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IMDbPro

Franklyn Seales(1952-1990)

  • Actor
  • Soundtrack
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
Franklyn Seales
Trailer for South Comfort
Play trailer1:55
Sans retour (1981)
1 Video
6 Photos
Franklyn Seales was a stage and television actor best remembered for playing the finicky business manager Dexter Stuffins on the NBC sit-com "Silver Spoons." He also appeared in films, most notably as the real-life cop killer in "The Onion Field."

One of eight children, Seales was born in 1952 on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent. In 1960, Seales' family emigrated to the United States, where they settled in New York City.

A painter since age six, Seales planned to study art at Pratt Institute. But then John Houseman noticed Seales when he was helping a friend to audition by performing the balcony scene from "Romeo and Juliet." Signed on the spot to a full scholarship at Juilliard, Seales studied acting as a member of Houseman's Acting Company, during the early 1970s.

Seales' first big break was the PBS broadcast of the television drama The Trial of the Moke (1978). He portrayed Lt. Henry O. Flipper, the first black graduate of West Point.

Seales' film debut was in the true-crime drama Tueurs de flics (1979). He portrayed a weak, gullible ex-con who's just out of jail when a fast-talking killer, played by James Woods, talks him into a senseless crime that results in the murder of a police officer.

From 1983 to 1987, Seales played the character for which he was best remembered, the finicky business manager Dexter Stuffins on the NBC situation-comedy Ricky ou la belle vie (1982), which also starred John Houseman as stoic Grandpa Stratton.

Toward the end of his life, Seales worked mainly in the non-profit Equity-waver theatre on the Westside of Los Angeles. He appeared in plays ranging from the theater of the absurd to Shakespeare. Los Angeles Times critic Lawrence Christon called Seales "one of America's most compelling stage actors."

As a member of the all-star L.A. Theatre Works, Seales was one of a company of 36 actors who contributed $6,000 each for the pleasure of performing classic plays together on the radio. Some of the Theater Works other members were James Earl Jones, Ted Danson, Richard Dreyfuss, Bonnie Bedelia, Stacy Keach, Michael York, and Ed Asner.

Seales last appeared in "Nothing Sacred," at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in the fall of 1988. A comedic adaptation of Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons," it was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Seales appeared as Uncle Havel, an aristocratic fop and former military man. For his characterization, Seales relied on his recollections of the English colonels and majors of his native St. Vincent, when it was still a British colony, "with their little sticks and stiff mustaches."

Although he was acclaimed for his versatility, Seales admitted that being a light-skinned black man had limited the roles that were available to him.

Franklyn Seales died on Monday, May 14, 1990 from complications from AIDS at his family's home in Brooklyn, New York. He had been too ill to work for several months. In its obituary, the Los Angeles Times said that "Seales as an actor came to be seen as a link between the tradition of black Africa and the sophistication of classical Anglo drama."

He was survived by his mother, three brothers and three sisters. A memorial service was planned at Juilliard.
BornJuly 15, 1952
DiedMay 14, 1990(37)
BornJuly 15, 1952
DiedMay 14, 1990(37)
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank

Photos5

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Known for

Sans retour (1981)
Sans retour
7.1
  • Simms
  • 1981
Star Trek, le film (1979)
Star Trek, le film
6.4
  • Crew Member
  • 1979
Great Performances (1971)
Great Performances
7.9
TV Series
  • Servant to Cornwall(as Frank Seales)
The Taming of the Shrew
6.1
Video
  • Petruchio
  • 1983

Credits

Edit
IMDbPro

Actor



  • Lucille Bliss, Danny Goldman, and Don Messick in Les Schtroumpfs (1981)
    Les Schtroumpfs
    7.2
    TV Series
    • Additional Voices (voice)
    • 1989
  • Robin Wright, Judith Anderson, Valorie Armstrong, Melissa Reeves, Robert Alan Browne, Paul Burke, Ismael 'East' Carlo, Margarita Cordova, Nicolas Coster, Lane Davies, Richard Eden, Gina Gallego, Linda Gibboney, Andrea Howard, Ava Lazar, A Martinez, Todd McKee, John Allen Nelson, Rupert Ravens, Julie Ronnie, Kerry Sherman, Louise Sorel, Jonna Leigh Stack, Marcy Walker, and Dane Witherspoon in Santa Barbara (1984)
    Santa Barbara
    5.7
    TV Series
    • William Klein
    • 1989
  • Kevin Spacey, Jonathan Banks, and Ken Wahl in Un flic dans la mafia (1987)
    Un flic dans la mafia
    7.8
    TV Series
    • Paco Bazos
    • 1988
  • Face to Face
    5.6
    • Alex
    • 1987
  • Sherman Hemsley in Amen (1986)
    Amen
    6.8
    TV Series
    • Lorenzo Hollingsworth
    • 1986–1987
  • Quoi de neuf, docteur ? (1985)
    Quoi de neuf, docteur ?
    6.6
    TV Series
    • Dr. Jerry Marquez
    • 1987
  • Ricky ou la belle vie (1982)
    Ricky ou la belle vie
    6.1
    TV Series
    • Dexter Stuffins
    • General Stuffins
    • 1983–1987
  • The Taming of the Shrew
    6.1
    Video
    • Petruchio
    • 1983
  • Robert Clohessy, Michael Warren, and Bruce Weitz in Capitaine Furillo (1981)
    Capitaine Furillo
    8.2
    TV Series
    • Crawford
    • 1982
  • High Five
    TV Movie
    • Wilson Porter
    • 1982
  • Macbeth (1981)
    Macbeth
    6.4
    Video
    • Lennox
    • 1981
  • Sans retour (1981)
    Sans retour
    7.1
    • Simms
    • 1981
  • La Plantation (1980)
    La Plantation
    6.6
    TV Mini Series
    • Roman
    • 1980
  • Star Trek, le film (1979)
    Star Trek, le film
    6.4
    • Crew Member
    • 1979
  • Tueurs de flics (1979)
    Tueurs de flics
    6.8
    • Jimmy Smith
    • 1979

Soundtrack



  • Ricky ou la belle vie (1982)
    Ricky ou la belle vie
    6.1
    TV Series
    • performer: "'O sole mio"
    • performer: "The Gold Diggers' Song (We're in the Money)"
    • performer: "Sweet Georgia Brown"
    • 1984

Videos1

Southern Comfort
Trailer 1:55
Southern Comfort

Personal details

Edit
  • Alternative name
    • Frank Seales
  • Born
    • July 15, 1952
    • Calliaqua, St. Vincent, British West Indies [now Saint Vincent and the Grenadines]
  • Died
    • May 14, 1990
    • Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA(AIDS)
  • Children
    • none
  • Parents
      Francis Seales

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    His screaming during the murder in Tueurs de flics (1979) was unscripted and improvised.
  • Quotes
    The Caribs had immense influence in my life, even before I saw Picasso's work, I was influenced by their art.

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