Playbill

Franklin Cover (Performer) Obituary
Franklin Cover, the Broadway actor who played the interracially married white neighbor, Tom Willis, on TV's "The Jeffersons," died Feb. 5, 2006, at age 77, his publicist said. Mr. Cover died of pneumonia at the Lillian Booth Actor's Fund of America home in Englewood, N.J., where he had been living since December 2005 while recuperating from a heart condition.

His TV appearances included "The Jackie Gleason Show," "All in the Family," "Who's the Boss?," "Will & Grace," "Coach," "227," "Living Single," "Mad About You" and "ER," among others.

Mr. Cover's Broadway credits include Born Yesterday (1989), Wild Honey (1986), Applause (he replaced Robert Mandan in the 1970 musical), Forty Carats (1968), Richard Chandler's The Freaking Out of Stephanie Blake (which never officially opened, 1967), A Warm Body (1967), The Investigation (1966), Abraham Cochrane (1964), Calculated Risk (1962), Giants, Sons of Giants (1962).

Mr. Cover is survived by wife Mary, a son and a daughter.

 X

Blocking belongs
on the stage,
not on websites.

Our website is made possible by
displaying online advertisements to our visitors.

Please consider supporting us by
whitelisting playbill.com with your ad blocker.
Thank you!