Franklin Cover
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Script error: No such module "Check for clobbered parameters".Template:Wikidata image Franklin Edward CoverScript error: No such module "Unsubst". (November 20, 1928 – February 5, 2006) was an American actor best known for his role in The Jeffersons, Tom Willis, half of one of the first interracial marriages to be seen on prime-time television.[1]
Life and career
Cover was born on November 20, 1928, in Cleveland, Ohio, to Britta (Schreck) and Franklin Held Cover. He graduated from John Marshall High School in 1947.[2]
His career started on the stage acting in Henry IV, Part 1 and Hamlet. He also appeared in Forty Carats with Julie Harris. He made his television debut on Naked City and later appeared on The Jackie Gleason Show.[3]
In 1965, he married Mary Bradford Stone.[4]
His first starring role was on The Jeffersons as Tom Willis (a Caucasian man) who was married to an African-American woman, Helen, played by Roxie Roker.[1] The couple lived in the same high-rise apartment building as the sitcom's title characters. Cover would often be the foil to Sherman Hemsley's black businessman character, George Jefferson. The sitcom ran from 1975 to 1985. He also appeared in The Stepford Wives in 1975, and played Hubert Humphrey in the 1982 TV movie A Woman Called Golda.
Following the end of The Jeffersons, Cover continued to make guest appearances on television shows as well as appearing in a supporting role in Wall Street (1987). In 1994, he appeared in the second episode of ER. His final television appearance was in an episode of Will & Grace (entitled "Object of My Rejection") that aired on May 13, 1999.
Cover died at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, New Jersey, on February 5, 2006. He had been living there since December 2005 while recovering from a heart condition, and died of pneumonia.[1][3]
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 | Mirage | Group Leader | |
| 1968 | What's So Bad About Feeling Good? | Medical Expert | Uncredited |
| 1972 | Short Walk to Daylight | Conductor | |
| 1974 | The Great Gatsby | Senator Evans | Uncredited |
| 1975-1985 | The Jeffersons | Tom Willis | |
| 1975 | The Stepford Wives | Ed Wimpiris | |
| 1982 | A Woman Called Golda | Hubert Humphrey | |
| 1987 | Wall Street | Dan | |
| 1988 | Zits | FBI Chief | |
| 1991 | Who's The Boss | Mr.Campbell | |
| 1994 | Batman: The Animated Series | General Vreeland | Voice, episode: "Harley's Holiday" |
| 1998 | Almost Heroes | Nicholas Burr | |
| 1999 | Will & Grace | Justice of the Peace | episode: "Object of My Rejection" |
References
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External links
- Template:Trim/ Franklin Cover at IMDbTemplate:EditAtWikidataScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Template:PAGENAMEBASE at the Internet Broadway DatabaseTemplate:EditAtWikidataTemplate:WikidataCheck
- Template:Iobdb name
- Obituary at Legacy.com
- "Jeffersons Star moves on up" at E! Online, February 10, 2006
- "Franklin Cover, 77, comic foil to Sherman Hemsley" at Boston Globe, February 12, 2006
- Pages with script errors
- 1928 births
- 2006 deaths
- American male film actors
- American male television actors
- Case Western Reserve University alumni
- Male actors from Cleveland
- Male actors from Englewood, New Jersey
- 20th-century American male actors
- American male stage actors
- Denison University alumni
- Deaths from pneumonia in New Jersey