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Writer, director and producer Richard Franklin was born on July 15, 1948 in Melbourne, Australia. Infatuated with cinema at an early age, Franklin first began making 8mm films at age 10. Franklin saw Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" two years later and was hooked on movies for life. Richard enrolled at Monash University in Melbourne and worked as an assistant cameraman at a television advertising company. Franklin eventually went to America and attended the University of Southern California in 1967. While studying at USC Franklin got Hitchcock to do a Q&A session for a screening of "Rope." Hitchcock in turn invited Franklin to watch him work on the set of "Topaz." Franklin returned to Australia following graduation in 1969 and got a job as an assistant director for the popular TV series "Homicide." Franklin went on to direct several episodes. He also made several short movies and documentaries around this time. Franklin made his feature film debut with the raunchy sex comedy "The True Story of Eskimo Nell." He followed this picture with the equally bawdy "Fantasm." His third movie "Patrick" was a nifty horror feature that proved to be a big international success; it won the Grand Prize at the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival, was nominated for an AFI Award for Best Film, and won the Best Director Award at the Sitges-Catalonian International Film Festival. "Roadgames" was a tense and witty "danger on the road" thriller knockout which was the most expensive Australian film made in the early 80s. Franklin then did the surprisingly solid and satisfying belated sequel "Psycho II." His other movies include the delightful "Cloak and Dagger," the silly "Link," and the hugely enjoyable "F/X 2." However, Franklin became weary of Hollywood studio politics and returned to his native Australia. He made the acclaimed play adaptations "Hotel Sorrento" and "Brilliant Lies." "Hotel Sorrento" won an AFI Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for both Best Film and Best Director. Franklin also did a made-for-TV adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's classic fantasy adventure novel "The Lost World." His final feature was the horror thriller "Visitors." In addition to his film work, Franklin also directed episodes of the TV shows "Flatland," "A Fine Romance," and "Beauty and the Beast." He was a drummer in the Melbourne band The Pink Finks and was a lecturer at the Swinburne School of Film and Television in Australia. Richard Franklin died from prostate cancer at age 58 on July 11, 2007.
He was working on his autobiography and a PhD at the time of his death.
Received a degree in English from Monash University, leaving his native Australia to attend USC Film School in the mid-60s.
After arranging for a screening of "Rope" at USC as well as an appearance by Hitchcock himself, the director invited the aspiring young filmmaker to come and follow him about on the "Topaz" set. Years later he visited mentor Hitchcock for the last time on the set of "Family Plot," the Masters last film.
Franklin had wanted to do a thriller for children and started out to do a remake of the 1949 Bobby Driscoll suspenser "The Window," which Universal held the rights to. Ultimately the writers abandoned that and ended up writing "Cloak and Dagger.".
He is best known for his regular role as Captain Mike Yates during early 1970s episodes of the BBC science fiction series "Doctor Who" .
He unsuccessfully stood as the Referendum Party candidate for Hackney South/Shoreditch at the 1997 UK General Election.
In 2011, he starred in In Conversation with an Acid Bath Murderer, an audio drama about John George Haigh. His two aunts actually knew Haigh, as they had been regular guests at the hotel where he lived.
