Frank Whaley

A boyishly handsome actor-turned-writer/director, Frank Whaley entered films as the youthful version of Francis Phelan (played as an adult by Jack Nicholson) in "Ironweed" (1987) and again essayed the teenaged version of another screen icon, this time Burt Lancaster, in the Oscar-nominated "Field of Dreams" (1989). These turns plus his harrowing portrayal of a heroin-addicted Vietnam vet in Oliver Stone's "Born on the Fourth of July" (also 1989) helped him land his first leading role in "Cold Dog Soup" (1990), a bizarre "After Hours"-clone requiring him to perform CPR on an expired hound, which unfortunately ran out of steam halfway through. Whaley continued to shine as a supporting player in Andrew Bergman's "The Freshman" (also 1990), helping Matthew Broderick import a Komodo dragon for the mob, and as guitarist Robby Krieger in Stone's biopic "The Doors" (1991) but stumbled as the likable, lying lead of the John Hughes-written-and-produced "Career Opportunities" (also 1991), an idea insufficient to stretch to feature length.