March 12, 1997

MYSTERY OF ACTOR’S DEATH IN BIKE CRASH

A British actor who hoped to make his name in America died after his motorcycle crashed in mysterious circumstances, an inquest in west London was told yesterday.

Mark Frankel, 34, who played a Jewish London estate agent who discovers his father is a Yorkshire pig rearer in Leon the Pig Farmer, died last September after falling off his Harley-Davidson in Chiswick, west London.

A police accident investigator said there was no apparent reason for the accident. Mr. Frankel’s widow, Caroline, 32, who was pregnant when he died, said her husband had always been fascinated by motorcycles and the one he had been riding was one of only six in the world. She said he was an extremely careful rider. The couple also had a three-year-old son. Mr. Frankel had appeared in a number of American television shows and his mother, Grace, said that he had believed his future was in the U.S. An open verdict was recorded.