Don Franklin (born December 14, 1960) is an American

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

, best known for his work in ''

seaQuest DSV ''SeaQuest DSV'' (stylized as ''seaQuest DSV'' and also promoted as simply ''seaQuest'') is an American science fiction television series created by Rockne S. O'Bannon for NBC. It aired between 1993 and 1996. In its final season, it was re ...

'' as Commander Jonathan Ford, '' Seven Days'' as Captain Craig Donovan, and Alex Wheeler in the

Dick Wolf Richard Anthony Wolf (born December 20, 1946) is an American billionaire and television producer, best known for his ''Law & Order'' franchise. Since 1990, the franchise has included six police/courtroom dramas and four international spinoffs. ...

TV pilot and series ''

Nasty Boys The Nasty Boys are a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags. The team were active from the mid-1980s through the 1990s. Their gimmick was that of anti-social punks who specialized in hardcore wrestling and br ...

''. In 1989, Franklin became the first Black actor to co-star in a US television western, as Noah Dixon, one of ''

The Young Riders ''The Young Riders'' is an American Western television series created by Ed Spielman that presents a fictionalized account of a group of young Pony Express riders (some of whom are young versions of legendary figures in Old West history) based ...

''.

Background

Early on, Franklin worked extensively as a professional dancer and actor in the

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

area, earning a Best Actor nomination through the

Joseph Jefferson Awards The Joseph Jefferson Award, more commonly known informally as the Jeff Award, is given for Theater in Chicago, theatre arts produced in the Chicago area. Founded in 1968, the awards are named in tribute to actor Joseph Jefferson, a 19th-century ...

. He also worked with the venerable

Sidney Poitier Sidney Poitier ( ; February 20, 1927 – January 6, 2022) was a Bahamian-American actor, film director, activist, and diplomat. In 1964, he was the first black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. Among his ot ...

, who directed Franklin in the 1985 film ''

Fast Forward To fast-forward is to move forwards through a recording at a speed faster than that at which it would usually be played, for example two times or two point five times. The recordings are usually audio, video or computer data. It is colloquiall ...

.'' While on the TV series '' Seven Days'', Franklin gained the distinction of the actor most often killed on the show. He later played two different characters during his time on the ''NCIS'' franchise, both as FBI Agent Ron Sacks on the original ''

NCIS NCIS or N.C.I.S. may refer to: Law enforcement * National Criminal Intelligence Service, the predecessor to the Serious Organised Crime Agency of the United Kingdom * Naval Criminal Investigative Service, a United States law enforcement and intelli ...

'', and Captain Alan Beck on the spinoff show '' NCIS: Los Angeles''.

Personal life

Franklin was born and raised in

and graduated from Whitney M. Young Magnet High School. He has a daughter with his first wife Sheila, and a son with his second wife, Kristine, from whom he is now divorced. Franklin currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

Partial filmography

References

External links

* 1960 births Living people Male actors from Chicago American male film actors American male television actors 21st-century African-American male actors 21st-century American male actors 20th-century African-American male actors 20th-century American male actors {{US-screen-actor-1960s-stub