Frank Jenks
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| Frank Jenks | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 4, 1902 Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. |
| Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. 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
- The Witness Chair (1936)
- That Girl from Paris (1936)
- One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937)
- Letter of Introduction (1938)
- Youth Takes a Fling (1938)
- Goodbye Broadway (1938)
- First Love (1939)
- His Girl Friday (1940)
- Dancing on a Dime (1940)
- Seven Miles from Alcatraz (1942)
- Two Yanks in Trinidad (1942)
- Roger Touhy, Gangster (1944)
- Shake Hands with Murder (1944)
- This Is the Life (1944)
- Bedside Manner (1945)
- Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
- The Phantom of 42nd Street (1945)
- The Missing Corpse (1945)
- Mr. Reckless (1948)
- To Please a Lady (1950)
- White Lightning (1953)
- Sudden Danger (1955)
- Shake, Rattle & Rock! (1956)
- The Houston Story (1956)
References
External links
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