Frank Bonner


Frank Bonner is an American actor and television director best known for playing sales manager Herb Tarlek on the television sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati.

Life and career

Bonner was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, the son of Mamie Grace, a singer, and Frank Woodrow Boers, a saxophone player. Bonner started his acting career in the experimental 1967 independent film The Equinox... A Journey into the Unknown, which was re-shot and re-edited as the 1970 cult classic Equinox.
In 1978, Bonner was injured in a parachute accident. Bonner was being towed by a 4 wheel drive vehicle when the ascendancy parachute he was hanging in collapsed in a freak wind at the El Mirage Dry Lake Recreational Area in 50 miles northeast of Los Angeles. Bonner fell 20 feet and suffered internal and back injuries. This accident led to his appearance with crutches on TV, most noticeably in the WKRP in Cincinnati, season 2 episode - A Family Affair as well as an All-Star Special episode of Family Feud.
He reprised the role of Herb Tarlek in the 1991 spinoff The New WKRP in Cincinnati, and in a 2004 rock video for Canadian indie rock band Rheostatics.
Bonner appeared as a guest star in one episode of the sitcom Night Court in the 1980s. From 1988 to 1990, Bonner played the role of Father Hargis, headmaster of the fictional St. Augustine's Academy on the TV show Just the Ten of Us which was a spin-off of Growing Pains. Bonner also appeared in one of the early episodes of the television show Newhart.
Bonner also directed several episodes of WKRP in Cincinnati as well as other TV sitcoms, including Who's the Boss?, Head of the Class, Evening Shade, Newhart and every episode of the NBC Saturday morning sitcom City Guys. Bonner also appeared in five episodes of , and directed four episodes.

Actor filmography

Director filmography