Frank Cole

Frank Cole (1954-2000) was an award winning Canadian documentary filmmaker and avid surfer who became the first North American to cross the Sahara alone on camel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. This epic odyssey earned Frank a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. His documentary "Life Without Death" chronicled his experience and won him several prestigious awards as well as being released theatrically in Paris.

Frank was murdered by Tuareg bandits outside of Timbuktu, Mali in late October 2000.

His parents reside in Ottawa as well as his younger brother Peter.

Born in Saskatchewan to a New Brunswick father from the diplomatic field, Frank grew up in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland and South Africa. A well educated traveller, he studied languages at Carleton University and later 16mm Film Production at Algonquin College with the legendary documentarian Peter Wintonick. His films include A Documentary, The Mountenays, A Life, and Life Without Death. Obsessed by the death of his grandfather and fear of mortality itself, Frank Cole earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records (French Edition) for his 1990 solo crossing of the Sahara Desert from Mauritania to the Red Sea alone on camel. In 2000 Frank Cole returned to cross the Sahara again, this time his plan was to cross and then return from the Red Sea back to the Atlantic Ocean. In October 2000 he left Timbuktu for Gao on the sand track known as Autoroute National. He arrived in Ber and departed Eastward after speaking with the Malian Gendarmerie under a date tree.

Hours later Frank met one or two bandits who would murder him. Frank fought back but could not overpower the attackers.

Frank died at sunset and was tied to a small desert shrub tree for reasons unknown.

Sadly, his killing included the theft of most of his exposed film recordings and camera gear. The last images of his last trip were filmed in Mauritania and shipped back to his family in Ottawa where they now rest. His camels, bought and tattooed in Mauritania, have never been found.

His remains were cryogenically preserved at the Michigan Cryonics Institute in suburban Detroit's Clinton Township. Theories surrounding his life and unsolved death still circulate to this day.