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Villain Overview

"I cried at your funeral. I loved you. Remember? Remember.... you loved me?".
~ Frank's dying words as he succumbs to a fatal heart attack caused by his wife Kim Tate, moments after she returned from the 'dead' upon having exacted revenge on Frank by faking her death and implicating him behind the supposed crime.


Frank Tate is a fictional character and central protagonist of the long-running British soap opera Emmerdale. He first debuted in November 1989 and became the show's central anti-villain up until he was killed-off in May 1997, before later serving as a posthumous catalyst in between 1998 and 2005 as well as a postumous character from then onwards.

He is a self-made millionaire and the father of Chris Tate and Zoe Tate, along with their long-lost sibling Liam Hammond. As such, he was the patriarch of the Tate Family as well as being the founder of their family business known as Tate Haulage. He was also the first husband of the show's villain Kim Tate, whom he divorced and later remarried before their marriage broke down again following her affair with his employee Dave Glover. It was then transpired that Frank was the father of Kim's son James. Several years later, Frank was revealed to be the father of Caleb Miligan as a result of a previous fling with the latter's long-lost mother Fath Dingle in the past.

The character was portrayed by Norman Bowler.

Biography[]

Frank Tate first came to Emmerdale in 1989 as the first owner of Home Farm and it's business called Home Farm Estates. He was a self-made millionaire and the founder of his successful family business Tate Haulage.

He was also the patriarch of the Tate Family with two children; his son Chris Tate and daughter Zoe Tate. Among the family members was his wife Kim Tate, who is evidently younger than Frank and is around Chris' age. It later transpired that Frank had an affair with Kim whilst his children's late mother, Jean, had been dying of cancer - a result which sparked tension between Frank and his son. Furthermore, Frank recently developed alcoholism and Chris would reflect on this during his marriage with first wife Kathy Glover.

At somepoint, Frank ends his marriage with Kim after finding out of her dalliance with his gamekeeper Neil Kincaid in 1992. They separated from their marriage throughout 1993 until the end of the year when a devastating plane crash occurred, which practically destroyed most of the village. During the chaos, Frank came to Kim's rescue and supported her when most of her horses perished in the resulting incident. They grew closer by then and the pair later remarried. Zoe reluctantly accepted this, whereas Chris never trusted Kim again - especially after he ended up nearly getting killed in the plane crash disaster. Chris survived the ordeal, but was critically injured and left paralyzed for the rest of his life; this caused Chris to embark on a much more ruthless and vindictive streak that would at times even disgust his own father.

At the same time, Frank discovered that Zoe has become a lesbian and opposed this at first before eventually coming to terms with her decision. Coincidentally, Frank's business practices have led to him making enemies with fellow patriarchs such as Zak Dingle and Jack Sugden and Ned Glover.

In 1995, Frank faced opposition from the villagers when he planned to evict the Dingle Family from their home in order to expand his business plans. Even Chris sided with the Dingles due to Kathy's best-friend, Rachel Hughes, being among the supporters; Chris recently had an affair with Rachel behind Kathy's back and even got Rachel pregnant with their son Joseph, much to Frank's disdain despite him accepting Joseph in the family. When most of the villagers sided with the Dingles against him, Frank authorized the police to arrest everyone and over half of the villagers were taken into custody alongside the Dingles; Chris and Rachel were also detained in the process. Frank later resorted to cut Chris out of his will when the latter married Rachel against Frank's approval.

In 1996, Frank discovered that Kim has been having an affair with his employee Dave Glover. He catches them in bed after hiring a private investigator to check them out and ends his marriage with Kim again. Frank soon begins to try and make lives hell for Kim and Dave, even when Kim is revealed to be pregnant - though Frank allows her to remain in his house until the baby is born and he gets custody of the child. Frank later offers Kim £1 million in exchange for giving him full custody of the child; Kim accepts the bribe but later plans to betray Frank anyways. Kim eventually gives birth to the child and names it James. In Christmas 1996, Frank discovers Kim's plan with Dave and confronts them until the trio see Home Farm on fire; Dave rescues James for Kim and Frank, but gets critically injured and he dies in front of his devastated family. The following year, Frank proves to Kim that he is the father of James and not Dave before kicking her out of Home Farm.

In 1997, Frank learns that Kim is missing and later gets told that she has died when her car is found in a quarry; a body is in the car and Frank identifies the deceased as Kim. Soon enough, Frank gets arrested when the police implicate him behind Kim's murder; Frank's ordeal worsens as his business collapses from a number of setbacks. He also appears to mourn Kim despite all the times they fought. Eventually, Frank's innocence is proven and he is exonerated after several months in prison. However, while attempting to finalize a deal with business partner Steve Marchant later on, Frank gets hassled by a mystery assailant.

On May 22nd 1997, Frank is shocked when Kim returns to confront him that night. She had faked her death and engineered the events of Frank's implication behind her 'murder' as part of her revenge against him. Then Frank suffers a heart attack, this time being fatal after he survived a number of heart attacks in the previous years. Kim watches Frank succumb as he begs her to phone an ambulance, calling him a dinosaur as he collapses on the floor. The following day, Frank dies in front of Zoe.

Legacy[]

At his funeral a week later, Kim returns to the village and Chris vows revenge against her upon deducing that she killed Frank. Thereupon Kim inherits everything from Frank's will, marries Steve after a complicated business partnership with local aristocrat Lord Alex Oakwell, and later frames Steve for their illcit activates. She later escapes the village with James after foiling Chris' plight to get justice for his father's death, also confessing to him that she did kill Frank before eluding any hopes of getting her comeuppance for Frank's death.

In between the events of Frank's death and prior to Kim's departure, Chris and Zoe learn that their father had allegedly killed the woman who died in the quarry; Frank had allegedly thought the woman was Kim and tried to kill her in a fit of rage before covering his tracks. Chris refused to accept this, whereas Zoe believed it and thought the worst of Frank. Later on, the siblings face another crisis when Chris gets kidnapped by his employee Liam Hammond and Zoe kills him after Liam reveals that he is Frank's illegitimate son. Towards the end of the 1990s, Chris' marriages with Kathy and Rachel have collapsed due to his ruthless nature; Rachel later gets killed by her boyfriend Graham Clark, who then dies after nearly killing Kathy before she then departs a year later after a problematic business deal with conman Eric Pollard.

In 2003, Chris dies after planning to frame his third wife Charity Dingle for his death in revenge for her incestuous affair with her cousin Cain Dingle - as well as overcome his inoperable brain tumor ordeal. Two years later, Zoe leaves the village after being acquitted for the attempted murder of her child's father Scott Windsor as well as relinquishing her ownership of Home Farm to Frank's old business rival Tom King and his family. In 2018, when Kim returns to the village, she recaps to her third husband and right-hand man Graham Foster about her marriage prospects with Frank in the past. James also reappears as a young adult and remains unaware about the true circumstances behind his father's death.

Several years later, Cain's estranged half-brother Caleb Miligan arrives in the village no sooner after their mother Faith had died of cancer and Kim had remarried to her fourth husband Will Taylor. It is soon revealed that Frank had a fling with Faith in the past and that he was Caleb's father, as well as the grandfather of Caleb's secret son Nicky Milligan. This was soon discovered by Cain and Kim when the pair learned of Caleb's schemes against them.

Quotes[]

"I am in the right - it's a simple as that!".
~ Frank asserting that he has the right to evict the Dingle Family from their residence.
"I am not in the wrong, and I will not back down! I'm gonna win this battle Alan and I don't give a damn about what anyone else thinks".
~ Frank Tate telling his friend Alan Turner that he will win in his battle against the Dingle family.
"What do you call this Dave - overtime!?".
~ Frank reacts to finally discovering Kim's affair with employee Dave Glover behind his back.
"The day you leave, I can start to live again!".
~ Frank expressing his resentment towards Kim in February 1997.

Navigation[]

Trivia[]

  • Frank Tate was born in 1st October 1937 and had a father called Nigel Tate.
  • He made a total of 667 appearences throughout his time on the show.
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