Frank Hardy (The Hardy Boys)

Hardy Boys Character
name= Frank Hardy


caption= Frank as as portrayed by Parker Stevenson in the 1970's TV show, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries
gender= Male
hometown= Bayport
occupation= ATAC agent
affiliation= The Network, ATAC
relatives= Father: Fenton Hardy
Mother: Laura Hardy
Brother: Joe Hardy
Aunt: Gertrude Hardy
appearance= The Hardy Boys #1 "The Tower Treasure" (1927)

Frank Hardy is the older of the two Hardy brothers in The Hardy Boys novel series by Franklin W. Dixon

Profile

Frank has dark brown hair and eyes and lives in the fictional town of Bayport with his parents, Fenton and Laura; his younger brother, Joe; and his aunt, Gertrude.

Joe is not only Frank’s younger brother, but best friend and crime-fighting partner. Working together, the two have solved countless mysteries. Around Bayport, Frank and Joe have quite a reputation as amateur detectives. The Hardy boys are often helped by their friends, most notably best buddy Chet Morton and Frank’s girlfriend Callie Shaw.

Compared to his brother Joe, Frank is the more logical, rational one. While Joe wants to jump straight into a situation, Frank is the one to hold him back and think through all the logical possibilities. More than once, Frank has surprised the villains by having the entire case figured out. Frank is also usually the one that must look for Joe when he gets lost or kidnapped.

Although Frank spends his mornings exercising—doing weight training and karate workouts—and Joe usually gets out of bed about an hour later and stays in shape by simply playing a little football or baseball, Joe seems to be at least as athletic as Frank, if not more.The Hardy Boys Casefiles #11 "Brother Against Brother", page 20.]

In the Casefiles series, Joe jokingly refers to Frank as the brains of their operation and himself as the brawn. The Hardy boys make an excellent team, because their abilities mesh perfectly.The Hardy Boys Casefiles #11 "Brother Against Brother", page 20.]

Frank and Joe both attend Bayport High, along with their friends Biff Hooper, Tony Prito, Phil Cohen, Iola Morton (excluding the Casefiles) and the aforementioned Chet and Callie.

Character history

Original series

At the beginning of the original Hardy Boys series, Frank is only 16 years old (18 when the books were revised between 1959 and 1974) and both he and Joe want to follow in their famous father, Fenton Hardy’s footsteps as detectives. When one of their school friends’ fathers is wrongly accused of stealing, the Hardy boys take it upon themselves to clear his name and solve the mystery.

After Frank and Joe solve their first case, Fenton—although he had not wanted his sons to get into the detective business because of the dangers involved—starts asking for their help on some of his cases.

Fenton and his boys working together plays a bigger part in this series then in any of the following Hardy Boys series.

In this series Frank is in the same grade as Joe (who is a year younger), because he lost a year due to sickness, but in all the other series he is a grade ahead of Joe and him losing a year is never mentioned.

Casefiles

In the Casefiles the differences between Frank and Joe are more pronounced as Joe’s personality is somewhat changed because the death of his girlfriend, Iola Morton. Frank (although the death of Iola does affect him somewhat) stays more or less the same.

In the Casefiles series, the Hardy boys collaborate with The Gray Man, who works for the Network—a secret government intelligence agency—to fight the Assassins, an international terrorist organization responsible for Iola's death.

Also the Casefiles were written between the late 80’s and 90’s unlike the original series (1927-79), home computers were available, and because of this Frank’s character is modernized and he becomes a PC computer buff; in one book he is even able to hack into the Bayport City computer system.The Hardy Boys Casefiles #22 "Double Exposure"]

Frank is also well-versed in the making of bombs and is also able to disassemble them, which saves his and many other's lives many times.

Undercover Brothers

In this series Frank and Joe are both are undercover agents for ATAC (American Teens Against Crime), an organization confounded by Mr. Hardy.

This is the first series that Frank’s girlfriend is not Callie Shaw, but this is not the biggest change in his character; the biggest difference is that Frank becomes nervous around teenage girls, even though they are attracted to him more in this series then any other.

Vehicles owned by Frank and Joe

Frank and Joe owned a large number of cars or automobiles. In the originals they have motorcycles ,but Joe totals his in "The Shore Road Mystery" and they purchase a yellow convertible soon afterwards. The car appears in the series, for over fifty years, before it is blown up (with Iola Morton inside) in the first Casefiles, "Dead on Target". After Frank and Joe save Bayport Mall from being destroyed, they are given a black van by the Bayport Mall Association. In Casefiles #100 "True Thriller" the van is also blown up. They finally purchase a blue van which remains with them until the end of the series. Throughout the The Hardy Boys Digests, the boys own a black van. In the Undercover Brothers series, Frank and Joe own custom sport bikes, decked out with the latest in accessories.

ports played by Frank and Joe

Frank plays many school sports along with his brother. Frank is the captain and quarterback of the Bayport High football team.The Hardy Boys #32 "The Crisscross Shadow"] , but by the time of the later Digests, he gives up his place on the team so he can concentrate on his studies. He also does the endurance running for the Bayport High track team and is on the swim team. He also plays baseball, basketball, and soccer. Frank is also interested in martial arts, the game of chess and in "The Clue of the Broken Blade", fencing.The Hardy Boys #21 "The Clue of the Broken Blade"]

References

External links

* [http://www.hardyboyscasefiles.com/index.php?nav=network&sub=characters&character_id=001 Frank Hardy at HardyBoysCasefiles.com]