Frank Converse

Frank Converse (born May 22, 1938) is an American actor.

Early life

Converse was born in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1962, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drama at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has appeared in many television series and a few movies.

Career

On stage, he starred in The Philadelphia Story (1980), Design for Living (1984), A Streetcar Named Desire (1988), and Lady in the Dark (1994) on Broadway, and The House of Blue Leaves (1971) and South Pacific (2000) Off-Broadway. In 2007 he appeared at the Hartford Stage in Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" with Hal Holbrook. Converse also did television commercials for Black & Decker in the late 1980s.

Converse was the star of three television series: Coronet Blue, N.Y.P.D. (not to be confused with NYPD Blue), and Movin' On. He played Harry O'Neill on One Life to Live and Ned Simon on As the World Turns, and he had a brief role on All My Children. He appeared opposite Bing Crosby in the 1971 TV movie thriller Dr. Cook's Garden, and played Morgan Harris in Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel (also known as "Anne of Avonlea"). He also played Bill Davenport on Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode 7, season 2, "Tomorrow".

Movin' On (TV series)

Movin' On is an American drama series that ran for two seasons (and a total of forty-six episodes), between 1974 and 1976. It originally appeared on the NBC television network. The pilot episode for the series was known as In Tandem.

Synopsis

Movin' On stars Claude Akins as old-time independent "big-rig" truck driver Sonny Pruitt, and Frank Converse as his college-educated co-driver Will Chandler. The theme song, "Movin' On", was written and performed by Merle Haggard, and was a No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in July 1975.

The series was likened to Route 66 and Cannonball, following a similar format. Episodes usually centered around Sonny and Will, always traveling, becoming involved in the lives of people they met (or met again) in the various places they found themselves.

The pilot episode was a made-for-television movie originally titled In Tandem – a reference to the tandem axles on the tractor and trailer, as well as that they drove as a team, or "in tandem". The movie begins with Will sliding out of control in a truck he was driving, due to poor maintenance of the brakes. After he manages to get the truck stopped, he drives to a truck stop and calls the company to quit his job. He then meets Sonny, a "gypsy" trucker, and they decide to try driving as a team, which works out well.

Claude Akins

Claude Marion Akins (May 25, 1926 – January 27, 1994) was an American actor with a long career on stage, screen, and television. Powerful in appearance and voice, Akins could be counted on to play the clever (or less than clever) tough guy, on the side of good or bad, in movies and television. He is remembered as Sheriff Lobo in the 1970s television series B. J. and the Bear, and later The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, a spin-off series.

Early years

Akins, of part Cherokee descent, was born in Nelson, Georgia, and grew up in Bedford, Indiana. He served with the U.S. Army Signal Corps in World War II in Burma and the Philippines. After the war, he was a 1949 graduate of Northwestern University, where he studied Theatre and became a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.

Film career

As a film actor, Akins first appeared in 1953's From Here to Eternity. He appeared as a seaman and shipmate of Lee Marvin in the 1954 The Caine Mutiny. He portrayed prisoner Joe Burdette in Rio Bravo (starring John Wayne, Ricky Nelson, Dean Martin, and Angie Dickinson), Naval Lt. Commander Farber in Don't Give Up the Ship (starring Jerry Lewis), Sgt Kolowicz in Merrill's Marauders, Rockwell W. "Rocky" Rockman in The Devil's Brigade, the Reverend Jeremiah Brown in the 1960 movie Inherit the Wind, outlaw Ben Lane in Comanche Station that same year, Seely Jones in A Distant Trumpet (1964), and the gorilla leader Aldo in Battle for the Planet of the Apes, the last original Apes movie in 1973. He had a tiny part in the movie The Sea Chase with John Wayne. He appeared with Yul Brynner and Robert Fuller in the film Return of the Seven (1966) (also called Return of the Magnificent Seven and The Magnificent Seven 2), and also appeared in the 1993 movie Seasons of the Heart.