Franklyn Seales

Franklyn Vincent Ellison Seales (July 15, 1952 – May 14, 1990) was an American film, television and stage actor. He was known for his portrayals of business manager Dexter Stuffins in the 1980s sitcom Silver Spoons, and real-life convicted cop killer Jimmy Lee (Youngblood) Smith in the 1979 film The Onion Field.

Early life and education Seales was born on July 15, 1952, the fifth of eight siblings, in Calliaqua to Francis Seales, a merchant seaman and government employee, and Olive Seales (née Allen), a homemaker. Seales was of English, Scottish, African, Portuguese and Native Caribbean descent. He and his family left the West Indies in 1960 and settled in New York City. He attended Lincoln High School in Brooklyn. Seales was the first and only known graduate of Juilliard to hail from St. Vincent. He appeared in the 1981 film, Southern Comfort, in which he portrayed Rifleman Cleotis Simms.

He came to do other television and became a regular on Silver Spoons (which also starred Houseman), a situation comedy of the early 1980s in which he portrayed Dexter Stuffins from 1983 to 1987.

In Los Angeles, Seales joined L.A. Theatre Works and was seen in such unconventional productions as Conversation at Night With a Despised Character, in which Los Angeles Times critic Lawrence Christon found him "one of America's most compelling stage actors."

Personal life and death According to Walter Hill, the director of Southern Comfort, Seales was gay.

Seales started noticing symptoms of AIDS-related illness (in particular a persistent cough) on the set of Amen and had been unable to work regularly for the last couple years of his life. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the Caribbean Sea.

Filmography