Background
Cover, Franklin Edward was born on November 20, 1928 in Cleveland. Son of Franklin Held and Britta (Schreck) Cover.
Cover, Franklin Edward was born on November 20, 1928 in Cleveland. Son of Franklin Held and Britta (Schreck) Cover.
Bachelor, Denison University, 1951. Master of Arts, Western Reserve University, 1954. Master of Fine Arts, Western Reserve University, 1955.
His character, Tom Willis, was half of one of the first interracial marriages to be seen on prime-time television His career started on the stage acting in Henry IV, Participant 1 and Hamlet. 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.
His first starring role was on The Jeffersons as Tom Willis who was married to a black 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, George Jefferson. The sitcom ran from 1975 to 1985.
He also appeared in The Stepford Wives in 1975.
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. In 1994, he appeared in the second episode of Emergency. His final television appearance was in an episode of Will & Grace (entitled "Object Of My Rejection") that aired on May 13, 1999. Cover died at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, New Jersey, on February 5, 2006.
He had been living at the home since December 2005 while recovering from a heart condition, and died of pneumonia.
Vestryman Church of the Resurrection, 1970s, warden, 1983, 88-89. Honorary trustee Cleveland Playhouse. Lieutenant United States Air Force, 1951-1953.
Member American Federation of television and Radio Artists, Screen Actors Guild (board directors), Equity, Omicron Delta Kappa, Kappa Sigma.
Married Mary Bradford Stone, January 30, 1965. Children: Bradford Franklin, Susan Henderson.