Character actor Virgil Charles Frye was born on August 21, 1930 in Estherville, Iowa. A former Golden Gloves boxing champion, Frye worked in the cornfields in Iowa and was active in the civil rights movement in Alabama before he first began acting in films and TV shows in the mid-1960's. Virgil often played either tough guys or police officers. The father of both Sean Frye and Soleil Moon Frye, Frye also ran his own successful acting school in the Hollywood Hills. Virgil suffered from Pick's Disease or Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in his latter years and was the subject of the documentary Sonny Boy (2004) made by his daughter Soleil. Frye died at a nursing home in Orange County, California on May 7, 2012.
