Frank Ellis

Acting

Frank Ellis

Born — Died

1897-02-26 — 1969-02-23

Place of birth

Newkirk, Oklahoma, USA

Known for

Acting

Credits

65 titles

Frank Ellis was born on February 26, 1897 in Newkirk, Oklahoma, USA as Frank Birney Ellis. He was an actor, known for The Desert Demon (1925), The Fighting Sheriff (1925) and Trails of Danger (1930). He died on February 23, 1969 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Known for

Wagon Train poster
6.6

The series initially starred veteran movie supporting actor Ward Bond as the wagon master, later replaced upon his death by John McIntire, and Robert Horton as the scout, subsequently replaced by lookalike Robert Fuller a year after Horton had decided to leave the series. The series was inspired by the 1950 film Wagon Master directed by John Ford and starring Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr. and Ward Bond, and harkens back to the early widescreen wagon train epic The Big Trail starring John Wayne and featuring Bond in his first major screen appearance playing a supporting role. Horton's buckskin outfit as the scout in the first season of the television series resembles Wayne's, who also played the wagon train's scout in the earlier film.

Wagon Train

1957

The Virginian poster
6.5

The Shiloh Ranch in Wyoming Territory of the 1890s is owned in sequence by Judge Henry Garth, the Grainger brothers, and Colonel Alan MacKenzie. It is the setting for a variety of stories, many more based on character and relationships than the usual western.

The Virginian

1962

Have Gun, Will Travel poster
7.3

Have Gun – Will Travel is an American Western television series that aired on CBS from 1957 through 1963. It was rated number three or number four in the Nielsen ratings every year of its first four seasons. It was one of the few television shows to spawn a successful radio version. The radio series debuted November 23, 1958. The television show is presently shown on the Encore-Western channel. Have Gun – Will Travel was created by Sam Rolfe and Herb Meadow and produced by Frank Pierson, Don Ingalls, Robert Sparks, and Julian Claman. There were 225 episodes of the TV series, 24 written by Gene Roddenberry. Other contributors included Bruce Geller, Harry Julian Fink, Don Brinkley and Irving Wallace. Andrew McLaglen directed 101 episodes and 19 were directed by series star Richard Boone.

Have Gun, Will Travel

1957

Room 104 poster
5.7

An anthology series set in a single hotel room, where every guest who comes to stay reveals a unique set of circumstances and quirks.

Room 104

2017

To Kill a Mockingbird poster
8.0

Scout Finch, 6, and her older brother Jem live in sleepy Maycomb, Alabama, spending much of their time with their friend Dill and spying on their reclusive and mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley. When Atticus, their widowed father and a respected lawyer, defends a black man named Tom Robinson against fabricated rape charges, the trial and tangent events expose the children to evils of racism and stereotyping.

To Kill a Mockingbird

1962

Western Union poster
6.0

When Edward Creighton leads the construction of the Western Union to unite East with West, he hires a Western reformed outlaw and a tenderfoot Eastern surveyor. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation in 2000.

Western Union

1941

Film credits

1960s · 4 titles

1950s · 8 titles

Man from God's Country poster
5.0

Dan Beattie gives up his lawman job to move further west and rejoin his old war buddy Curt Warren in the town of Sundown. At first mistaken for a railroad agent by Beau Santee, a Sundown businessman who wants to keep the railroad away from his town, Dan is nearly killed by Santee's henchman, Mark Faber. Dan discovers that his old pal Curt works for Santee. Even after learning Dan's true identity, Santee considers him trouble and plots to get rid of him. With the help of Curt's son Stony, Dan tries to get Curt to take a stand on the right side of the law.

Man from God's Country

1958

Man in the Saddle poster
6.6

A small rancher is being harassed by his mighty and powerful neighbor. When the neighbor even hires gunmen to intimidate him he has to defend himself and his property by means of violence.

Man in the Saddle

1951

Woman They Almost Lynched poster
6.6

Led by its female mayor, a neutral town on the Arkansas-Missouri border during the Civil War attempts to stay peaceful. A newcomer looking for her brother is pulled into the town’s violence.

Woman They Almost Lynched

1953

The Great Jesse James Raid poster
6.0

The famed outlaw is talked into saddling up for one more bank robbery.

The Great Jesse James Raid

1953

King of the Congo poster
10.0

An Air Force captain is assigned to find some missing top-secret microfilm.

King of the Congo

1952

Short Grass poster
6.0

Steve Llewellyn hung up his guns after killing a man in self-defense, left Willow Creek and went on the drift for five years. Now he’s back. And the bad blood stirred up by his return and the violence caused by a cattleman’s grab for all the good grasslands mean Steve must strap on his sidearms again. Rod Cameron -- who became a marquee draw with a pair of espionage serials in the 1940s and went on to establish himself as a popular cowboy star -- makes Steve a hero to reckon with in Short Grass, one of the actor’s 10 films with busy shoot-‘em-up director Lesley Selander. Johnny Mack Brown, a sagebrush stalwart in his own right, plays the marshal who allies with Steve. Adding to the Western pedigree is costar Cathy Downs, who plays the title role in the iconic My Darling Clementine. Buffs will note other familiar faces, including Alan Hale, Jr., well remembered as the skipper who takes a “three-hour tour” to Gilligan’s Island.

Short Grass

1950

The Yellow Mountain poster
5.4

A formula brawling-buddies western where one goes bad and then returns to the fold. Pete Menlo owns some gold claims in Nevada where he is joined by his old friend Andy Martin. Crooked mine-owner Bannon wants to merge their interests so they can create a monopoly but is turned down. Pete is interested in "Nevada" Wray, daughter of mine-owner "Jackpot" Wray, but she has eyes only for Andy. The rejected Pete joins forces with Bannon and they learn that, because of location, "Jackpot" Wray may be the owner of all the gold in the respective veins. Bannon and his men try to get rid of Andy.

The Yellow Mountain

1954

Mysterious Island poster
6.6

It is 1865 and Union prisoners use a military balloon to escape a Southern prison camp near the end of the Civil War. The balloon drifts for days and finally lands on a mysterious volcanic island with very unusual inhabitants. Also landing, in a better aircraft, is Rulu, a visitor from Mercury. She seeks a radio-active material that will enable her to manufacture an explosive that will destroy the world or, at least, the portion known as Earth in this 15 Chapter Serial from the 1950s.

Mysterious Island

1951

1940s · 28 titles

Western Union poster
6.0

When Edward Creighton leads the construction of the Western Union to unite East with West, he hires a Western reformed outlaw and a tenderfoot Eastern surveyor. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation in 2000.

Western Union

1941

My Darling Clementine poster
7.5

Three brothers stop off for a night in the town of Tombstone. The next morning they find one of their brothers dead and their cattle stolen. They decide to take revenge on the culprits.

My Darling Clementine

1946

The Green Hornet Strikes Again! poster
6.8

Second serial featuring The Green Hornet and Kato.

The Green Hornet Strikes Again!

1940

Mysterious Doctor Satan poster
6.0

A mad scientist named Dr. Satan plots to steal key pieces of technology to enable him to build an army of robots based on his prototype to conquer America. The only one standing in his way is Bob Wayne, who fights Satan as the enigmatic Copperhead. Mysterious Doctor Satan is a 1940 film serial named after its chief villain. Doctor Satan's main opponent is the masked mystery man, "The Copperhead", whose secret identity is Bob Wayne, a man searching for justice and revenge on Satan for the death of his step-father. The serial charts the conflict between the two as Bob Wayne pursues Doctor Satan, while the latter completes his plans for world domination.

Mysterious Doctor Satan

1940

The Lone Rider Rides On poster
9.0

Tom Cameron is searching for the outlaws who ambushed a wagon train, murdered his parents and stole the deed to their land. Though he was only a child at the time, he vividly remembers the scar on the ringleader's face -- and Tom will stop at nothing until he brings him to justice … and exacts vengeance.

The Lone Rider Rides On

1941

The Son of Davy Crockett poster
10.0

Dave Crockett comes to the aid of ranchers living on the Yucca Strip, who want their area made part of the United States. A greedy land baron, however, wants the property as his own.

The Son of Davy Crockett

1941

Along Came Jones poster
5.8

An easy-going cowboy is mistaken by the townsfolk for a notorious gunman. The cowboy decides it would be best to leave town, until he meets the gunman's girlfriend.

Along Came Jones

1945

In Old California poster
5.3

Boston pharmacist Tom Craig comes to Sacramento, where he runs afoul of local political boss Britt Dawson, who exacts protection payment from the citizenry. Dawson frames Craig with poisoned medicine, but Craig redeems himself during a Gold Rush epidemic.

In Old California

1942

Outlaws of Boulder Pass poster
5.5

Harkness controls Boulder Pass and his men are overcharging the ranches for its usage. When Tom Cameron steps in to rob the tollgate keepers and return the money to the ranchers, he gets caught.

Outlaws of Boulder Pass

1942

Wild Bill Hickok Rides poster
5.5

The Western hero takes on a ruthless land baron whose henchmen killed his best friend.

Wild Bill Hickok Rides

1942

My Little Chickadee poster
6.4

On her way by stagecoach to visit relatives out west, Flower Belle Lee is held up by a masked bandit who also takes the coach's shipment of gold. When he abducts Flower Belle and they arrive in town, Flower Belle is suspected of being in collusion with the bandit.

My Little Chickadee

1940

Stick to Your Guns poster
5.7

Buck Peters arranges for Hoppy, California, Johnny and other cowboys to go to the aid of friends whose cattle are being rustled. Hoppy and California locate the rustlers' hideout and join the gang by posing as outlaws themselves, but must find a way to let the rest of the posse know where they are.

Stick to Your Guns

1941

Down Texas Way poster
6.5

"The Rough Riders", has U. S. Marshals Buck Roberts (Buck Jones) and Tim McCall (Tim McCoy) coming to a Texas town to visit their friend, U. S. Marshal Sandy Hopkins (Raymond Hatton), only to learn that he has disappeared, and is suspected of the murder of John Dodge (Jack Daley), owner of practically the whole town, except the hotel Sandy owns and runs when he isn't on an assignment as a Marshal. The murder has been committed by the henchmen of Bart Logan (Harry Woods), who intends to take over the dead man's property and whose men are holding Sandy prisoner to make it appear that he fled after arguing with and killing Dodge. Just before the murder, Logan sent a letter to Dodge with the news that the latter's long-missing wife is returning, and in a short while, Stella (Lois Austin), a Logan accomplice, arrives posing as the missing Ann Dodge, thus establishing her right to the Dodge property. Sandy, allowed to escape, returns ... Written by Les Adams

Down Texas Way

1942

Drums of Fu Manchu poster
6.2

The nefarious Dr. Fu Manchu searches for the keys to the tomb of Genghis Khan, in order to fulfill a prophecy that will enable him to conquer the world. His nemesi, Dr. Nayland Smith and his associates fight to keep the evil doctor from getting his hands on the keys. In 1943 the serial was edited together into a feature movie also called Drums of Fu Manchu.

Drums of Fu Manchu

1940

Fugitive of the Plains poster
5.3

Billy joins an outlaw band led by woman to clear his name of their crimes, which are being blamed on him.

Fugitive of the Plains

1943

The Trail of the Silver Spurs poster
6.0

The Range Busters are investigating a gold robbery from the Denver Mint in a supposedly deserted ghost town, but they soon find they're not the only town resident with a nose for gold.

The Trail of the Silver Spurs

1941

Tex Granger: Midnight Rider of the Plains poster
9.0

Tex Granger heads toward Three Buttes when he comes across a young boy guarding a gold shipment which he has just rescued from a stagecoach that had been held up by Blaze Talbot and Reno

Tex Granger: Midnight Rider of the Plains

1948

Gentlemen With Guns poster
6.5

While Fuzzy is waiting for his mail order bride, McCallister frames him for murder. McCallister then advises Matilda to marry Fuzzy so she will get the money when he is hung. But Billy breaks up the wedding and goes after the real killer.

Gentlemen With Guns

1946

Cowboy and the Prizefighter poster
9.0

Red Ryder KO's a fight racket with sidekick Little Beaver (Little Brown Jug) and a new friend.

Cowboy and the Prizefighter

1949

Bad Man from Red Butte poster
5.8

A cowboy arrives in a town, and is immediately mistaken for his twin brother who is wanted for murder.

Bad Man from Red Butte

1940

Twilight on the Trail poster
5.0

Hoppy, California and Johnny come to the ranch of a friend and his daughter, disguised as dude detectives from the east, to investigate the disappearances, without a trace, of several herds of cattle.

Twilight on the Trail

1941

Deadline poster
7.0

A Pony Express rider discovers some mysterious goings-on during the construction of a telegraph line. When a murder is committed, he is blamed for it.

Deadline

1948

Billy The Kid's Fighting Pals poster
7.0

Billy, Fuzzy, and Jeff are on the run from the law again. This time they travel to a new town where Fuzzy is made Marshal. But Hardy and his outlaw gang control the town and none of the previous Marshals survived for very long.

Billy The Kid's Fighting Pals

1941

The Lone Rider Fights Back poster
NR

Opera star-cum-cowboy hero George Houston stars in PRC's The Lone Rider Fights Back. Appropriately enough, Houston disguises himself as a musician to get the goods on a gang of terrorists. The principal villain hopes to scare the local miners off their land, so he can move in and clean up.

The Lone Rider Fights Back

1941

Rolling Down the Great Divide poster
7.0

A ring of cattle thieves uses short-wave radio to communicate with each other. A trio of range detectives must find a way to capture the gang.

Rolling Down the Great Divide

1942

The Lone Rider in Ghost Town poster
5.0

Tom and Fuzzy investigate a ghost town which, in this case, is supposedly haunted by real ghosts. The town is an outlaw gang's hideout, and they scare folks away to protect their mine.

The Lone Rider in Ghost Town

1941

Winners of the West poster
7.0

Beyond Hell's Gate Pass is territory controlled by a man who calls himself King Carter; he uses a variety of schemes to prevent the railroad from being built, for fear it will finish his control of (what he considers) his land.

Winners of the West

1940

Bandit Ranger poster
4.7

Rancher Clay Travers finds and brings in the body of ranger Frank Mattison, murdered on the road to Trail City, where he had been sent to deal with an outbreak of cattle rustling. Businessman Art Kenyon, who has hired gunman Ed Martin to impersonate Mattison to further his rustling schemes, quickly changes Martin's story and has Travers framed for the ranger's murder. Managing to escape, Travers must come up with proof to clear his name and bring the true killers to justice.

Bandit Ranger

1942

1930s · 19 titles

The Cowboy and the Lady poster
6.3

Mary Smith decides after a lifetime of being a shut-in to do something wild while her father is out campaigning for the presidency, so she takes off for the family's home in West Palm Beach and inadvertently becomes romantically entangled with earnest cowboy Stretch Willoughby. Neither the dalliance nor the cowboy fit with the upper class image projected by her esteemed father, forcing her to choose.

The Cowboy and the Lady

1938

New Frontier poster
5.7

The Three Mesquiteers convince a group of settlers to exchange their present property for some which, unbeknownst to our goodguys, is going to be worthless. They are captured before they can warn the ranchers.

New Frontier

1939

Heritage of the Desert poster
6.6

John Abbott returns to the desert land he owns, and after being wounded by hired gunman Chick Chance, he is befriended by rancher Andrew Naab and his son, Marvin. Naab's daughter, Marian, falls in love with John but is about to marry Snap Thornton to keep a promise made by her father. She runs away on her wedding day but is captured and held hostage by outlaw Henry Holderness. John, the Naabs and fellow ranchers rush to her rescue.

Heritage of the Desert

1939

It Happened in Hollywood poster
6.3

A silent Western star has trouble adjusting to the coming of sound.

It Happened in Hollywood

1937

Ride Him, Cowboy poster
4.9

John Drury saves Duke, a wild horse accused of murder, and trains him. When he discovers that the real murderer, a bad guy known as The Hawk, is the town's leading citizen, Drury arrested on a fraudulent charge.

Ride Him, Cowboy

1932

Zorro's Fighting Legion poster
5.4

The mysterious Don Del Oro ("Lord of Gold"), an idol of the Yaqui Indians, plans to take over the gold and become Emperor. Francisco was put in charge of a legion to combat the Yaqui tribe and protect the land, but when attacked Zorro came to his rescue. Francisco's partner recognized Zorro as the hidalgo Don Diego Vega, then ask him to take over the fighting legion as his alter-ego Zorro.

Zorro's Fighting Legion

1939

Gun Lords of Stirrup Basin poster
6.3

Lawyer Bowdre has started a war between the ranchers and the homesteaders planning to take over the homesteaders land when they are wiped out. Rancher Dan Stockton, having just married homesteader Gail Dawson, is caught in the middle. He suspects Bowdre is behind the war and it's not long before he gets a chance to prove it.

Gun Lords of Stirrup Basin

1937

The Red Rider poster
7.0

"Red" Davison(Buck Jones), the sheriff of Sun Dog, sacrifices his job and his good name to save his best friend, "Silent" Slade from the hangman's noose, following a framed-up court decision which sentences Slade to hang for the murder of "Scotty McKee (J.P. McGowan). Davidson allows Slade to escape from jail and follows him to aid him in proving his innocence.

The Red Rider

1934

Storm Over Bengal poster
6.0

This being a Republic picture, it should come as no surprise that Storm Over Bengal was filmed in its entirety in the San Fernando Valley. Within its concise 65 minutes, the film manages to accommodate a Bengal Lancers main plot, a romantic subplot, the obligatory coward who makes good, intrigue aplenty from a villainous Indian potentate, and an outsized climactic battle between the rebels and the British forces. Patric Knowles, previously one of the leads in the British-India epic Charge of the Light Brigade, heads the cast. Worth noting is the presence in the cast of Richard Cromwell as secondary romantic lead Neil Allison and Douglass Dumbrille as the despicable Khan. Three years earlier, Cromwell had been tortured by Dumbrille's minions in Lives of a Bengal Lancer, and he undergoes much the same treatment here-"just to make him feel at home" observed film historian Roger Dooley.

Storm Over Bengal

1938

Billy the Kid poster
4.7

Billy, after shooting down land baron William Donovan's henchmen for killing Billy's boss, is hunted down and captured by his friend, Sheriff Pat Garrett. He escapes and is on his way to Mexico when Garrett, recapturing him, must decide whether to bring him in or to let him go.

Billy the Kid

1930

The Lone Ranger Rides Again poster
7.3

Homesteaders are moving into the valley settled many years ago by rancher Craig Dolan. He wants to keep them out by legal means but his nephew Bart brings in outlaws to drive them out. The Lone Ranger is on hand to help the homesteaders battle Bart's men as he overcomes traps, ambushes, burning buildings and other obstacles in his attempt to bring peace to the valley.

The Lone Ranger Rides Again

1939

Western Frontier poster
9.0

Ken and his sister are separated while young when the Indians attack their wagon train. Ken, now grown, is sent after the outlaw known as the Golden hair Girl only to find that she's his long lost sister.

Western Frontier

1935

Desperate Trails poster
5.7

A young man helps a marshal in his battle against outlaws.

Desperate Trails

1939

Big Boy Rides Again poster
6.5

A man comes to town to claim the estate of his father, who was shot by a masked killer. He sets out to find who did it.

Big Boy Rides Again

1935

There Goes the Groom poster
6.2

After striking it rich in Alaskan gold, a young man returns to marry his fiancé only to be snubbed. Her sister, however, is worth considering, until he learns about her gold-digging family.

There Goes the Groom

1937

The Oregon Trail poster
7.5

Jeff Scott is sent to investigate problems with wagon trains attempting to make the journey to Oregon. Sam Morgan has sent his henchmen, under lead-henchman Bull Bragg, to stop the wagon trains in order to maintain control of the fur trade in the area.

The Oregon Trail

1939

Two-Fisted Sheriff poster
3.8

This is a remake of Columbia's 1932 "Cornered" that starred Tim McCoy. Bob Pearson saves the life of his friend, Sheriff Dick Houston, who has captured two stagecoach bandits and is about to be shot from ambush by a third. Bob is found a few days later near the murdered body of cattleman Herrick with a gun in his hand.

Two-Fisted Sheriff

1937

The Match King poster
6.7

Unscrupulous Chicago janitor Paul Kroll uses deceit to fund a return trip to his homeland of Sweden. There, via ongoing continuing deceit and manipulation, he gradually attains a monopoly on the matchstick market in several countries and becomes an influential international figure. Based on the true story of Ivar Kreuger.

The Match King

1932

The Lion's Den poster
8.0

Merwin hires Barton to fight Welsh, but when Barton arrives in town, Welsh mistakes him for the hired killer Single-Shot Smith. Figuring he can help Merwin by being part of Welsh's gang he hires on as Single-Shot. But soon the real Single-Shot appears.

The Lion's Den

1936

Series credits

Wagon Train poster
6.6

The series initially starred veteran movie supporting actor Ward Bond as the wagon master, later replaced upon his death by John McIntire, and Robert Horton as the scout, subsequently replaced by lookalike Robert Fuller a year after Horton had decided to leave the series. The series was inspired by the 1950 film Wagon Master directed by John Ford and starring Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr. and Ward Bond, and harkens back to the early widescreen wagon train epic The Big Trail starring John Wayne and featuring Bond in his first major screen appearance playing a supporting role. Horton's buckskin outfit as the scout in the first season of the television series resembles Wayne's, who also played the wagon train's scout in the earlier film.

Wagon Train

1957

The Virginian poster
6.5

The Shiloh Ranch in Wyoming Territory of the 1890s is owned in sequence by Judge Henry Garth, the Grainger brothers, and Colonel Alan MacKenzie. It is the setting for a variety of stories, many more based on character and relationships than the usual western.

The Virginian

1962

Have Gun, Will Travel poster
7.3

Have Gun – Will Travel is an American Western television series that aired on CBS from 1957 through 1963. It was rated number three or number four in the Nielsen ratings every year of its first four seasons. It was one of the few television shows to spawn a successful radio version. The radio series debuted November 23, 1958. The television show is presently shown on the Encore-Western channel. Have Gun – Will Travel was created by Sam Rolfe and Herb Meadow and produced by Frank Pierson, Don Ingalls, Robert Sparks, and Julian Claman. There were 225 episodes of the TV series, 24 written by Gene Roddenberry. Other contributors included Bruce Geller, Harry Julian Fink, Don Brinkley and Irving Wallace. Andrew McLaglen directed 101 episodes and 19 were directed by series star Richard Boone.

Have Gun, Will Travel

1957

Room 104 poster
5.7

An anthology series set in a single hotel room, where every guest who comes to stay reveals a unique set of circumstances and quirks.

Room 104

2017

Anna Lee poster
6.9

Anna Lee is a British television series produced by Brian Eastman and Carnival Films for London Weekend Television. Following a 1993 pilot, five two-hour programmes were produced in 1994, loosely based on the detective novels of Liza Cody. Private investigator Anna Lee works for the Brierly Security agency after leaving the police force. Each episode features a different mystery.

Anna Lee

1994