- published: 06 Jun 2010
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Mark Frankel (13 June 1962–24 September 1996) was an English actor.
Frankel was born to David Lionel Frankel (a former Royal Air Force pilot) and Grace Frankel on the 13th of June 1962 and was raised in London. Beginning his acting career at 10, Frankel performed on stage until age 16, when he broke from the theater. Frankel returned to his studies at age 20 and made his major debut with the TNT film A Season of Giants. As Frankel's resume of television and film credits continued to grow, his personal life saw both grief and happiness. In 1990, his older brother, Joe Frankel, died in a flying accident when his light aircraft was hit by another plane. A year later Mark wed Caroline Besson, a French advertising executive. A few years later Mark and Caroline celebrated the birth of their first son Fabien in 1994. In the mid 1990s, Frankel gained cult status after appearing in two short-lived Fox television series: as British ex-secret agent Carlton Dial in Fortune Hunter and as the Ventrue vampire Prince of San Francisco in Kindred: The Embraced. In 1996, before the birth of his second son Max, Frankel died in a motorcycle accident in Chiswick, west London, aged 34, not long after the broadcast of the final episode of Kindred.
Jon-Erik Hexum (November 5, 1957 – October 18, 1984) was an American model and actor. He died as a result of a firearms accident on the set of the CBS television series Cover Up in which he played the male lead.
Hexum was born in Englewood, New Jersey, to Gretha and Thorleif Hexum. He and his elder brother, Gunnar, were raised in Tenafly, New Jersey, by their mother after their parents divorced when Hexum was four. After graduating from high school, Hexum went on to Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, in order to study biomedical engineering. He soon gave it up, however, and transferred to Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. During that time, he worked as a radio disc jockey, played football, and acted in minor stage roles.
Only a few days after graduation, he moved to New York in 1980, in order to pursue his acting career. While working as an apartment cleaner, he met Bob LeMond of LeMond/Zetter Management and the manager of John Travolta. LeMond saw great potential in Hexum. At LeMond's urging, Hexum relocated to Los Angeles in September 1981 in order to audition for a movie called Summer Lovers, which was to be directed by Randal Kleiser. Though he lost the part to Peter Gallagher, Hexum attracted the notice of Hollywood powerbrokers, and in short time was cast in the lead role of Phineas Bogg in the NBC series Voyagers! after playing the character in Voyager from the Unknown, the pilot for the series.Voyagers! aired during the 1982–83 television season, with Hexum's role earning him $10,000 a week. Unable to sustain itself against CBS' newsmagazine, 60 Minutes, Voyagers! was canceled after one season. But Hexum's good looks and charm kept him marketable, and soon he was cast opposite Joan Collins in the made-for-television movie Making of a Male Model, starring also Jeff Conaway and Roxie Roker.