Frank McGrath (actor)

Benjamin Franklin "Frank" McGrath
Cast of Wagon Train in 1962; McGrath is at lower right
Born	(1903-02-02)February 2, 1903 Mound City, Holt County, Missouri, U.S.
Died	May 13, 1967(1967-05-13) (aged 64) Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Occupation	Television actor Stunt performer
Years active	1925-1967
Spouse(s)	Libby Quay Buschlen McGrath (?-1967, his death)

Benjamin Franklin McGrath, known as Frank McGrath (February 2, 1903 – May 13, 1967), was an American television actor who played the comical and optimistic cook with the white beard, Charlie B. Wooster, on the Western television series Wagon Train on NBC and then ABC. McGrath appeared in all 272 episodes in the eight seasons of the series, which had ended its run only two years before his death. McGrath's Wooster character hence provided the meals and companionship for both fictional trailmasters, Ward Bond as Seth Adams and John McIntire as Christopher "Chris" Hale.

McGrath was born in Mound City in Holt County in far northwestern Missouri. McGrath's first role, uncredited, was in the 1932 film The Rainbow Trail, a study of Mormon polygamy based on a 1915 Zane Grey novel of the same name. He was also a stunt performer. Even at the age of fifty-three, the durable McGrath did three separate horse fall and drag scenes for the 1956 John Wayne picture The Searchers not long after McGrath had barely recovered from having broken his back. A year before Wagon Train began, McGrath appeared briefly as ranch foreman John Pike in the 1956 episode "Quicksand" of the first hour-long television Western series, ABC's Cheyenne, starring Clint Walker. In 1957, McGrath had an uncredited role as a stagecoach driver in the Henry Fonda film, The Tin Star. In 1958, he portrayed the character Jake Rivers in the episode "The Most Dangerous Man Alive" on NBC's Tales of Wells Fargo, starring Dale Robertson.