Frank Collison (born February 14, 1950) is an American actor known to television audiences as the hapless telegrapher Horace Bing in the series Dr Quinn.
Collison was born in Evanston, Illinois, the son of Peg, a publicist, director, and English teacher, and John Collison, a speech therapist, actor, and writer. Collison played his first role as a six month old mascot at The Tent Theatre in Granville, Ohio. His mother directed him in a number of plays as a youth in Virginia and Ohio. When he way a young boy, Frank assisted his father touring with his one-man Abraham Lincoln show. His father was chosen to play Lincoln for the centennial celebration of Lincoln's first inauguration in Washington, DC; Frank played the young Tad Lincoln.
Collison trained at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, earning a BA in theatre from the San Francisco State University. He then helped to establish a summer theatre company in the Sierra Nevadas, and went on to gain an MFA in acting at University of California, San Diego. Between acting jobs he has worked as a substitute teacher, diaper service dispatcher and forest firefighter. Appearing in over 150 productions, he has worked off Broadway and in regional theatres in California, Boston, and Denver. His theatrical roles have beeen as varied as "Jacob Marley" in A Christmas Carol to "Miss Havisham" in Great Expectations to "Puck" in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Collison is a founding member of the Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice, California, which has won over 25 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards.
Collison's films include The Blob, Alien Nation, Wild at Heart, Mobsters, The Last Boy Scout, Buddy, Diggstown, My Summer Story, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Majestic, The Whole Ten Yards, Hidalgo, The Village, Suspect Zero and The Happening. Frank is best known to television audiences as "Horace Bing" the bumbling telegraph operator, on CBS's Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. His numerous television appearances have included guest-starring roles on Monk, HBO's Carnivàle, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Seventh Heaven, NYPD Blue and Hill Street Blues.
Collison resides in Los Angeles with his actress wife, Laura Gardner, and his three children. He remains active in theatre while pursuing a film career.
