Frank Wolff

Walter Frank Hermann Wolff (May 11, 1928—December 12, 1971) was a versatile American actor whose prolific movie career began with roles in five 1958-61 Roger Corman productions and ended a decade later in Rome, after scores of appearances in European-made films, most of which were lensed in Italy.

A native of San Francisco, Frank Wolff was the son of a Bay area physician. The elder Wolff, a political and social maverick, encouraged young Frank to follow an unconventional path. Frank attended UCLA, where he studied acting and stagecraft, wrote and directed plays and befriended another actor/director, Monte Hellman. Between 1957 and 1961, he appeared in nearly twenty episodes of TV series and feature films, a few of which fit into the horror/science fiction genre.

Frank Wolff had bit roles in his first two films, Roger Corman's I Mobster and The Wasp Woman. The former, a 1958 black-and-white gangster melodrama in which Wolff does not even receive a billing, was presented as a first-person narrative by the title character, Murder Incorporated (fictional) boss Joe Sante (Steve Cochran). The latter, Wolff's first genre film, was a typically campy horror, filmed in 1959, in which the owner of a cosmetics business (Susan Cabot) becomes the titular monster after using one of her own experimental rejuvenating formulas. Wolff has a single, memorable scene.

Wolff's numerous Italian films of the 60s included The Four Days of Naples, Salvatore Giuliano, Death Took Place Last Night, The Great Silence, God Forgives, I Don't, and Once Upon a Time in the West. He was also seen a few episodes of British-produced TV series, such as The Saint and The Baron.