Background
Delfino was born in Brooklyn, New New York
Delfino was born in Brooklyn, New New York
Delfino had dwarfism, and most of his roles were related to his small stature, he remains best known for portraying the character of The Hamburglar in the McDonalds advertising campaign television commercial"s over a 20-year period. Standing 4 feet, 5 inches tall, he became a professional violinist and performed in "Midget Village" at the 1933 Chicago World"s Fair. Delfino began his professional acting career appearing as "Johnnie" selling cigarettes for Philip Morris and subsequently appeared in advertisements for Curtis Candy, Little Caesar"s Pizza, Sprite, and Snickers, as well as first appearing in commercials for McDonalds, beginning in 1971 and continuing for more than 20 years, portraying what was perhaps his best known character, The Hamburglar.
In 1949, Delfino moved to Los Angeles to perform in his own local cartoon show, Jupiter Mars from Out of the Stars and made his feature film debut in 1956 with an uncredited role in The Court Jester.
In addition to serving as stand-ins, the Delfinos appeared as "Kaplutian" extraterrestrials in one of the episodes of the final season of The Brady Bunch entitled, "Out of This World". One of Frank Delfino"s last on-screen role came in 1988, when he played a minor character in the television series Circus.
Delfino died of bone marrow cancer at Mercy Hospital in San Diego, California on February 19, 1997, just six days after his 86th birthday.
