Richard Edward Frank (January 4, 1953 – August 27, 1995) was an American actor. He was perhaps best known as Father Vogler in the 1984 movie '' Amadeus''. Frank had numerous guest appearances in television shows, with a regular role in the sitcom ''

Anything but Love ''Anything but Love'' is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from March 7, 1989, to June 3, 1992, spanning four seasons and 56 episodes. The show stars Richard Lewis as Marty Gold and Jamie Lee Curtis as Hannah Miller, coworkers at a Chicago m ...

''.

Biography

Born in Boston, Frank was a graduate of Juilliard's acting school. In addition, Frank appeared in numerous theater productions, including ''Hang on to Me'' at the

Guthrie Theater The Guthrie Theater, founded in 1963, is a center for theater performance, production, education, and professional training in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The concept of the theater was born in 1959 in a series of discussions between Sir Tyrone Gut ...

, directed by Peter Sellers, as well as many productions in Los Angeles, mostly at the Taper. He created the Struggling Actor's Coloring Book and dozens of paintings, which are now in private collections. He was noted by colleagues for his intelligence and endless wit. Frank played infamous lawyer and informal powerbroker

Roy Cohn Roy Marcus Cohn (; February 20, 1927 – August 2, 1986) was an American lawyer and prosecutor who came to prominence for his role as Senator Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel during the Army–McCarthy hearings in 1954, when he assisted McCarth ...

in the first performance of Tony Kushner's play '' Angels in America''. Cohn also died from AIDS-related complications. By 1993, Frank had already gone public with his affliction with

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

. In the wake of his public disclosure, Frank was asked to guest-star in the fourth season '' Life Goes On'' episode "Bedfellows". Frank played Chester, the hospital roommate of Jesse McKenna ( Chad Lowe), while both were admitted for illnesses related to their AIDS statuses. Chester has a more advanced stage of AIDS, and is not expected to live much longer; Jesse has to convince Chester at one point not to take his life by jumping off the hospital roof. Chester does lose his battle with AIDS before the episode's end, but not before passing on wisdom to Jesse for his own dealings with his illness. Following his landmark appearance on ''Life Goes On'', Frank's health began a gradual decline, but throughout 1994, he kept up his steady guest turns on series ranging from ''

The Larry Sanders Show ''The Larry Sanders Show'' is an American television sitcom set in the office and studio of a fictional late-night talk show. The series was created by Garry Shandling and Dennis Klein and aired from August 15, 1992, to May 31, 1998, on the HBO ...

'' to '' Matlock''. By the beginning of 1995, in order to preserve his frail health, Frank made the decision to become a television director. That year, an episode of '' Mad About You'' he directed was slated to be the first of many such jobs for the actor, but ultimately it became his final work in show business.

Death

On August 27, 1995, Frank died in Los Angeles of complications from AIDS.

Filmography

External links

* 1953 births 1995 deaths AIDS-related deaths in California 20th-century American male actors Male actors from Boston Juilliard School alumni American male film actors American male television actors American male stage actors American television directors 20th-century American singers {{US-screen-actor-1950s-stub