Frank Tate (Emmerdale)
| Frank Tate | |||||||||||||||
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Norman Bowler as Frank Tate (1997) | |||||||||||||||
| Emmerdale character | |||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Norman Bowler | ||||||||||||||
| Duration | 1989–97 | ||||||||||||||
| First appearance | 21 November 1989 | ||||||||||||||
| Last appearance | 27 May 1997 | ||||||||||||||
| Introduced by | Stuart Doughty | ||||||||||||||
| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Businessman | ||||||||||||||
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Francis Ronald "Frank" Tate is a fictional character from the British soap opera Emmerdale, played by Norman Bowler.
Storylines
Businessman Frank Tate arrived in Emmerdale in November 1989. As patriarch of the Tate family, he arrived with his second wife Kim, son Chris and daughter Zoe. Frank had previously married been married to Jean, who died in 1984. It was later revealed that Kim, who had started off as Frank's secretary, had an affair with Frank while Jean was dying of cancer.
Frank, having made his fortune in haulage, and Kim bought Home Farm along with all the land belonging to it. The two continued to run Tate Hualage along with Chris. Frank and Kim's married life was shattered in 1992 when Kim had an affair with gamekeeper Neil Kinkaid. Frank subsequently threw her out and they divorced. Frank was deeply affected by his separation from Kim, and turned to alcoholism to drown his sorrows. In 1993, Frank was deemed a hero during the plane crash that rocked Emmerdale in December that year when he helped local farmer Jack Sugden (Clive Hornby) rebuild the bridge that had been demolished by the crash and let emergency services across. During the plane crash, Frank withheld Kim from running into her burning stables to rescue her horses. Frank and Kim soon reconciled and they remarried in 1994.
With his life back on track Frank stopped drinking and he and Kim enjoyed their remarriage. However, in 1996, Home Farm employee Dave Glover soon caught Kim's eye, and they began an affair. Frank hired a spy to watch over Kim and Dave, and eventually caught them in bed together, uttering the line "What do you call this Dave - overtime?". Kim later discovered she was pregnant and gave birth to baby James in September 1996. Frank paid Kim £1 million to name the baby as his, although Frank was eventually revealed to be James's biological father. Dave died on Boxing Day 1996 while rescuing baby James from a fire.
In 1997, Kim took her next plot against Frank by faking her own death, subsequently getting Frank wrongfully imprisoned for her murder. After Frank was released from prison however, Kim shocked him by turning up on his doorstep on 22 May 1997. Kim revealed that the woman who had in fact been killed was a double, and, after a heated argument, Frank suffered a massive heart attack. As Frank lay dying on the floor, Kim uttered the last words he ever heard, which were "You're a dinosaur Frank, and we all know what happened to them". Frank was discovered by his daughter Zoe the morning after, and with his last breath, he tried to tell her of Kim's return, but suddenly died and the true circumstances of his death were never exposed.
One of Frank's biggest secrets were revealed two years after his death when Tate Haulage employee Liam Hammond - who took Chris Tate hostage - revealed that he was Frank's illegitimate child and that he was the result of an affair between Frank and an unnamed woman. Chris bonded with Liam, but Liam was shot and killed by Zoe when she was trying to "save" Chris.
In October 2010 drug addict Holly Barton passed out on Frank and Chris's grave following drug use.