Frank Wolff started his career by acting in several Roger Corman films. However, Wolff had to travel to Europe to be successful. He was finally able to become a well known actor in Italy and Europe with his performance in _Salvatore Giuliano . Sadly, the great actor suffered from depression and killed himself in the Hilton Hotel in Rome in December 1971.
Directed two original one acts for the advanced direction class at the UCLA: "The woman in Strindbergs room" and "The lucky guy".
He became quite good friends with director Monte Hellman when they studied and worked together at the UCLA in the 1950s. As a result, one of his first movies was Hellmans Beast from Haunted Cave .
His father was a Bay Area doctor.
His parents helped set up the bookings for an anti-war play at the UCLA titled "The time is tomorrow" in the early 1950s. Frank Wolff appeared in the tour version of this UCLA production.
His parents were politically active and more or less left oriented. They supported corresponding theatre projects at the UCLA, when Frank Wolff studied there in the 1950s.
Went to Italy in the early 1960s for making movies there on the advice of director Roger Corman. He had starred in three Corman movies The Beast from the Haunted Cave , ( Ski Troop Attack and Atlas ) with Michael Forest before the two became fast friends, traveled to Italy, and were roommates for a while while acting in Italian movies.
Won two times the UCLA best actor award: for "Macbeth" , playing the title role, and "The Lower Depths" (1952), playing Satin.
His last agent was Michele Pietravalle in Rome.
Actor Robert Hoffmann , who starred in Alberto De Martino s Femmine insaziabili , co-starring Frank Wolff, settled in his Hilton Hotel apartment in Rome after his suicide, because they had the same agent (Michele Pietravalle) at this time. Hoffmann, searching immediately for a roof over the head, didnt care much about the fact his predecessor had been found dead in the bath tub.
Was offered the role of the villain in Sergio Leone s legendary Per un pugno di dollari , but dropped it more or less for artistic reasons.
Starred and co-starred in movies by most of the most important Italian western directors of all time: Sergio Leone , Sergio Corbucci , Enzo G. Castellari , Giuseppe Colizzi , Giuliano Carnimeo (aka Anthony Ascott) and Sergio Sollima. Only with Sollima he did no western, but the agent-action-adventure Agente 3S3, massacro al sole .
Actor Brett Halsey wrote a book, called The Magnificent Strangers, which includes a lot of characters based on Halseys real movie business colleagues and is kind of autobiographic in a way. The character Frank Ward, whos suicide is thematized in the book, is said to have been written with Frank Wolff in mind.
According to quite a lot of his colleagues, he was very friendly and helpful. Moreover it has been reported, he proverbially always had a smile on his face and seemed to be very lucky. Among movie people he was also kept for one of the best actors in the Italian cinema era, he was part of. Only few colleagues claim, they recognized psychological problems, he could have had, for example actor Robert Hoffmann and a former companion from his UCLA time, who wrote an article about him.
He provided the role of The Stranger to actor Tony Anthony and played the villain in The Strangers first movie Un dollaro tra i denti as a favor for Anthony. The part became Anthonys most famous role besides his Blindman and he repeated it three times. Several months before Frank Wolffs death, according to Anthony himself, Frank Wolff asked him for a similar favor, wanting the role in Blindman , which was finally taken by Ringo Starr. It was kind of deal between them, Anthony would provide him role, because Wolff had done him a favor earlier. But the producers wanted Ringo Starr for the role - Wolff was dropped and had a falling out with Anthony. About one year later Frank Wolff killed himself. There have always been rumors, one reason for the suicide was, he saw his career at an end/thought he couldnt get the roles he wanted anymore.
Died before shooting of his last movie Quando le donne persero la coda was finished.
