Don Francks - Life and Work

Life and Work

Francks was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is a drummer, poet, native nations champion, motorcyclist, author and peace activist. He is interested in Tibet and supports Greenpeace.

He performed in vaudeville, worked as a foundryman and was involved in summer stock before moving to Toronto. During his time in Hollywood he lived in Encino, California. After a time, he moved with his family to the Red Pheasant Indian Reserve, near North Battleford, Saskatchewan. He is an honorary Cree, who is known as Iron Buffalo.

Since 1974, he has been living in Toronto with his wife Lili (Red Eagle), a member of the Plains Cree First Nation who was a dancer. Their children are Cree Summer and Rainbow Sun.

He appeared many times at George's Spaghetti House, a Toronto jazz club that was the equivalent of New York's Birdland. He was also known to sit in on drums at the Colonial Tavern and other Toronto afterhours clubs and jazz venues.

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