Standing at about 6'2", young Peter Boyle was a prematurely bald former monk who was destined to play boorish villains and gentle giants. In the 1970s, he appeared in such films as Joe, T.R Baskin, The Candidate, Steelyard Blues, Slither, Taxi Driver, F.I.S.T. and Hardcore.

But it was his role as the monster in Young Frankenstein that showed the world that this menacing giant had a heart - and could sing and dance to boot.

An alumnus of famed comedy troupe Second City in the 1960s, he hosted Saturday Night Live in the 1970s, performing "Dueling Brandos" with John Belushi. He co-starred with SNL star Bill Murray in the Hunter S. Thompson-inspired Where the Buffalo Roam, followed by two decades of roles in films including Honeymoon in Vegas, The Santa Clause 1-3, Malcolm X and a chilling turn in Monster's Ball.

He tried his hand at TV as the title character in 1986's short-lived dramedy Joe Bash, along with a handful of appearances on shows such as Midnight Caller, NYPD Blue, Cagney & Lacey and The Adventures of Lois & Clark. His 1993 appearance on The X-Files earned him his first and only Emmy. His role as Frank Barone was the crowning achievement of his long career, with seven Emmy nominations and nine Screen Actors Guild Award Nominations (two for Outstanding Male Performer in a Comedy Series). Along with the rest of the Everybody Loves Raymond cast, he won the 2003 SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.

The son of Philadelphia TV personality Pete Boyle, he married former Rolling Stone reporter Lorraine Alterman in 1977. The couple were friends with Yoko Ono and John Lennon, who was Boyle's best man. During the run of Raymond, Boyle commuted to L.A. from New York, where his two daughters went to school. After a few health scares - a stroke in 1990 and an on-set heart attack in 1999 - Boyle passed away in 2006.

Character Bio

In the pantheon of the gruff TV dad with a heart of gold, Frank is a gruff dad with a stomach of iron. Always interested in his wife - for her cooking - Frank enjoys eating. A former bookkeeper, he is a Civil War re-enactor and a jazz fan. He is also a longtime member of the Caribou Lodge and was even named Man of the Year. While some of his fellow lodge members may not care for him, they appreciate the times when he brings his daughter-in-law.

Stingy and stubborn and not afraid to say aloud what everyone is thinking, he fancies himself to be handy around the house. He's not. While he may not have been the best father, he made an excellent mentor to a man named Sam Gilula.

Lording over his sons that he is a veteran of the Korean War, he calls them by women's names, and is known to shout a "holy crap!" on more than one occasion.