Gary Frank

Acting

Gary Frank

Born 1950-10-09 · Spokane, Washington, USA

Gary Frank (born October 9, 1950) is an acclaimed American actor most recognized for his portrayal of Willie Lawrence on the beloved 1970s ABC drama series Family. His sensitive performance on the show earned him a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 1977. Born in Spokane, Washington, Frank began his career as a child actor before gaining wider notice starring alongside Glynnis O'Connor in the 1974 series Sons and Daughters. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he became a prolific television presence, guest-starring on iconic programs such as Remington Steele, Murder, She Wrote, Matlock, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Beyond episodic TV, he appeared in notable television films like Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb and provided voice work for Batman: The Animated Series. As of 2024, Frank resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Carroll Newman, and has recently focused on writing his personal memoir.

Acting credits

The Distinguished Gentleman poster
6.0

A Florida con man uses the recent death of the long time Congressman from his district, who he just happens to share a last name with, to get elected to his version of paradise, the U.S. Congress, where the money flows from lobbyists.

The Distinguished Gentleman

1992

Deadly Weapon poster
4.3

An experimental gun powered by an atomic reactor is misplaced when the transport carrying it crashes into a river. The weapon soon falls into the hands of a bullied teen named Zeke, who uses it to get even with his persecutors. An army team led by the overzealous Lt. Dalton is sent to recover the weapon before it's unstable reactor overloads and causes a meltdown.

Deadly Weapon

1989

Olivia poster
6.5

This one hour special, aired May 17, 1978, features Olivia singing many of her hits with special guests Andy Gibb, ABBA, the Southern Californian Community Choir, and Gary Frank.

Olivia

1978

People Like Us poster
5.8

When a wealthy scriptwriter and socialite's daughter is murdered, he feels let down by the courts, and so decides to use his powerful position to enable his own form of justice.

People Like Us

1990

Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb poster
6.0

The story of Col. Paul Tibbets and his crew who flew the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, bringing World War II to a close.

Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb

1980

Nurses on the Line: The Crash of Flight 7 poster
6.1

Student nurses join some doctors to work in a medical station a few hours flying-time from the Mexican town of Catamaco. One of their planes goes down due to an engine malfunction and crashes in the rain forest. This is the story of the attempts to save the lives of the passengers (both nurses and doctors).

Nurses on the Line: The Crash of Flight 7

1993

Enemy Territory poster
5.6

An insurance salesman inadvertently gets trapped after dark in an apartment building that is terrorized by a street gang called "The Vampires."

Enemy Territory

1987

The Gift poster
6.5

A sailor on Christmas leave visits his boozing, one-legged father and dreamer mother in 1950s Brooklyn.

The Gift

1979

Prison of Secrets poster
5.2

Lynn Schaffer is willfully irresponsible once too often, gets fired and refuses a plea-bargain with her employer. She's now convicted and because of this uncooperative attitude gets the maximum sentence, 10 years in a women's jail wing. Model husband Larry, who wasn't informed of her dumb schemes is left running her appeal, the household and spoiled daughter who now feels abandoned. Since most inmates are junkies or prostitutes, sergeant Ed Crang and fellow corrupt jailers can run a 'favors in kind exchange'. For rebels, it gets worse. Larry however has his own radio show, so it all hangs on gathering proof.

Prison of Secrets

1997

Unspeakable Acts poster
5.5

Two psychologists try to demonstrate that a man is a pedophile and has abused many children.

Unspeakable Acts

1990

Getting Up and Going Home poster
10.0

A middle-aged lawyer struggles to face his inner demons as he finds himself embroiled in affairs with three separate women.

Getting Up and Going Home

1992

Like Father, Like Santa poster
5.8

An unscrupulous businessman, embittered by years of neglect from his true father, who happens to be Santa Claus, finds that after years of taking over numerous toy factories, he must save the holidays for the children of the world.

Like Father, Like Santa

1998

Death in Small Doses poster
6.5

One night Nancy Lyon awakes in pain and dies shortly after - poisoned with arsenic. Her family immediately suspects her husband Richard, who left her temporarily the year before because of an affair. Especially Nancy's brother is keen on getting the children away from the suspected murderer. All evidence points against Richard, but in court Richard surprisingly presents proof that his wife had depressions and maybe killed herself - or are these proofs just fake? -- Depicts an authentic case.

Death in Small Doses

1995

Emergency Room poster
9.0

An ER doctor divides her time between saving lives, playing hospital politics, and juggling a love affair with a fellow doctor.

Emergency Room

1983

Midnight Lace poster
8.0

A TV reporter is mercilessly stalked by a mysterious assassin in this remake of the 1960 Doris Day thriller.

Midnight Lace

1981

Untamed Love poster
5.9

A badly abused girl of 6 is saved from having to be admitted to an institution by a dedicated Special Education teacher whose class she's been placed in until there is an opening in the hospital. In that time they form a strong bond and the child begins to heal. The teacher begins to think an institution is not what this child needs.

Untamed Love

1994

Deliver Them from Evil: The Taking of Alta View poster
10.0

A man (Rick Worthington) assaults the Alta Vista Hospital taking four women, a man and two babies as hostages. He wants to kill Dr. Garrick, who, according to Worthington, ruined his life sterilizing his wife. He threatens to detonate a bomb. Based on a true story.

Deliver Them from Evil: The Taking of Alta View

1992

The Night the City Screamed poster
6.0

A massive blackout plunges a major American city into a night of terror.

The Night the City Screamed

1980

The New Love Boat poster
3.3

Guest stars include Georgia Engel as a stowaway, Gary Frank and Melanie Mayron as a pair of tremulous honeymooners, Stella Stevens and Pat Harrington as an eternally bickering married couple, and Audra Lindley and Phil Silvers as, respectively, an outspoken middle-aged lady and a woebegone widower.

The New Love Boat

1977

Flying Blind poster
9.0

Melodrama set in Philadelphia, PA in 1965. Eddie Panvini (Panebianco), a teenage photographer from South Philadelphia facing the Vietnam draft joins the coffeehouse fringe in 1965 Philadelphia and struggles with several moral choices before deciding to go to Vietnam as a war photographer.

Flying Blind

1990

Senior Year poster
10.0

Pilot for the short-lived series "Sons and Daughters" set in a high school in the 1950's and seen through the eyes of five carefree seniors.

Senior Year

1974

No artwork available
NR

It is the 1950s. Mary and John are getting a divorce. If only Mary had tried harder to please her husband... if she had cared enough to do whatever necessary to lose those last 5 pounds, it's possible her marriage could have been saved. If only she had trusted in modern science... ladies - don't be a Mary. Watch this clever modern film, lose those last 5 pounds. Your marriage, and your country, are depending on you.

How to Have a Happy Marriage

2012

No artwork available
NR

TV movie comprised of two episodes of the TV series Sons and Daughters (1974).

Love Is Not Forever

1974

Giving Up the Ghost poster
NR

Giving up the Ghost, a newly filmed interview with actor Gary Frank

Giving Up the Ghost

2025