Frank Lanning
actor
- Born:
- 1872-08-14, Marion, Iowa, USA
- Died:
- 1945-06-17, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Professions:
- actor
Biography
Marion, Iowa, 14 August 1872: the day the restless prairie wind gained a voice. By the time that voice reached Hollywood it belonged to Frank Lanning—long-jawed, hawk-eyed, a man who could loom in the background like a thundercloud or step forward and steal the scene with a single squint. Between 1916 and 1927 he slipped inside history both real and imagined: he wore the crimson ribbon of The Victoria Cross, rafted the Mississippi in Huckleberry Finn, and prowled the carnival shadows of The Unknown. Off-camera he shed the greasepaint for Merva Eaton, the woman who tamed the wanderlust between takes. On 17 June 1945 the California sun set on his final close-up in Los Angeles, but the flicker he left behind keeps rolling, frame by steady frame.
