Acting
Jun 12, 1962
London, England, UK
Mark Frankel
Acting
Biography
Mark David Frankel (13 June 1962 – 24 September 1996) was an English actor, known for his leading roles in the British film Leon the Pig Farmer and the American TV series Kindred: The Embraced. Frankel was born on 13 June 1962 in London, where he was raised. He was the son of David Lionel Frankel, a former Royal Air Force pilot, and Grace Marshall. His grandmother was a concert pianist, and his grandfather was a prominent violinist and conductor. His father's family were Jewish emigrants from Poland and Russia into the East End. His mother was from an Indian Jewish family in Mumbai and Iraq. He attended Frensham Heights School. Frankel was cast in his first professional theatre role at age 10, but he gave up acting at age 16 to focus on school. When he was 20, he returned to the theatre. He studied amateur dramatics, took numerous classes, and studied with Jack Walzer from the Actors Studio in New York. He then decided to attend drama school for classical training. He was awarded a full three-year scholarship to the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. It was during a performance in a play that he was spotted by a British casting agent and cast in the TNT mini-series A Season of Giants, winning the lead role of Michelangelo over more than 80 actors screen-testing for the part. The mini-series took Frankel on location to Italy, where he spent five months filming and working with F. Murray Abraham, John Glover, Ian Holm, and Steven Berkoff. Frankel described his first big break: "After graduation, while doing four plays in London, I auditioned for a film called A Season of Giants which was a TNT film about the life of Michelangelo. That same evening the director came to my play and asked me to star in his film. That was my first big break. It was very exciting because I had been out of drama school for only a month." On 24 September 1996, the 34-year-old Frankel died in a traffic crash from injuries sustained when he was hit by a lorry driver. The funeral service was carried out at Kingston Liberal Synagogue and was attended by friends, co-stars, and professional colleagues, including actor Jason Isaacs and director Gary Sinyor.
Feature Films (6)
Roseanna is dying of a heart condition, and all she wants is to be buried next to her daughter, in a cemetery that is getting full fast. The cemetery can't expand because Capestro, the man who owns the land next to the cemetery, won't sell. While Marcello is doing good deeds to make sure no one dies, Roseanna thinks of Marcello's future.
Roseanna's Grave
An irreverent comedy is set in motion when Leon Geller, a sensitive Jewish boy from London, accidentally learns that his is the product of artificial insemination.
Leon the Pig Farmer
Katie can read minds. Being desirable, the male minds she reads are all thinking of one thing. She always responds by hitting them and storming off without explanation. Daniel is an expert in body language and interprets this as a sign she wants to be pursued. Since Daniel spends most of his time, when not terrorizing his students, pursuing women, Katie gets ever more exasperated that he is treating her exactly as he treats every presentable female from the motorcycle cop to the squeegee girl. She cannot read minds when her eyes are covered, or when minds are thinking in a foreign language, so she misinterprets Sandip's desire for hunger. She also holds Daniel responsible for his subconscious desire for his friend's wife (Caroline).
Solitaire for 2
Comedy thriller notable for the remarkably un-manic and restrained performance by Rik Mayall as single parent and part-time minicab driver Toby. Trying to juggle being Dad to seven -year old daughter Annie and study whilst also working at night for taxi controller Pete is hard enough. But when one night he crosses paths with mysterious femme fatal Clair, he finds himself plunged into a wild and hazardous adventure involving exploding manor houses, vengeful lovers and a magic medieval tournament.
Rik Mayall Presents: Clair de Lune
Television & Series (4)
Kindred: The Embraced is an American television series produced by John Leekley Productions and Spelling Television. Loosely based on the role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade, the series premiered on Fox on April 2, 1996, and ran for eight episodes before it was canceled on May 9, 1996. The series focused on San Francisco Police Detective Frank Kohanek who discovers his city is home to numerous vampires while investigating alleged mobster, Julian Luna. Julian is the "prince" of the city, ruler of five groups of vampires in the city, collectively called "The Kindred". The vampires survive through the "masquerade", disguising themselves as humans, and Julian strictly enforces the laws that govern them to protect their anonymity. Julian and Frank form an uneasy bond as they work together to try to prevent a vampire war and Julian struggles with his romantic feelings for human reporter Caitlin Byrne. The eight episodes of the series have been released on VHS and DVD.
Kindred: The Embraced
Fortune Hunter is an American weekly series show on Fox Network in 1994, starring Mark Frankel as the super-spy Carlton Dial. In the US, Fortune Hunter aired on Fox from 4 Sep 1994 to 2 Oct 1994. Of the 13 episodes produced, only five were presented to the North American audience. The decision to schedule the series immediately after football on Sundays was a factor in the dismissal of Sandy Grushow, president of Fox Entertainment, by chairman Rupert Murdoch. The show has aired in its entirety in other countries. It was well liked and generally received high ratings.
Fortune Hunter
Based on the novels by Georges Simenon, Michael Gambon plays the eponymous detective from the Sûreté in this 1992 revival of the 1960s BBC drama series. Maigret is an intuitutive detective, who investigates his cases by watching and listening, getting to know everyone on his list of suspects until someone makes a slip or breaks down and confesses.
