Chester M. Franklin

Birthday: Sep 1, 1890

Bio: American film director Chester M. Franklin developed a reputation early on as a "children's" director. At Fox studios in the years between 1917 and 1919, Franklin was prime mover of the "Fox Kiddies" series, a group of feature-length pastiches of famous literary properties (Alladin's Lamp, Jack and the Beanstalk etc.) with all-moppet casts. He abandoned this sort… More Bio: American film director Chester M. Franklin developed a reputation early on as a "children's" director. At Fox studios in the years between 1917 and 1919, Franklin was prime mover of the "Fox Kiddies" series, a group of feature-length pastiches of famous literary properties (Alladin's Lamp, Jack and the Beanstalk etc.) with all-moppet casts. He abandoned this sort of fare in favor of grown-up projects in the 1920s, starring such certified adults as Bebe Daniels, Norma Talmadge and Betty Bronson. Though Chester M. Franklin had difficulty re-establishing himself in the talkie era, he finished on a high note with the 1935 "great outdoors" endeavor Sequoia, and the 1936 MGM programmer Tough Guy, a lightning-paced melodrama co-starring Jackie Cooper and Rin Tin Tin Jr. Bizarrely, the sources that list Franklin's death date vary by as much as 8 years, veering between 1948, 1949 and 1956; the year listed in our main record was taken from the British Film Institute database. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi