Carla Ankney was the wife of James Franciscus. Carla Ankney’s husband, Franciscus was an American actor, known for his roles in feature films and in six television series: Mr. Novak, The Naked City, The Investigators, Longstreet, Doc Elliot, and Hunter.
Before her marriage to Franciscus, he was in a previous marriage. On March 28, 1960, Franciscus married Kathleen “Kitty” Wellman, the daughter of film director William A. Wellman. Their marriage was blessed with four children—Jamie, Kellie, Korie, and Jolie.
The marriage however didn’t last forever, the couple called it a quit after some time. After the couple’s divorce, he married Carla Ankney in 1980. They got married in a beautiful ceremony in the presence of their friend, family, and loved ones. They were still married at the time of Franciscus’s 1991 death from emphysema in North Hollywood, California, at 57.
Carla Ankney’s Husband Franciscus
Franciscus was born in Clayton, Missouri, to Lorraine (née Grover) and John Allen Franciscus, who died in WWII when James was nine years old. Franciscus graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and theater arts from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1957.
In the half-hour version of ABC’s Naked City, he played Detective Jim Halloran, which was his first major role. Carla Ankney’s husband Franciscus appeared as a guest star on the CBS military comedy-drama Hennesey, starring Jackie Cooper, and on The Americans, an NBC drama about family disputes during the American Civil War. CBS quickly recruited him as the lead in The Investigators, a 13-week series that aired from October 5 through December 28, 1961.
He co-starred with James Philbrook as insurance investigator Russ Andrews. Carla Ankney’s husband Franciscus was also cast as Tom Grover in the CBS anthology series The DuPont Show episode “The Empty Heart” in 1961, with June Allyson. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he appeared in a number of feature films and television shows, beginning with a minor role in an episode of The Twilight Zone titled “Judgment Night” in 1959, and a major role in episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents: “Forty Detectives Later” in 1960, and “Summer Shade” in 1961.
He appeared in I Passed for White and, in 1963, as Mike Norris in the episode “Hang By One Hand” of the NBC medical drama The Eleventh Hour. He also appeared as a guest star in Combat!, The F.B.I., and Miracle of the White Stallions. Franciscus is most known for his title roles in NBC’s Mr. Novak (1963–65) and ABC’s Longstreet (1971–72), in which his blind character took Jeet Kune Do instruction from Bruce Lee as Li Tsung in four episodes, and for his vocal performance in the film adaptation of Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
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