Frankie Burke was born in Brooklyn, New York before traveling to Hollywood to become an actor. He starred in an estimated sixteen films, including "Angels with Dirty Faces" (1938) and other films (many uncredited) before disappearing altogether after his last role in "Shadow of the Thin Man" (1941). In the early 1960s, he opted to become a hobo and travel across the United States in freight trains. He ended up settling in Chapman, where he died in 1983 at the age of 67.