Steve Franken Death

Actor Steve Franken has died of cancer at age 80 in the Canoga Park community of Los Angeles, taking with him the character of young millionaire Chatsworth Osborne Jr. from the CBS sitcom "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis."

Steve Franken's prolific acting career spanned nearly six decades and included a tremendous amount of television character roles on the hottest hit TV shows of the time:

"The Rat Patrol," "Dr. Kildare," "Perry Mason," "Petticoat Junction," "McHale's Navy," "Bewitched," "The Patty Duke Show," "My Favorite Martian," "My Three Sons," "Batman," "That Girl," "The Wild, Wild West," "Mission: Impossible," "The Big Valley," "Mod Squad," "Love, American Style," "Rod Serling's Night Gallery," "Insight," "Marcus Welby, M.D.," "Mary Tyler Moore," "Adam-12," "Emergency!," "Police Story," "One Day at a Time," "The Rookies," "Charlie's Angels," "Alice," "CHiPs," "Quincy," "Kojak," "Barney Miller," "MacGyver," "Hotel," "Diff'rent Strokes," "Hill Street Blues," "ER," "Murphy Brown," "Seinfeld" and "The King of Queens."

Those are just a few of the television shows on which the great Steve Franken performed as an actor.

There is not room enough to list all the work of the extremely busy actor whose body of work will live on as an important part of Hollywood history.

Most famous for "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," Franken was the popular replacement for Warren Beatty, who had quit the popular television show to pursue a movie career.

Originally trained as a stage actor, Franken also excelled in many movies and was especially acclaimed for his performance as a drunken waiter alongside Peter Sellers in the Blake Edwards cult classic film, The Party. 

Reach, the final movie performance of Steve Franken's career, is soon to be released in theaters.  

Stephen Robert Franken was born on May 27, 1932 as the son of a Hollywood press agent.

Franken was an alumnus of both Cornell University and The Actors Studio before moving to Los Angeles.

Obviously, the actor found work.

Unbelievably, the tireless thespian continued working in Tinseltown through July 2012 after he turned 80 years old.

Steve Franken's cause of death was complications from cancer and chemotherapy.

(Otherwise, Steve probably would have appeared in 600 more TV shows.)

The public memorial service is at 2:00 pm on September 22 at Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Boulevard West, Hollywood, California (101 freeway/Barham exit).

The late Steve Franken is survived by his wife of 25 years, Jean Franken, three daughters and two grandchildren, along with many friends, colleagues and fans who mourn the death of Steve Franken.

Steve Franken 1932-2012