Frank Jenks
| Frank Jenks | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 4, 1902 Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. |
| Died |
May 13, 1962 (aged 59) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Years active | 1933-1962 |
Frank Jenks (November 4, 1902 - May 13, 1962) was an acid-voiced American supporting actor of stage and films.
Jenks began in vaudeville and went on to a long career in movies and television, mostly in comedy. He was one of the more familiar faces and voices of the Hollywood Studio era. For almost ten years beginning in the early 1920s, Jenks was a song and dance man in vaudeville.
In 1933, when sound films had become the norm, and Broadway actors were moving to Hollywood in droves, Jenks's flat, sarcastic delivery landed him a film career. Internet Movie Data Base lists him appearing in 180 titles over the next 28 years (including TV) often as a sarcastic cabbie, reporter, cop or soldier. Usually a supporting actor, Jenks did appear occasionally as a film lead for low-budget films for PRC. Jenks appeared in not a few classics. In the Cary Grant- Rosalind Russell classic, His Girl Friday (1940), Jenks had his most famous role, as the cynical newsman "Wilson." When television began, Jenks made a successful transition.
His biggest continuing role was as the skeptical, proletarian right-hand man for the loquacious English conman Colonel Humphrey Flack (1953-1954), in the DuMont TV series of that name. He also had a leading role in the DuMont series Front Page Detective (1951-1952).
Partial filmography
- College Humor (1933)
- Don't Turn 'Em Loose (1936)
- The Witness Chair (1936)
- That Girl from Paris (1936)
- Follow the Fleet (1936)
- The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)
- The Big Broadcast of 1937 (1936)
- The Farmer in the Dell (1936)
- One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937)
- The Westland Case (1937)
- Saturday's Heroes (1937)
- There Goes My Gal (1937)
- Letter of Introduction (1938)
- Youth Takes a Fling (1938)
- Goodbye Broadway (1938)
- Love Is a Headache (1938)
- The Last Warning (1938)
- The Lady in the Morgue (1938)
- Golden Boy (1939)
- The Underpup (1939)
- First Love (1939)
- His Girl Friday (1940)
- A Little Bit of Heaven (1940)
- Three Cheers for the Irish (1940)
- Dancing on a Dime (1940)
- Scattergood Meets Broadway (1941)
- Seven Miles from Alcatraz (1942)
- Two Yanks in Trinidad (1942)
- The Navy Comes Through (1942)
- Maisie Gets Her Man (1942)
- Shantytown (1943)
- Gildersleeve's Bad Day (1943)
- The Human Comedy (1943)
- So's Your Uncle (1943)
- Roger Touhy, Gangster (1944)
- Shake Hands with Murder (1944)
- Strange Affair (1944)
- Two Girls and a Sailor (1944)
- Dixie Jamboree (1944)
- The Falcon in Hollywood (1944)
- This Is the Life (1944)
- Rosie the Riveter (1944)[1]
- Bedside Manner (1945)
- Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
- The Phantom of 42nd Street (1945)
- Steppin' in Society (1945)
- The Missing Corpse (1945)
- That Brennan Girl (1946)
- White Tie and Tails (1946)
- Joe Palooka in Winner Take All (1947)
- Philo Vance's Gamble (1947)
- Mr. Reckless (1948)
- Blondie's Reward (1948)
- To Please a Lady (1950)
- The Scarf (1951)
- Highway Dragnet (1953)
- White Lightning (1953)
- Sudden Danger (1955)
- Artists and Models (1955)
- Shake, Rattle & Rock! (1956)
- Friendly Persuasion (1956)
- The Houston Story (1956)
References
External links
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