Franklin Edward Cover (November 20, 1928 – February 5, 2006) was an American actor best known for starring in the

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

'' The Jeffersons''. His character, Tom Willis, was half of one of the first interracial marriages to be seen on prime-time television.

Life and career

Cover was born on November 20, 1928, in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

, to Britta (Schreck) and Franklin Held Cover. He graduated from John Marshall High School in 1947. Cover graduated from

Denison University Denison University is a private liberal arts college in Granville, Ohio. One of the earliest colleges established in the former Northwest Territory, Denison University was founded in 1831. The college was first called the Granville Literary and ...

in 1951, and he received his MA in Theater in 1954 and MFA in Theater in 1955 both from

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...

. His career started on the stage acting in ''

Henry IV, Part 1 ''Henry IV, Part 1'' (often written as ''1 Henry IV'') is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written no later than 1597. The play dramatises part of the reign of King Henry IV of England, beginning with the battle at ...

'' and ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

''. 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 ''The Jackie Gleason Show'' is the name of a series of American network television shows that starred Jackie Gleason, which ran from 1952 to 1970, in various forms. ''Cavalcade of Stars'' Gleason's first variety series, which aired on the DuMon ...

''. In 1965, he married Mary Bradford Stone. 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. 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 George Jefferson is a fictional character played by Sherman Hemsley on the American television sitcoms ''All in the Family'' (1973–1975, 1978) and its spin-off ''The Jeffersons'' (1975–1985), in which he serves as the program's protagonist. H ...

. The sitcom ran from 1975 to 1985. He also appeared in '' The Stepford Wives'' in 1975, and played

Hubert Humphrey Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing ...

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 ''Will & Grace'' is an American television sitcom that aired for eight seasons on NBC from 1998 to 2006, and resumed on September 28, 2017. The show earned sixteen Emmy Awards, and 83 nominations. ''Will & Grace'' is set in New York City and focus ...

") that aired on May 13, 1999. Cover died at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in

Englewood, New Jersey Englewood is a city in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, which at the 2020 United States census had a population of 29,308. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from po ...

, on February 5, 2006. He had been living at the home since December 2005 while recovering from a heart condition, and died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severit ...

Filmography

References

External links

* * *
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
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cover, Franklin 1928 births 2006 deaths American male film actors American male television actors Case Western Reserve University alumni Male actors from Cleveland People from Englewood, New Jersey Male actors from New Jersey 20th-century American male actors American male stage actors Denison University alumni Deaths from pneumonia in New Jersey