06-18-2021, 08:21 AM
Frank Bonner (born Frank Woodrow Boers Jr., February 28, 1942 – June 16, 2021[1]) was an American actor and television director widely known for his role as sales manager Herb Tarlek on the television sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati.
Bonner was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, the son of Mamie Grace, a singer, and Frank Woodrow Boers, a saxophone player.[2] He started his acting career in the experimental 1967 independent film The Equinox ... A Journey into the Unknown, which was re-shot and re-edited as the 1970 cult classic Equinox (credited as Frank Boers, Jr.).[2]
In 1978, during the run of WKRP in Cincinnati, Bonner was injured in a parasailing accident at the El Mirage Lake Off-Highway Vehicle Recreation Area, northeast of Los Angeles. Bonner was approximately 20 feet in the air, suspended under an ascendancy parachute pulled by a tow vehicle — when a sudden, unexpected wind collapsed the chute, causing him to fall to the lake bed and suffer internal injuries and injuries to his back.[3] Subsequently, Bonner appeared on crutches in episodes of WKRP in Cincinnati (season 2 episode - A Family Affair) and Family Feud.
Bonner appeared as a guest star in one episode of the sitcom Night Court in the 1980s. From 1988 to 1990, Bonner played the role of Father Hargis, headmaster of the fictional St. Augustine's Academy, on the TV show Just the Ten of Us, which was a spin-off of Growing Pains. He also appeared in one of the early episodes of the television show Newhart. He reprised the role of Herb Tarlek in the 1991 spinoff The New WKRP in Cincinnati and in a 2004 rock video for Canadian indie rock band Rheostatics (for the song "The Tarleks", from their album 2067).
Bonner directed several episodes of WKRP in Cincinnati as well as other TV sitcoms, including Who's the Boss?, Head of the Class (starring WKRP alumnus Howard Hesseman), Evening Shade, Newhart and every episode of the NBC Saturday morning sitcom City Guys. Bonner also appeared in five episodes of Saved by the Bell: The New Class, and directed four episodes.
Bonner died on June 16, 2021, at his home in Laguna Niguel, California, of complications from Lewy body dementia.[2]
More at Wikipedia.
Bonner was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, the son of Mamie Grace, a singer, and Frank Woodrow Boers, a saxophone player.[2] He started his acting career in the experimental 1967 independent film The Equinox ... A Journey into the Unknown, which was re-shot and re-edited as the 1970 cult classic Equinox (credited as Frank Boers, Jr.).[2]
In 1978, during the run of WKRP in Cincinnati, Bonner was injured in a parasailing accident at the El Mirage Lake Off-Highway Vehicle Recreation Area, northeast of Los Angeles. Bonner was approximately 20 feet in the air, suspended under an ascendancy parachute pulled by a tow vehicle — when a sudden, unexpected wind collapsed the chute, causing him to fall to the lake bed and suffer internal injuries and injuries to his back.[3] Subsequently, Bonner appeared on crutches in episodes of WKRP in Cincinnati (season 2 episode - A Family Affair) and Family Feud.
Bonner appeared as a guest star in one episode of the sitcom Night Court in the 1980s. From 1988 to 1990, Bonner played the role of Father Hargis, headmaster of the fictional St. Augustine's Academy, on the TV show Just the Ten of Us, which was a spin-off of Growing Pains. He also appeared in one of the early episodes of the television show Newhart. He reprised the role of Herb Tarlek in the 1991 spinoff The New WKRP in Cincinnati and in a 2004 rock video for Canadian indie rock band Rheostatics (for the song "The Tarleks", from their album 2067).
Bonner directed several episodes of WKRP in Cincinnati as well as other TV sitcoms, including Who's the Boss?, Head of the Class (starring WKRP alumnus Howard Hesseman), Evening Shade, Newhart and every episode of the NBC Saturday morning sitcom City Guys. Bonner also appeared in five episodes of Saved by the Bell: The New Class, and directed four episodes.
Bonner died on June 16, 2021, at his home in Laguna Niguel, California, of complications from Lewy body dementia.[2]
More at Wikipedia.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.