Frank Doubleday

Acting

Frank Doubleday

Born 1945-01-28 · Norwich, Connecticut, USA

Thin, intense, antsy, and often unnerving character actor Frank Doubleday usually portrayed creepy villains in both movies and TV shows alike from the mid-1970's up until the early 1990's. Frank was born on January 28, 1945 in Norwich, Connecticut and came with his family to Los Angeles, California at age six. Doubleday made his film debut as an aggressive switchblade-wielding punk thug in the hilariously raunchy comedy The First Nudie Musical (1976). Doubleday's lean, hollow-eyed, sunken-cheeked face, closely cropped light blonde hair, skinny limbs, and slim build gave him a striking and potent screen presence that was put to especially effective use in two pictures for director John Carpenter: He's genuinely scary as the vicious street gang leader who kills little girl Kim Richards in cold blood in the terrific urban action classic Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) and was likewise memorably freaky as Isaac Hayes' ghoulish flunky "Romero" in the excellent futuristic science fiction cult favorite Escape from New York (1981). Doubleday's other noteworthy parts are a mob kingpin's conceited jerk son in Avenging Angel (1985), a fidgety prison inmate in the nifty science fiction item Space Rage (1985), a ferocious member of a roving murderous band of supernatural Eskimo spirits in the spooky Nomads (1986), a mercenary in Broadcast News (1987), and a sweaty, twitchy hoodlum who holds a bunch of fat ladies hostage in a laundromat in the funky urban science fiction hoot Dollman (1991). Among the TV shows Doubleday did guest appearances on are Amazing Stories (1985), Sledge Hammer! (1986), Stingray (1985), T.J. Hooker (1982), Hill Street Blues (1981), CHiPs (1977), The Incredible Hulk (1978), Charlie's Angels (1976), Wonder Woman (1975) and Starsky and Hutch (1975). Outside of acting, Frank also directed stage plays and taught acting at the Hollywood Court Theater. Doubleday died at age 73 from esophageal cancer on March 3, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.

Acting credits

Escape from New York poster
7.0

In a world ravaged by crime, the entire island of Manhattan has been converted into a walled prison where brutal prisoners roam free. After the US president crash-lands inside, war hero Snake Plissken has 24 hours to bring him back.

Escape from New York

1981

Assault on Precinct 13 poster
7.3

A highway patrol officer, two criminals, and a station secretary form an unlikely alliance to defend a defunct Los Angeles precinct against a siege by a bloodthirsty street gang.

Assault on Precinct 13

1976

Broadcast News poster
6.8

A high-strung news producer finds herself in a love triangle between a talented but self-doubting reporter and a charming news anchor who embodies the growing trivialization of news that she is determined to fight against.

Broadcast News

1987

Nomads poster
4.8

One night, in a Los Angeles hospital, Dr. Flax attends to a seriously injured man who, apparently crazed, whispers mysterious and disconcerting words in French into her ear.

Nomads

1986

Avenging Angel poster
5.2

Molly Stewart, now a law student at UCLA, is determined to leave her prostitute past behind. After learning that the detective who helped save her life has been murdered, she quickly finds herself pitted against an underworld of mob figures who might be more than she's bargained for...

Avenging Angel

1985

Butch and Sundance: The Early Days poster
5.0

Before the adventures that made them legends, they were charming mastermind Robert Leroy Parker, alias Butch Cassidy, and crack-shot outlaw Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, soon to be known as The Sundance Kid. This is the 'prequel' of how they met, their first clumsy robberies, the heroic dangers that abound them together, the secret that nearly tore them apart, and the impossible train heist that made them notorious for life. Saddle up and ride with the showdowns, shootouts, bad guys and good times in the days before the fame when fun was the name of the game.

Butch and Sundance: The Early Days

1979

The First Nudie Musical poster
5.0

The heir to a bankrupt studio decides to make a daring musical to avoid demolition, agreeing to finish it in two weeks or lose ownership.

The First Nudie Musical

1976

The Big Fix poster
5.8

Private detective Moses Wine is hired by his former college girlfriend to investigate a political smear campaign and he sets out to find out who is responsible, with deadly results.

The Big Fix

1978

Dollman poster
4.8

Brick Bardo is a traveller from outer space who is forced to land on Earth. Though regular sized on his home planet, he is doll-sized here on Earth, as are the enemy forces who have landed as well. While Brick enlists the help of an impoverished girl and her son, the bad guys enlist the help of a local gang. When word leaks out as to his location, and all hell breaks loose, Brick is besieged by an onslaught of curious kids, angry gang members, and his own doll-sized enemies, and he must protect the family who has helped him and get off the planet alive.

Dollman

1991

A Killing Affair poster
4.8

A white female detective is partnered with a black male detective to find the person who is committing a series of particularly vicious murders. During the course of the investigation the two begin to develop an attraction to each other, but the situation is complicated by the fact that he is married.

A Killing Affair

1977

Space Rage poster
4.1

In this sci-fi/western film set two hundred years from now, a bank robber, Grange is captured and sentenced to the penal colony on the mining planet Proxima Centauri 3 where he meets bounty-hunter Walker, and the Colonel, a retired policeman from LA who was considered the best of his kind. Grange is a dangerous lunatic and Walker and the Colonel must team up to keep him from escaping.

Space Rage

1985

L.A. Bounty poster
4.3

Mayor candidate Mike Rhodes is kidnapped in his own home outside of Los Angeles by unknown, masked terrorists. His wife Kelly barely survives the attempted murder on her, and is able to identify one of the kidnappers. She's placed on the police's protection list while the investigation is ongoing. Ruger, a tough and merciless bounty hunter is out on the streets avenging her partner's death. With Kelly as her bait, Ruger starts a dangerous game to bring Cavanough, a crazed crime kingpin behind the kidnapping, out of hiding.

L.A. Bounty

1989

Alex & the Gypsy poster
4.6

A bail bondsman falls in love with one of his "customers" — a gypsy girl, who's been accused of attempted murder.

Alex & the Gypsy

1976

Longarm poster
6.0

A showdown is staged between a U.S. deputy marshal and the outlaw gang that raised him in the New Mexico Territory of 1887.

Longarm

1988

Abar, the First Black Superman poster
4.4

Upon moving into a bigoted neighborhood, the scientist father of a persecuted black family gives a superpower elixir to a tough bodyguard, who thus becomes a superpowered crimefighter.

Abar, the First Black Superman

1977

Shakespeare's Plan 12 from Outer Space poster
7.0

William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night", re-imagined in a child's vision of Hell. "Shakespeare's Plan 12 from Outer Space" is a festive yarn, comprised of the most homely and vulgar materials, while shamelessly thwarted buy the Bard's coarsest of jokes and grossest buffoonery.

Shakespeare's Plan 12 from Outer Space

1996