James Grover Franciscus (born 31st January 1934 in Clayton, Missouri; died 8th July 1991 in Hollywood, California)
is best known in the Apes universe for playing astronaut John Christopher Brent in Beneath The Planet Of The Apes (1970).
His debut came in 1957 when he played Johnny Doyle in William Berke's 1957 film Four Boys And A Gun.
He went on to play Detective Jimmy Halloran in 39 episodes of New York police drama Naked City in 1957-58.
Naked City
In 1961 Franciscus starred as insurance investigator Russ Andrews in the CBS TV series The Investigators.
He went on to appear in hit TV series Mr Novak and Longstreet (in which he played a blind New Orleans insurance investigator).
In 1973 he added his vocal talents to Hall Bartlett's movie Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
Marooned followed in 1969. Franciscus played astronaut Clayton "Stoney" Stone, part of the crew of an experimental space station.
This was followed by dinosaur epic The Valley Of Gwangi.
Marooned (1969)
Marooned (1969)
The Valley Of Gwangi (1969)
The Valley Of Gwangi (1969)
Franciscus was cast as Brent in Beneath The Planet Of The Apes because of his perceived resemblance to Charlton Heston.
Brent was sent, along with his skipper Maddox, on a rescue mission on the same trajectory as the lost ship commanded by George Taylor.
In the 1970s and early 1980s Franciscus appeared in many films, TV movies and TV series including The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971),
The Amazing Dobermans (1976), Good Guys Wear Black (1978), The Greek Tycoon (1978), Killer Fish (1979), City on Fire (1979), When Time Ran Out (1980) and Butterfly (1982). He portrayed John F. Kennedy in the 1981 TV movie Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy,
alongside Charlie's Angel Jaclyn Smith.
His last acting role came in the 1985 spy drama Secret Weapons. In the late 1980s he turned to screenwriting and producing. His final project, on which he was working at the time of his death, was the 1991 adventure comedy 29th Street.
Personal
Franciscus had four daughters: Jamie (born 1961), Kellie (1963), Korie (1973) and Jolie (1975). He was a keen scuba diver,
sky-diver and tennis player: he founded the James Franciscus Celebrity Tennis Tournament to raise money for multiple sclerosis research.
He was also a kung fu student under the legendary Bruce Lee.
James Franciscus died of emphysema, age 57, on 8th July 1991.
James Franciscus
1934-1991
An excellent overview of Franciscus's career (which many of these pics are taken from) here
