Bio – Frank Collison
Frank was born on Valentine’s Day in Evanston, Illinois and comes from a theatre background. Frank’s first “role” was a six month old “theatre mascot” at a tent theatre in Granville, Ohio. His father, John, was an actor and playwright and his mother, Peg, directed him in a number of plays while he was growing up in Virginia and Ohio. As a young boy, Frank assisted his father when he toured with his one man Abraham Lincoln show. His father was selected to play Lincoln for the centennial celebration of Lincoln’s first inauguration in Washington, DC ; Frank played young Tad Lincoln.
Frank trained at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, earned his BA in theatre at San Francisco State University, helped establish a summer theatre company in the Sierra Nevadas then went on to earn an MFA in acting at UC San Diego. Between acting jobs Frank has worked as a forest fire fighter, diaper service dispatcher and substitute teacher. Appearing in over 150 productions, Frank has worked off Broadway and in regional theatres in Boston, Denver and California. His theatrical roles have ranged from “Puck” in Midsummer’s Nights Dreamto “Miss Havisham” in Great Expectations to “Jacob Marley” inChristmas Carol. Frank is a founding member of Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice, California, which has won over 25 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards.
Frank’s film work includes The Village, The Whole Ten Yards, Hope Spring, Hidalgo, Suspect Zero, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Majestic, Mobsters, The Last Boy Scout, Buddy, Alien Nation, Diggstown, The Blob, My Summer Story and Wild at Heart which won the Golden Palm Award at Cannes. Frank is best known to television audiences as “Horace Bing”, the bumbling telegraph operator, on CBS’s “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. His extensive television appearances include guest-starring roles on Monk, HBO’s Carnivale, Seventh Heaven, NYPD Blue, Star Trek, the Next Generation and Hill Street Blues.
Frank and his wife, Laura Gardner, reside in Los Angeles with his three children. He remains active in theatre while pursuing a film career.
