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Franklin "Frank" Reynolds is the stepfather of Dennis Reynolds and Dee Reynolds, and the ex-husband of Barbara Reynolds. Frank also lives with best friend (and ex-husband), Charlie Kelly.

He is a member of "The Gang" that owns and runs Paddy's Pub. He used to be prim and proper, but after he divorced Barbara, he let himself lose all convictions and live with no moral compass or decency.

Appearance[]

Frank is instantly recognizable by his short and stout stature; he stands more than a full head shorter than Charlie, the previously shortest member of the Gang. Dee has mentioned that he is 4'10'', black hair, and has brown eyes. [2x10] He was once compared to Humpty Dumpty when wearing skinny jeans, and has been described frequently as fat and ugly by several people.

He is bald on the top of his head, but prefers to grow out what is left on the sides. It started going grey sometime prior to "Frank Retires", but he applies hair dye during his morning routine to keep it black.[11x6]

In his first appearance, he has neat, combed hair, small glasses, and wears dressy shirts or V-neck sweaters and smart shoes, with an occasional suit jacket.[2x1] However, once he renounces his classy lifestyle for that of depravity and hedonism, he begins wearing huge glasses that dramatically magnify his eyes, as well as bowling shirts that he doesn't bother to button fully, or short sleeve Henley t-shirts; both types of shirts are seen in solid colors like red, black, green, blue, or grey.

Along with these come two pairs of drawstring Cabana pants in black and brown, and either black leather slip on shoes or Crocs in black or orange. In season 15 he wears a pair of black leather sneakers.

He occasionally wears over-sized sweatshirts in black, grey, or blue. If he is out on a date or clubbing, he wears a very unconvincing toupee.[2x5] In colder weather he's shown to wear a sherpa lined hoodie, a long sleeve Henley, or a fur coat. [11x3]

Personality[]

Frank is a successful businessman and has a long history of illegal operations and diabolical schemes. (List of crimes committed by the gang)

Frank lives on what he calls the "Fringe class". He lives a dirty bachelor life with no restraints, and once tried to be as depraved as possible [5x4]

Frank styles himself a master manipulator and frequently takes the lead in the group's schemes. It’s quickly obvious that he often makes horrible decisions and is not as sharp and current as he should be.

Frank has known many sordid characters throughout his life and around town, including a ring of Asian gamblers [2x6], [2x9] and various criminals and gangsters.

He claims to have his children's best interests at heart but frequently exploits and insults them. He is especially cruel to Dee, constantly remarking negatively on her age and looks.

  • He has pimped out his son Dennis for "no-rules" sexual favors. [4x13]
  • Frank waterboarded Dee in Paddy's men's room to gain a confession. [4x2]
  • He convinced Dee to pretend to be engaged to him and almost took part in sexual activity with her. [3x3]
  • He also trained his daughter Sweet Dee to be a boxer so she could fight the daughter of his longtime nemesis. [2x7]

Over the course of the show he has ceased to be a father figure to Dennis and Dee and is instead merely part of the gang although he still refers to them as his kids.

Frank wants to stay young. [5x12]

Frank seems to take Mac under his wing, "mentoring" him on how to succeed in life via shady, unethical and sometimes illegal methods. It is observed that Mac looks up to Frank, more so than the rest of The Gang, though Charlie takes extreme measures to ensure that Frank remains his roommate. Frank appears to have taken an active dislike to Mac as the series has continued, noting Mac “creeps him out“ in “Being Frank,” though he did save Mac‘s life (albeit through shouting a homophobic slur) in “Hero or Hate Crime?” Frank admits to Mac that he "doesn't get" Mac's conflict over his homosexuality in "Mac Finds His Pride," but helps him put on a dance production so Mac can come out to Luther and is moved to tears by Mac's performance, whispering to himself, "I get it."

Frank has a tendency to trip on LSD, where he has manifested traumatizing experiences being trapped in the bathrooms of recreational vehicles. Like Mac, he drinks alcohol, but not to the excess that his young associates do, except in the episodes "The Gang Gives Frank an Intervention" and "The Gang Beats Boggs". Frank normally never drinks to the same excess as the gang do probably because Frank knows that he could not keep up if he tried. Frank demonstrates his inferior capacity for alcohol during The Gang Beats Boggs, he was slurring his words and nearly passing out after 21 beers.

Though he clearly teaches life lessons and even offers valuable insights to The Gang, Frank's worldview is often very skewed. In the episode "Mac and Dennis: Manhunters", Dennis remarks that some of the stories Frank tells of his life come straight from John Rambo's life. In the episode "The Gang Gets Held Hostage", Frank emulates John McClane from the Die Hard film series. In the episode "Mac Is A Serial Killer", Dennis says Frank "makes less sense every day."

Frank appears to be very wealthy; the extent of his worth is unknown, but he's been shown to buy a Lamborghini on a whim, had owned a mansion for years, and once wrote a check worth $8 million for his children. However, he prefers to live in squalor as Charlie's roommate in an apartment referred to by anyone who dares step into it as "a shit-hole," which originally stemmed from his desire to hide assets from his then-recently separated wife. Though Barbara's will gave all his money to Bruce Mathis ("Dennis and Dee's Mom is Dead") , this apparently only applied to assets he did not hide from her, as he has funded a number of schemes and deals that would cost thousands if not millions of dollars. He loses his money to a Ponzi scheme in "The Great Recession" but is reimbursed by the government; the episode makes it clear that Paddy's only stays afloat through his constant bailouts, and implies that he pays the rent on Dee's apartment.

Frequently, the Gang's schemes and impulsive whims are funded through Frank's credit card, something Dennis blames for their getting "weirder" every year ("The Gang Misses the Boat"). Frank's enjoyment of squalor and the Gang's schemes means that he often refuses to use his money for actual conveniences, such as donating thousands of dollars to an animals rights organization so he can roast them at a charity dinner in Atlantic City, but taking an overly-long, rural route to the dinner to avoid toll roads ("The Gang Gets Stranded in the Woods") or refusing to pay rent to his and Charlie's landlord, Hwang, due to Hwang not fixing utilities, even though he could easily afford a better place. The Gang, for their part, frequently tries to scam money from Frank to fulfill their own needs, starting with "Dennis and Dee Go on Welfare" and sometimes attempt to go around him to avoid his conditional requirements for funding, such as his demands for a "full penetration" love scene in "The Gang Makes Lethal Weapon 6." Frank, for his part, has little regard for creature comforts beyond booze, drugs, meat and "bangin' hoors," and has repeatedly expressed a desire to simply be "thrown in the trash" once he has expired.

Though Frank is egotistical, diabolical, and maniacal, he appears to have some good in him; he seems to care greatly for Charlie, possibly even more so than he does for Dennis and Dee. In "Mac and Charlie Die," he becomes grief-stricken when Charlie fakes his own death; he carries around a plastic likeness of Charlie through the streets while wailing and keening his love for him.

Frank is a severe compulsive gambler, seen betting on everything from grade school basketball to Russian roulette, usually with his chain smoking, and high-stakes betting ring of Vietnamese friends. Sweet Dee once told Frank, "You can't just come in here and start running our lives like this, it's not fair!" to which Frank replied "Wanna bet?" Dee, confused, asks "Bet on what? Whether or not it's fair?" to which Frank replies "Yeah. Bet on whatever." This is a prime example of his boundless addiction to gambling, no matter how ridiculous the circumstances.

Frank is known to frequently carry a revolver and wave it around at inopportune times. He also has a "Toe Knife".

Frank has a brother named Gino who appears in Frank's Brother. Both were involved with the same woman.

Frank has been referred to in the business world as the alias "The Warthog".

Early Life[]

Frank was born on July 31, 1943. He has an older brother Gino. [7x5] After he got into a fight in school, some school psychologist asked him way too many questions that overwhelmed him to the point riling him up, and wrongly had him sent to a terrible-terrible "nitwit school" (a school for the mentally disabled). Back in his day, science was still relatively crude, and the people who worked there treated the students horribly, putting them in windowless rooms with drains where they would hose them down. The experiences from his stay there ultimately left Frank horribly traumatized, and to this day, he has come to detest and not trust therapists. [8x5] Frank was a social outcast and when in the "nitwit school" created a friend he named "the frog kid", Only when he talks to his old Dr. does he remember the HE was actually the frog kid. [10x3] Upon release back to public school, Frank was mocked as having "donkey brains" prompting his parents to have a formal certificate produced stating he did not. In high school, Frank and Angie would go on dates and get into criminal activities. Highlights included having sex in a graveyard and stealing a motorcycle and driving it into the river. [2x5]

In 1961 "Frankie Fast Hands" lost a boxing match to Bobby Thunderson, allegedly due to a cheap shot by Thunderson. Frank attended Woodstock in 1969, but got locked in the bathroom of his cousin's Winnebago for all three days. Frank opened up a nightclub called "Shadynasty's" with Gino in the late 60's. After shooting a Black Panther in the early '70s, Frank hid out in Colombia for many years, working for his brother's cocaine business and first experiencing a life of squalor and depravity. Eventually he met and married Barbara. Some time before Dee and Dennis were born, Frank started a real estate company (ReyHam Properties) with his partner Eugene Hamilton, and then stole all the money to start his fortune.[5x13][7x5] Sometime around 1976 Frank had a one-night stand with Bonnie Kelly, resulting in a pregnancy which Frank paid to have aborted. In 1986, Frank was skiing in the Poconos, and got banned for 30 years. [11x3] In 1992, Frank participated in the Rodney King Riots in LA, being caught on camera stealing skiing supplies [7x6] In 1993, Frank opened a sweatshop in Vietnam. ("And a lot of good men died in that sweatshop!"). [2x9] Sometime prior to 1998,[15x3] Frank founded Atwater Capital. [8x7]

Trivia[]

  • Frank was created to boost the show's popularity. The first season was a hit but scored low ratings, so FX thought that maybe adding a big-name star to the cast (since Day, Howerton, McElhenney and Olson were relatively unknown at the time) could save the show. Danny DeVito happened to be a fan of the first season was soon cast as Frank.
  • Frank may have an older sister.[7x1]
  • He claims he played "a major role" in the Chappaquiddick incident. [11x10]
  • Frank has a malignant growth on his frontal lobe that was caught "just in time", however, he leaves the hospital before it is able to be treated.[11x6]
  • Frank's childhood psychiatric doctor, Albert Zimmerman, refers to him as Franklin, his full first name.[10x3]
  • He has been shown driving a Cadillac DTS [7x6] and a Cadillac DeVille.[8x10] He later purchases a 2018 Range Rover which he crashes,[13x5] and mentions owning a Chrysler LeBaron[16x7].
  • Frank has stated multiple times that, rather than receiving a traditional burial upon his death, he would prefer being thrown into the trash. Believing he's being put down, he says he is okay with his body being found, or pushed out to sea, but doesn't want to be found having voided his bowels so tries stripping naked.[16x2]
  • Frank loves guns, in fact he has been shown to own several guns, and carries at least one gun with him at all times, no matter where he goes or what he does.
  • Frank can only throw overhand.[6x3]
  • Despite Frank's fake grave stone giving his birth year as 1947 in "A Very Sunny Christmas", Frank's birthdate is written as July 31, 1943 on his driver's license.[13x5]
  • Frank likes the band Faith No More, specifically the album "King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime".[11x6]

Gallery[]

Appearances[]

Episodes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Season 1              
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6
Season 7
Season 8
Season 9
Season 10
Season 11
Season 12
Season 13
Season 14
Season 15
Season 16

Relationships[]

Relationships:[]

See Also[]

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