Biography

Mark David Frankel (13 June 1962 – 24 September 1996) was an English actor, known for his leading roles in the British film Leon the Pig Farmer and the American TV series Kindred: The Embraced. Frankel was born on 13 June 1962 in London, where he was raised. He was the son of David Lionel Frankel, a former Royal Air Force pilot, and Grace Marshall. His grandmother was a concert pianist, and his grandfather was a prominent violinist and conductor. His father's family were Jewish emigrants from Poland and Russia into the East End. His mother was from an Indian Jewish family in Mumbai and Iraq. He attended Frensham Heights School. Frankel was cast in his first professional theatre role at age 10, but he gave up acting at age 16 to focus on school. When he was 20, he returned to the theatre. He studied amateur dramatics, took numerous classes, and studied with Jack Walzer from the Actors Studio in New York. He then decided to attend drama school for classical training. He was awarded a full three-year scholarship to the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. It was during a performance in a play that he was spotted by a British casting agent and cast in the TNT mini-series A Season of Giants, winning the lead role of Michelangelo over more than 80 actors screen-testing for the part. The mini-series took Frankel on location to Italy, where he spent five months filming and working with F. Murray Abraham, John Glover, Ian Holm, and Steven Berkoff. Frankel described his first big break: "After graduation, while doing four plays in London, I auditioned for a film called A Season of Giants which was a TNT film about the life of Michelangelo. That same evening the director came to my play and asked me to star in his film. That was my first big break. It was very exciting because I had been out of drama school for only a month." On 24 September 1996, the 34-year-old Frankel died in a traffic crash from injuries sustained when he was hit by a lorry driver. The funeral service was carried out at Kingston Liberal Synagogue and was attended by friends, co-stars, and professional colleagues, including actor Jason Isaacs and director Gary Sinyor.