Frank Reynolds



Franklin "Frank" Reynolds (aka: The Warthog) is the stepfather of Dennis Reynolds and Dee Reynolds, and the ex-husband of Barbara Reynolds. Frank also lives with best friend (and ex-husband), Charlie Kelly.

He is a member of "The Gang" that owns and runs Paddy's Pub. He used to be prim and proper, but after he divorced Barbara, he let himself lose all convictions and live with no moral compass or decency.

Appearance
Frank is instantly recognizable by his short and stout stature; he stands more than a full head shorter than Charlie, the previously shortest member of the Gang. Dee has mentioned that he is 4'10'', black hair, and has brown eyes. ("Dennis and Dee Get a New Dad")He was once compared to Humpty Dumpty when wearing skinny jeans, and has been described frequently as fat and ugly by several people.

He is bald on the top of his head, but prefers to grow out what is left on the sides. It started going grey sometime prior to "Frank Retires", but he applies hair dye during his morning routine to keep it black. ("Being Frank")

In his first appearance, he has neat, combed hair, small glasses, and wears dressy shirts or V-neck sweaters and smart shoes, with an occasional suit jacket. ("Charlie Gets Crippled")However, once he renounces his classy lifestyle for that of depravity and hedonism, he begins wearing huge glasses that dramatically magnify his eyes, as well as bowling shirts that he doesn't bother to button fully, or short sleeve Henley t-shirts; both types of shirts are seen in solid colors like red, black, green, blue, or grey.

Along with these come two pairs of drawstring Cabana pants in black and brown, and either black work shoes or Crocs in black or orange.

He occasionally wears over-sized sweatshirts in black, grey, or blue. If he is out on a date or clubbing, he wears a very unconvincing toupee. ("Mac Bangs Dennis' Mom") In colder weather he's shown to wear a sherpa lined hoodie, a long sleeve Henley, or a fur coat. ("The Gang Hits the Slopes")

Personality
Frank is a successful businessman and has a long history of illegal operations and diabolical schemes. (List of crimes committed by the gang)

Frank lives on what he calls the "Fringe class". He lives a dirty bachelor life with no restraints, and once tried to be as depraved as possible

Frank styles himself a master manipulator and frequently takes the lead in the group's schemes. It’s quickly obvious that he often makes horrible decisions and is not as sharp and current as he should be.

Frank has known many sordid characters throughout his life and around town, including a ring of Asian gamblers, ​​​ and various criminals and gangsters.

He claims to have his children's best interests at heart but frequently exploits and insults them. He is especially cruel to Dee, constantly remarking negatively on her age and looks.


 * He has pimped out his son Dennis for "no-rules" sexual favors.
 * Frank waterboarded Dee in Paddy's men's room to gain a confession.
 * He convinced Dee to pretend to be engaged to him and almost took part in sexual activity with her. ​​​
 * He also trained his daughter Sweet Dee to be a boxer so she could fight the daughter of his longtime nemesis.

Over the course of the show he has ceased to be a father figure to Dennis and Dee and is instead merely part of the gang although he still refers to them as his kids.

Frank wants to stay young.

Frank seems to take Mac under his wing, "mentoring" him on how to succeed in life via shady, unethical and sometimes illegal methods. It is observed that Mac looks up to Frank, more so than the rest of The Gang, though Charlie takes extreme measures to ensure that Frank remains his roommate. Frank appears to have taken an active dislike to Mac as the series has continued, noting Mac “creeps him out“ in “Being Frank,” though he did save Mac‘s life (albeit through shouting a homophobic slur) in “Hero or Hate Crime?” Frank admits to Mac that he "doesn't get" Mac's conflict over his homosexuality in "Mac Finds His Pride," but helps him put on a dance production so Mac can come out to Luther and is moved to tears by Mac's performance, whispering to himself, "I get it."

Frank has a tendency to trip on LSD, where he has manifested traumatising experiences being trapped in the bathrooms of recreational vehicles. Like Mac, he drinks alcohol, but not to the excess that his young associates do, except in the episodes "The Gang Gives Frank an Intervention" and "The Gang Beats Boggs". Frank normally never drinks to the same excess as the gang do probably because Frank knows that he could not keep up if he tried. Frank demonstrates his inferior capacity for alcohol during The Gang Beats Boggs, he was slurring his words and nearly passing out after 21 beers.

Though he clearly teaches life lessons and even offers valuable insights to The Gang, Frank's worldview is often very skewed. In the episode "Mac and Dennis: Manhunters", Dennis remarks that some of the stories Frank tells of his life come straight from John Rambo's life. In the episode "The Gang Gets Held Hostage", Frank emulates John McClane from the Die Hard film series. In the episode "Mac Is A Serial Killer", Dennis says Frank "makes less sense every day."

Frank appears to be very wealthy; the extent of his worth is unknown, but he's been shown to buy a Lamborghini on a whim, had owned a mansion for years, and once wrote a check worth $8 million for his children. However, he prefers to live in squalor as Charlie's roommate in an apartment referred to by anyone who dares step into it as "a shit-hole," which originally stemmed from his desire to hide assets from his then-recently separated wife. Though Barbara's will gave all his money to Bruce Mathis ("Dennis and Dee's Mom is Dead"), this apparently only applied to assets he did not hide from her, as he has funded a number of schemes and deals that would cost thousands if not millions of dollars. He loses his money to a Ponzi scheme in "The Great Recession" but is reimbursed by the government; the episode makes it clear that Paddy's only stays afloat through his constant bailouts, and implies that he pays the rent on Dee's apartment.

Frequently, the Gang's schemes and impulsive whims are funded through Frank's credit card, something Dennis blames for their getting "weirder" every year ("The Gang Misses the Boat"). Frank's enjoyment of squalor and the Gang's schemes means that he often refuses to use his money for actual conveniences, such as donating thousands of dollars to an animals rights organization so he can roast them at a charity dinner in Atlantic City, but taking an overly-long, rural route to the dinner to avoid toll roads ("The Gang Gets Stranded in the Woods") or refusing to pay rent to his and Charlie's landlord, Hwang, due to Hwang not fixing utilities, even though he could easily afford a better place. The Gang, for their part, frequently tries to scam money from Frank to fulfill their own needs, starting with "Dennis and Dee Go on Welfare" and sometimes attempt to go around him to avoid his conditional requirements for funding, such as his demands for a "full penetration" love scene in "The Gang Makes Lethal Weapon 6." Frank, for his part, has little regard for creature comforts beyond booze, drugs, meat and "bangin' hoors," and has repeatedly expressed a desire to simply be "thrown in the trash" once he has expired.

Though Frank is egotistical, diabolical, and maniacal, he appears to have some good in him; he seems to care greatly for Charlie, possibly even more so than he does for Dennis and Dee. In "Mac and Charlie Die," he becomes grief-stricken when Charlie fakes his own death; he carries around a plastic likeness of Charlie through the streets while wailing and keening his love for him.

Frank is a severe compulsive gambler, seen betting on everything from grade school basketball to Russian roulette, usually with his chain smoking, and high-stakes betting ring of Vietnamese friends. Sweet Dee once told Frank, "You can't just come in here and start running our lives like this, it's not fair!" to which Frank replied "Wanna bet?" Dee, confused, asks "Bet on what? Whether or not it's fair?" to which Frank replies "Yeah. Bet on whatever." This is a prime example of his boundless addiction to gambling, no matter how ridiculous the circumstances. "What's the action?" is Frank's signature line.

Frank is known to frequently carry a revolver and wave it around at inopportune times. He also has a "Toe Knife".

Frank has a brother named Gino who appears in Frank's Brother. Both were involved with the same woman.

Frank has been referred to in the business world as the alias "The Warthog".

Abilities

 * Frank is the "brains" of the Gang.
 * He is an expert at waterboarding and gambling.
 * Frank is an expert at making money. In earlier seasons, his business savvy seemed to have dwindled due to his out-of-date values and ideas, but in later seasons he successfully pulls off several get-rich-quick schemes:
 * He sells and guts one of his former businesses in order to make "a shitload" of money. However he seems unconcerned with the actual products that said company makes. ("Frank's Back in Business")
 * He sparks a massive run on gun sales through several public appearances after secretly investing in Gunther's Guns; he then reinvests the money in water purifiers after planning to provoke a similar scare ("Gun Fever Too: Still Hot")
 * He buys the mountain Alpine Ridge is on, and fracks it while distracting local environmentalists with fake plans for a new ski resort and local burnouts with hookers ("The Gang Hits the Slopes")
 * His shell company "Frank's Fluids" achieves unexpected success through such products as Wolf Cola and Fight Milk, though both prove...controversial ("Wolf Cola: A Public Relations Nightmare")


 * Frank can play the tuba. ("The Gang Makes Paddy's Great Again")
 * Frank is shown to be able to hold his breath underwater for at least 90 seconds whilst exerting himself by swimming, which is particularly impressive for a short overweight man in his seventies ("The Gang Goes to Hell: Part Two")

Weaknesses
in fact, he once declared one of his reasons why he does not diddle kids is because he desires taller women. ​​​
 * Frank believes if you touch someone with AIDS, you will contract the disease. ​​​
 * Prone to abusing everything from booze to marijuana to hospital medication.
 * Very fond of banging whores (hoors).
 * Quite possibly, Frank has a variation of "small stature complex":
 * Frank has haunting childhood memories and becomes hysterical when they are discussed.
 * Frank may be suffering from a terminal condition. He mostly ignores a doctor trying to tell him the details, but we do hear that he has a malignant tumor on his left lobe, which apparently requires immediate surgery. He leaves the hospital against medical advice to help with a scheme the Gang is trying to pull.

Religion
Frank has implied that he believes we are living in a turtle's dream in outer space.

Early Life
Frank was born on July 31, 1943.


 * He has an older brother Gino. ​​​​
 * After he got into a fight, some school psychologist asked him way too many questions that overwhelmed him to the point riling him up, and wrongly had him sent to a terrible-terrible "nitwit school" (a school for the mentally disabled). Back in his day, science was still relatively crude, and the people who worked there treated the students horribly, putting them in windowless rooms with drains where they would hose them down. The experiences from his stay there ultimately left Frank horribly traumatized, and to this day, he has come to detest and not trust therapists.
 * Frank was a social outcast and when in the "nitwit school" created a friend he named "the frog kid", Only when he talks to his old Dr. does he remember the HE was actually the frog kid.
 * In high school, Frank and Angie would go on dates and get into criminal activities. Highlights included having sex in a graveyard and stealing a motorcycle and driving it into the river. ("Mac Bangs Dennis' Mom")
 * In 1961 "Frankie Fast Hands" lost a boxing match to Bobby Thunderson, allegedly due to a cheap shot by Thunderson.
 * Frank opened up a nightclub called "Shadynasty's" with Gino in the late 60's. After shooting a Black Panther, Frank hid out in Colombia, working for his brother's cocaine business.
 * In 1986, Frank was skiing in the Poconos, and got banned for 30 years.
 * In 1992, Frank participated in the Rodney King Riots in LA, being caught on camera stealing skiing supplies
 * In 1993, Frank opened a sweatshop in Vietnam. ("And a lot of good men died in that sweatshop!"). ​​​​
 * Frank started a real estate company (ReyHam Properties) with his partner Eugene Hamilton, and then stole all the money.
 * Frank founded Atwater Capital. ​​​​

Catchphrase
"Hey, what's the action?"

"Shabooya roll call"

Trivia

 * Dennis and Dee wrote an epitaph for Frank's fake grave: "He was a dick of a father."
 * He probably has an older sister. ​​​
 * There are nine episodes that do not feature Frank, two of which aired after his introduction into the show.
 * The episodes in which he's absent after being established as a main character are Paddy's Pub: The Worst Bar in Philadelphia and Mac's Banging the Waitress.
 * He claims he played "a major role" in the Chappaquiddick incident.
 * It is often theorised that Frank's mental decline started from his stroke at the end of season 2.
 * Frank has an unknown, but serious, condition that was caught "just in time" and would possibly be treatable if Frank would have only stopped to listen for a minute or care. Similar to the point about Frank's stroke causing a mental decline, the condition is that he has a malignant growth on his frontal lobe. Damage to the frontal lobe can lead to problems with memory, as well as impulsive behaviour, and an inability to recognise the consequences of your actions.
 * Frank's childhood psychiatric doctor, Albert Zimmerman, refers to him as Franklin, possibly his full first name.
 * He has been shown driving a Cadillac DTS (The Storm of the Century) and a Cadillac DeVille. (Reynolds vs. Reynolds: The Cereal Defense)
 * He is right-handed.
 * Frank has stated multiple times that, rather than receiving a traditional burial upon his death, he is perfectly fine with being thrown into a dumpster. He may even prefer it.
 * Frank loves guns, in fact he has been shown to own several guns, and carries at least one gun with him at all times, no matter where he goes or what he does.
 * Frank can only throw overhand. ("The Gang Buys a Boat")
 * Despite Frank's fake grave stone giving his birth year as 1947 in "A Very Sunny Christmas", Frank's birthdate is given as July 31, 1943 on his driver's license in "The Gang Gets New Wheels".
 * Frank likes to rock out to Faith No More, specifically the album "King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime."

Relationships:

 * Dennis Reynolds (legal son)
 * Dee Reynolds (legal daughter)
 * Charlie Kelly (ex-husband and best friend)
 * Barbara Reynolds (ex-wife)

Bangs:

 * Barbara Reynolds (ex-wife)
 * Bonnie Kelly
 * The Waitress ​​​
 * Artemis
 * Angie Spinola ​​​
 * Two strippers
 * Shadynasty ​​​
 * An unnamed Colombian woman ​​​
 * Samantha W.
 * Frank receives a handjob from Gail the Snail, his niece by marriage. He says that they did not actually bang, but "we did a bunch of those monster energy drinks and dry-humped all night."
 * A hooker hired to play his character's girlfriend in Lethal Weapon 5 (it's implied in the episode, and explicitly stated in the director's commentary on the DVD, that Frank was actually having sex with her.) ​​​
 * Roxy ​​​
 * A un-named woman in Lethal Weapon 6.
 * An unknown number of "whores," likely in the dozens or hundreds
 * Mac, Charlie, and a Dennis sex doll. ("The Gang Makes Paddy's Great Again")