Don Francks

Donald Harvey Francks was an actor, jazz musician, environmental activist and as a performer began singing when he was just 6-years-old and acting when he was ten. He was a teenager when he landed a job as a disc jockey in Vancouver but then left the job and school to join the merchant marine. After that he began his career in showbiz, but put that behind him to live on the Red Pheasant Reserve in Saskatchewan with his wife Lili Francks. He was adopted as a Cree, and named Iron Buffalo. He returned to the spotlight in the late ‘70s, narrating the CBC series This Land. He won 2 successive ACTRA Awards for performances in CBC’s Drying Up the Streets (1980) and The Phoenix Team (1981). Don Francks was 84 when he died of cancer in Toronto.

Official website

Also see:
Cree Summer
Rainbow Francks
Remembering Don Francks

Features & TV Movies:
VR indicates Direct-to-Video Release

Ivy League Killers (1959)

Drylanders (1963)
Finian`s Rainbow (1968)

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
Drying Up The Streets (1978) Summer`s Children (1979)
Old Fish Hawk (1979)
Riel (1979)
Fast Company (1979)

Heavy Metal (voice, 1981)
My Bloody Valentine (1981)
984: Prisoner of the Future (TV-1982)
Rock & Rule (voice, 1983)
Countdown to Looking Glass (TV-1984)
Terminal Choice (1985)
The Big Town (1987)
Good Times at the Rainbow Bar and Grill (TV-1987)
Hot Paint (TV-1988)
The Christmas Wife (TV-1988)

Labor of Love (TV-1990)
On Thin Ice: The Tai Babilonia Story (1990)
Quiet Killer (TV-1992)
The Diviners (TV-1993)
Married to It (1993)
Small Gifts (TV-1994)
Paint Cans (1994)
Madonna: Innocence Lost (TV-1994)
The Possession of Michael D. (TV-1995)
First Degree (1995)
A Vow to Kill (TV-1995)
Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
Hostile Advances: The Kerr Ellison Story (TV–1996)
Heck`s Way Home (1996)
The Conspiracy of Fear (TV-1996)
Captive Heart: The James Mink Story (TV-1996)
Harriet the Spy (1996)
Bogus (1996)
A Prayer in the Dark (TV-1997)
Summer of the Monkeys (1998)
Mr. Music (TV-1998)
The Minion (aka Fallen Knight, 1998)
Dinner at Fred’s (1999)

My Name is Tanino (2002)
Lie With Me (2005)
I’m Not There (2007)
The Curse of the Piano (2008)
Finding ODO (2009, short)

The Second Time Around (2016)

TV Series – Cast:
R.C.M.P. (1960)
Jericho (1966)

Inspector Gadget (voice, 1983)
Ewoks (voice, 1985)
Droids (1985)
Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future (voice, 1987)
Starcom: The U.S. Space Force (voice, 1987)
AlfTales (voice, 1988)

Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (1991)
X-Men (voice, 1992)
Degree of Guilt (mini-series, 1995)
La Femme Nikita (1997-)
The Silver Surfer (voice, 1998)

The Last Chapter: The War Continues (mini-series, 2003)
My Dad the Rock Star (voice, 2003)
The Very Good Adventures of Yam Roll in Happy Kingdom (voice, 2006)