Frank Thring

Frank Thring
Thring on the set of King of Kings
Born	Frank William Thring (1926-05-11)11 May 1926 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Died	29 December 1994(1994-12-29) (aged 68) Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Occupation	Actor
Spouse(s)	Joan Cunliffe (divorced)

Frank William Thring (11 May 1926 – 29 December 1994) was an Australian character actor.

Thring was born in Melbourne, the son of Frank Thring Snr. (known as F. W. Thring) and Olive (née Kreitmeyer), and was educated at the Melbourne Grammar School. His father was the head of the theatrical firm J. C. Williamson's in the 1920s, and subsequently Efftee Studios in the 1930s, in Melbourne, Australia. He has been anachronistically claimed to have been the inventor of the clapperboard. Thring Sr. was also a noted film producer (The Sentimental Bloke), and partner in the nationwide Australian theatre circuit Hoyts. Thring Sr. died in July 1936 at the age of 52, when Frank Jnr was 10 years old. Frank said his earliest memory is of his mother standing on a stepladder in the foyer of the Regent Theatre in Melbourne, and arranging gladioli in the vases attached to the pillars.

His career spanned more than 35 years, much of it spent alternating between stage, film and television. Perhaps his most famous role was that of Pontius Pilate in Ben-Hur (1959).

Thring trained as an actor at Melbourne radio station 3XY, which his family owned, and began acting in professional stage roles after his discharge from the Royal Australian Air Force in 1945. He made his British theatrical debut performing as Herod in Oscar Wilde's play Salome in 1954. Two years later, he played Sir Lancelot Spratt in Doctor in the House, which ran for 240 performances at the Victoria Palace in London.

He was Saturninus in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre production of Titus Andronicus with Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh and Anthony Quayle. He also played Captain Hook opposite Peggy Cummins' Peter Pan. Among his other acclaimed stage roles were George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man, Captain Ahab in Orson Welles's Moby-Dick, Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 1, and Bertolt Brecht's Life of Galileo. Another stage role was in the musical Robert and Elizabeth opposite June Bronhill and Denis Quilley.