- Born
- Died
- Birth nameFrancis William Thring Jr.
- Nickname
- The Many-Splendoured Thring
- Height6′ 2″ (1.88 m)
- Frank Thring was born on May 11, 1926 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He was an actor, known for Ben-Hur (1959), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) and The Vikings (1958). He was married to Joan Cunliffe. He died on December 29, 1994 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
- SpouseJoan Cunliffe(November 1, 1955 - December 11, 1956)
- Parents
- Often played refined, autocratic villains
- Cold-eyed Australian character actor known particularly for his biblical villains Pontius Pilate in Ben-Hur (1959) and King Herod in King of Kings (1961). Also played Herod in an acclaimed 1950s stage production of "Salome".
- Kirk Douglas happened to see Anthony Quayle's Aaron chop off Laurence Olivier's hand of Titus to give it to Frank Thring's Saturninus in the Stratford-on-Avon production of "Titus Andronicus" directed by Peter Brook. Actor-producer Douglas was sufficiently impressed by this to have Thring himself do the same with Tony Curtis' hand in his upcoming production of The Vikings (1958), where Enid was played by Maxine Audley who had previously played Tamora in "Titus Andronicus".
- When he and Joan Cunliffe married at the Stratford-upon-Avon parish church, Laurence Olivier gave the bride away and Vivien Leigh was matron of honour. The marriage was dissolved on the grounds of non-consummation. At the time, Thring's homosexuality would not have been public knowledge.
- His father, F.W. Thring, invented the forerunner of the clapperboard still in use today. He was also big in early theatre and film production in Australia.
- Started as a sound effects man on radio with 3XY, before becoming an actor. His first regular role on radio was as part-Aboriginal detective Napoleon Bonaparte (later made into a television serial entitled Boney (1972), starring James Laurenson).
- I didn't like school, and it didn't like me. When I first auditioned for the school play at age twelve, I was asked to imagine that I was on a crowded tram like the ones in San Francisco. The headmaster was not impressed with my work, characterizing it as terrible and inserting that I'd never be an actor. My rebuttal was that I'd never been on a tram because I was always driven to school in the family Rolls-Royce.
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