- Popular Los Angeles-based television film critic who created "the Franklin Scale" a film ratings system of 1 to 10 where 1 is the worst and 10 being the best.
- A passionate opponent of film violence according to a 1997 story in Variety, Franklin became persona non grata at Warner Bros. after director Oliver Stone received a zero on the "Franklin Scale" for Natural Born Killers (1994), which Franklin deemed a "cultural crime." Elsewhere, Madonna once earned a "minus 5" from Franklin for her film documentary Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991).
- Served in the Army as a combat and documentary cameraman in Korea before producing television documentaries in New York and Canada.
- Was born to a Jewish family in Leipzig, Germany. His family moved to the United States in 1938 to escape the Nazis, and changed their name from "Peltz" to Franklin. Before fleeing, Gary and his parents were beaten by the SS, resulting in depression and an extreme objection to violence in film.
- Joined the radio station KFWB-AM in 1972 in California as a reporter and eventually moved to TV in 1981 where he became an established bald-pated movie and entertainment critic for several stations. Later hooked up as an entertainment reporter at KCOP in 1992.
- Studied film at New York City College and earned a BA in film before working in broadcasting in the early 1950s in Virginia.
- Gary's father was a doctor for the German Army in World War One.
- At the time of his death, Gary Franklin was writing an autobiography. Unfortunately, the manuscript was misplaced during one of the family's changes of residence.
- Gary Franklin is survived by his wife, two daughters, and four grandchildren in the Truesdell and Esswein families.
- Gary Franklin was an avid and passionate photographer, so much so that he gutted a bathroom for use as his "dark room".
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