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Frank Jenks

{{Short description|American actor (1902–1962)}}

{{Use American English|date=January 2022}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2022}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Frank Jenks

| image = Frank Jenks in The Missing Corpse (1945).jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Jenks in The Missing Corpse (1945)

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1902|11|04|mf=yes}}

| birth_place = Des Moines, Iowa, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1962|05|13|1902|11|04|mf=yes}}

| death_place = Hollywood, California, U.S.

| occupation = Actor

| years_active = 1933–1962

| spouse =

}}

Frank Jenks (November 4, 1902 – May 13, 1962) was an American actor and vaudevillian.

Biography

=Early years=

Jenks was born in Des Moines, Iowa,{{cite book |last1=Gordon |first1=Dr Roger L. |title=Supporting Actors in Motion Pictures |date=23 January 2018 |publisher=Dorrance Publishing |isbn=978-1-4809-4499-2 |pages=10–11 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pwZTDwAAQBAJ&q=%22Frank+Jenks%22+actor&pg=PA10 |access-date=September 8, 2020 |language=en}} and his mother gave him a trombone when he was 9 years old. By his late teens he was playing with Eddie Peabody and his band. Later, he became a studio musician in Hollywood, California.{{cite news|title=Career Of Frank Jenks On Rise Again|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6791650/oshkosh_daily_northwestern/|work=Oshkosh Daily Northwestern|agency=United Press|date=April 1, 1954|location=Wisconsin, Oshkosh|page=20|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = September 26, 2016}} {{Open access}}

=Movie career=

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, He was a song and dance man in vaudeville. In 1933, when sound films had become the norm, Broadway actors moved to Hollywood in droves. Jenks' flat, sarcastic delivery landed him a film career. 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 success was as Uthas P. Garvey, the skeptical, proletarian right-hand man for the loquacious English con artist "Colonel Humphrey Flack" (1953-54) in the DuMont Television Network series of that name.Terrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010. McFarland & Company, Inc. {{ISBN|978-0-7864-6477-7}}. P. 200. He reprised the role in a syndicated version of Colonel Humphrey Flack that was syndicated in 1958.Erickson, Hal (1989). Syndicated Television: The First Forty Years, 1947-1987. McFarland & Company, Inc. {{ISBN|0-7864-1198-8}}. pg. 56. He portrayed Lieutenant Rodney in the DuMont series Front Page Detective (1951-52),{{r|st|page1=369-370}} and he was a member of the cast of The Eddie Cantor Comedy Theater, which was syndicated in 1955.{{r|st|page1=298}} He appeared in Waldo, an unsold television pilot that aired as an episode of the anthology series New Comedy Showcase in 1960.{{cite web |url=https://www.tvobscurities.com/2009/06/status-guide-new-comedy-showcase/ |title=Status of New Comedy Showcase |author=Robert Jay |date=13 June 2009 |website=tvobscurities.com |publisher=Television Obscurities |access-date= 4 June 2024}}

=Death=

On May 13, 1962, Jenks died of esophageal cancer in Hollywood, California, at age 59.

Selected filmography

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References

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External links

{{Portal|Biography}}

{{Commons category}}

  • {{IMDb name|0421028}}
  • {{Find a Grave|8252126}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jenks, Frank}}

Category:1902 births

Category:1962 deaths

Category:American male film actors

Category:Deaths from esophageal cancer in California

Category:Male actors from Des Moines, Iowa

Category:American vaudeville performers

Category:20th-century American male actors