.C.M.P., playing Constable Bill Mitchell.

During the 1960s, Francks had roles on several US television shows including Mission: Impossible, Jericho, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Wild Wild West, and Mannix.

On February 16, 1965, he appeared on Broadway in the title role of the musical Kelly, as a daredevil planning to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge. The show was the first on Broadway in a generation to close on opening night after trying out in Philadelphia and Boston and playing five previews in New York.

In 1968, he co-starred with Fred Astaire and Petula Clark in the film version of Finian's Rainbow as Woody, his best-known movie role.

Francks narrated This Land (1970–86), a CBC-TV documentary series on Canadian nature, wildlife, natural resources, and life in remote communities. He portrayed writer Grey Owl, returning a half-century after his death to be disturbed by ecological deterioration (Episode "Land of Shadows", first aired 2 August 1983).

From 1997 to 2001, he played "Walter" in the TV series La Femme Nikita. In the 2015 six-part series Gangland Undercover on the History Channel, he played "Lizard". His film work includes The Big Town, My Bloody Valentine and Johnny Mnemonic.

Music

Francks composed songs and played trombone, drums, and flute. He performed in jazz clubs such as George's Spaghetti House in Toronto and the Village Vanguard in New York City, where he recorded a solo album titled Jackie Gleason Says No One in This World Is Like Don Francks (Kapp, 1963). The title echoed a remark made by Gleason when the trio performed "Bye Bye Blackbird" on the April 23, 1963 The Jackie Gleason Show. Two years later, Francks recorded his second album, Lost... and Alone, with orchestral arrangements by Patrick Williams (Kapp, 1965).

In August 1962, Francks's avant-garde jazz group Three debuted unrehearsed at Toronto's Purple Onion coffeehouse. Francks, Lenny Breau on guitar, and Eon Henstridge on double bass were joined on stage by tap dancer Joey Hollingsworth. The evening was recorded live by Breau's manager, George B. Sukornyk, but wasn't released until 2004 under the name At the Purple Onion (Art of Life, 2004). The band performed regularly in Toronto and New York City and appeared in the National Film Board documentary Toronto Jazz, which included rehearsals and performances by Three and two other groups.

Francks and Breau briefly reprised Three in early 1968 in Toronto with bassist Dave Young in place of Henstridge, who had died the year before. In 1999, Francks appeared in the documentary The Genius of Lenny Breau. He recorded his final album, 21st Century Francks, in 2002 (released in 2014) at the Top o' the Senator in Toronto.

Voice actor

Francks played Archie Goodwin with Mavor Moore as Nero Wolfe for a 1982 series on Canadian radio. He provided the voice of "Skunk" in Gene Simmons's animated television show, My Dad the Rock Star.

According to differing sources, either Francks or Gabriel Dell was the uncredited actor providing the voice of Boba Fett, a Mandalorian bounty hunter, in the Star Wars Holiday Special. Francks, credited, voiced Boba Fett in an episode of Star Wars: Droids.

He voiced several characters in Inspector Gadget along with his daughter Cree Summer, who voiced Penny during the show's first season.

Francks provided voices for Mok Swagger in the 1983 Canadian animated film Rock and Rule and Sabretooth on X-Men. He also voiced Thomas "House" Conklin and Sergeant Carl Proctor in the 1988 Police Academy animated series.

Personal life

Francks married twice and had several children, including Cree Summer and Rainbow Sun Francks.

An avid motorcycle rider, Don Francks also had a collection of twelve antique cars, mostly Model-T Ford racing cars dated 1912 to 1927.

He supported Greenpeace and the Tibetan independence movement.

After quitting alcohol at age 21, Francks smoked marijuana, performing a song called "Smoking Reefers."

As a spokesman for Other Voices (Canadian TV series) in the mid-1960s, he investigated a boy's murder at Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan.

Death

Francks died of lung cancer in Toronto on April 3, 2016.

Selected filmography

Film

Television

Videogames

Awards

• ACTRA Award for Best Dramatic Performance, Drying Up the Streets and The Phoenix Team, 1980 and 1981

Discography

Bibliography

• Heyn, Christopher. "A Conversation with Don Francks". Inside Section One: Creating and Producing TV's La Femme Nikita. Introduction by Peta Wilson. Los Angeles: Persistence of Vision Press, 2006. p. 100–105; .

References

References

1. "Summer's dream comes full circle" by Andrew Flynn, ''[[The Kingston Whig-Standard]]'' (3 April, 1999) Retrieved from {{ProQuest. 352988347
2. "Lush CBC film explores black history" by John McKay, ''[[The Kingston Whig-Standard]]'' (18 Nov, 1999) [Final Edition] Retrieved from {{ProQuest. 352976418
3. "Les Wiseman - TV Topics - Bluesman's cartoon goes to series" by Liz Pogue, ''[[Times Colonist]]'' (6 Oct, 1996) Retrieved from {{ProQuest. 345624682
4. "RCMP Constable Bill Mitchell".
5. In addition to ''[[Kelly (musical). Kelly]]'', Francks appeared in a 1965 Off-Broadway production, ''Leonard Bernstein's Theatre Songs''."Don Francks", ''[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]]'', English edition (2019) Retrieved from {{ProQuest. 2316648447
6. [https://ovrtur.com/production/2901798 "Leonard Bernstein's Theatre Songs: Original Off-Broadway Production (1965)"] at ovrtur.com
7. "For Don Francks, humanity comes first" by Jim Bearden, ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'' (2 July, 1980) Retrieved from {{ProQuest. 386906575
8. "This Land". [[CBC Radio]].
9. "It's a guilty pleasure!; Pouting blond bombshell Nikita gets a new life over at ONtv" by Bonnie Malleck, ''[[Waterloo Region Record. The Record]]'' (20 Jan, 2000) [Final Edition] Retrieved from {{ProQuest. 275684012
10. [https://playbackonline.ca/2015/01/12/history-canada-sets-launch-date-for-gangland-undercover/ "History Canada sets launch date for Gangland Undercover"] by Etan Vlessing at [[Playback (magazine). playbackonline.ca]]
11. Bearden, Jim. (August 1980). "Don Francks Full Circle".
12. "'No one in this world is like Don Francks': Popular performer was at home in Hollywood, on Broadway, in Toronto jazz clubs and on a native reserve in Saskatchewan" by Susan Ferrier MacKay, ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'' (15 April, 2016) Retrieved from {{ProQuest. 1781072262
13. "Toronto Jazz". [[National Film Board of Canada]].
14. Forbes-Roberts, Ron. (2006). "One Long Tune: The Life and Music of Lenny Breau". University of North Texas.
15. Britt, Ryan. (November 17, 2016). "38 Years Ago Today, Boba Fett Was Spotted for the First Time". [[Inverse (website).
16. "Cartoon Characters, Cast and Crew for The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)". [[The Big Cartoon DataBase]].
17. Bennest, Jack. "[Untitled Don Francks biography]". Museum of Radio in British Columbia.
18. "Actor or grease monkey? Don Francks loves both His collection of Model T runabouts spans 14 years" by Peter Bailey, ''[[Toronto Star]]'' (15 March, 1997) [Final Edition] Retrieved from {{ProQuest. 437645636
19. "The Canadian Encyclopedia". [[Historica Canada]].
20. (16 May 2018). "Singer, actor Don Francks was a fountain of endless creativity". [[The Globe and Mail]].
21. Wilkerson, Cynthia. "Interview with Gene Glazer". Cyn by the Sea.
22. Vlessing, Etan. (4 April 2016). "Actor, Jazz Musician Don Francks Dies at 84". [[The Hollywood Reporter]].
23. [https://playbackonline.ca/2004/07/19/cinemat-20040719/ "Stone finds beauty on Lie with Me"] by Marise Strauss at [[Playback (magazine). playbackonline.ca]]
24. [https://playbackonline.ca/2018/09/07/deals-cbc-radio-canada-cineflix-rights-jg-brothers/ "Deals: CBC Radio-Canada, First Run Features, Cineflix Rights, JG Brothers"] by Lauren Malyk at [[Playback (magazine). playbackonline.ca]]
25. "RPM GMP Albums - June 28, 1965".