“ | An honest man has nothing to fear, so I'm trying my best not to be afraid. | „ |
~ Frank's most well-known quote. |
Franklin "Frank" Abagnale Jr. is the main protagonist of the 2002 movie Catch Me If You Can.
He is a genuinely affable, cunning and manipulative con artist.
He was portrayed in the film by Leonardo DiCaprio, who also played King Louis XIV in The Man in the Iron Mask, Calvin Candie in Django Unchained, Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby and Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street. In the Broadway musical adaptation of the film, he was portrayed by Aaron Tveit.
Biography[]
In 1963, Frank Abagnale's family begins to suffer from an economic crisis which eventually leads to Frank's parents getting a divorce. Frank runs away from home, and when he runs out of money, he begins relying on confidence scams to get by. Soon, Frank masters a wide array of cons, at one point even impersonating a Pan Am Airways pilot, forging over $2.8 million in Pan Am payroll checks. Frank uses various aliases to cover up his crimes; in this case he goes by the name "Frank Taylor".
Meanwhile, FBI Agent Carl Hanratty begins tracking Frank. They meet at a hotel, where Frank uses the alias "Barry Allen" and convinces Carl that he is also a federal agent looking for Frank Abagnale. Frank leaves, accidentally leaving behind his wallet; Carl looks inside for identification and notices that it is full of stickers and papers from products by various companies that Frank uses to cut out the logos and stick them on his faked pay checks.
Frank now expands his con to identify himself as a doctor who is studying to be a lawyer, going by the name "Frank Connors". Since he has no experience in either the medical or legal profession, he watches movies about the subjects to learn how one should behave.
On his way to "becoming" a doctor at a hospital, he meets candy striper Brenda Strong. He falls in love with her and asks her to marry him, and even wins her parents over with his charm and devotion to their daughter. Carl shows up at the wedding to arrest Frank, forcing him to tell Brenda his real name and confess to being a fraud. Brenda still loves him, however, and escapes the wedding and the FBI with him. He asks her to meet him at the airport the next day so they can flee the country and start their lives together, and she agrees. As he is driving to the airport, however, he notices that she is surrounded by FBI agents waiting to arrest him. He keeps driving, effectively ending their relationship, and later takes a flight to Europe from a different airport.
Seven months later, Carl arrives in Marseilles, France to pick up Frank, who has been incarcerated for fraud. Despite being very sick as a result of the prison's poor conditions, Frank tries to get away from Carl, at one point crawling on his hands and knees because of the pain. Carl convinces Frank that he is trying to help him, however, so allows Carl to take him into custody. While flying back to the U.S., Carl tells Frank that Frank Sr. has died. Devastated, Frank escapes from the plane after it lands and runs to his old house, where he sees his mother and her new husband, as well as a little girl who apparently is Frank's half-sister. Realizing that he has no place there, Frank walks away and goes into hiding.
Shortly afterward, Carl locates Frank, who simply gives up and allows Carl to arrest him. Frank is sentenced to 12 years in prison, but he still gets visits from occasional visits from Carl. When Frank points out how one of the checks Carl is carrying as evidence is fake, Carl convinces the FBI to offer Frank a deal by which he can live out the remainder of his sentence working for the agency's bank fraud department. Frank accepts the offer.
However, Frank misses the thrill of being a con artist and once even attempts to fly as an airline pilot again. Carl catches him, but he says that Frank is not under arrest because no one is chasing him, so can simply return to the FBI job. On the following Monday, Carl is nervous that Frank has not yet arrived at work. However, Frank eventually arrives and they discuss their next case.
Trivia[]
- Despite the artistic licenses the film takes surrounding the real Frank Abagnale Jr.'s account, he enjoyed Leonardo DiCaprio's portrayal of his character.
- Between 1977 and 2020, Abagnale's account of his crimes and the basis for Catch Me If You Can was widely accepted for being authentic - until journalist Alan C. Logan exposed the majority of it as being false in a book called The Greatest Hoax on Earth: Catching Truth, While We Can.