Frank Heffley

Frank Heffley
Name	Frank Heffley
Gender
Age	43-46
Status	Unknown
Actor	Steve Zahn (2010-2012) Tom Everett Scott (2017)
Only appearance	Unknown

“	You know what my grandpa used to say? "A man who never made a mistake never made anything." The trick is to be responsible and learn from your mistakes. And you can do that. You're a really great kid, Greg. And I'm not just saying that because we're a lot alike.	”
	— Frank Heffley to Greg

Frank Heffley is one of the main characters of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. He is Greg's, Rodrick's, and Manny's unpredictable, humorless and serious father. He is the husband of Susan Heffley and the elder brother of Joe Heffley and Gary Heffley. He normally appears as a main character in the books but appears as the main antagonist in The Last Straw.

Personality

Frank is over-possessed, opprobrious, critical, over-reactive, shrill, irritable, easily-bothered, and emotional, but still a caring, delighted, well-meaning father who has a good heart. He always wants his kids to be strong and well rounded, such as supporting Greg's interest in weight lifting. He is constantly bothered and troubled by very small matters, such as Rodrick's typing skills and Greg's silly mistakes, and always want his wife and kids to look good in front of his boss, a very small matter that Frank constantly gets worked up about; this shows that, like his middle son, he is shallow, insecure and worries about what other people think about him rather than what he thinks about himself. He is very serious and over-possessed in the fact that if his sons do something that irritates him ever so slightly, it makes him become incredibly serious, critical, and vituperative of their behavior.

He is a hard worker but has a poor relationship with all of his sons, since the three cannot relate to each other at all in any way possible, nor can they relate to Frank himself. Frank has a very strong interest in American history, proven by the fact that he builds a Civil War battlefield in his spare time. He does not let anybody into the furnace room where the Civil War battlefield is housed, as he is extremely cautious and attentive about what he lets people do to his battlefield and he thinks it can be easily ruined.

Greg also explains that his father can't buy anything without his mother's permission in Cabin Fever.

Background

Childhood

Frank Heffley was born in 1964 in Plainview to Grandpa and Nana Heffley. He had two younger brothers Joe Heffley (b. 1967)  and Gary Heffley (b. 1969). He also had a dog named Nutty as a child until one-day Grandpa ran over Nutty by accident with his car, so he made up a story that he went to a butterfly farm.

Teenage Years

Frank Heffley Class Secretary poster in 1977.

Frank Heffley attended Westmore Middle School in September 1976, During that time, he was often bullied by Billy Staples who was often known to pin kid's arm behind their backs until every kid in the neighborhood, including Frank, told their parents about it causing them to get angry about it and then yelling at Billy Staples, making him cry also. He was best friends with Giles then. Sometimes after school, they often roamed around everyone and did not bother to tell his parents. They also used to bury stuff all over town so they could fight their way if they are trapped. They had to raid the kitchen drawer for silverware until Giles's Mother realized her forks and knives were missing. She asked Frank and Giles to dig them all up and bring them back in the kitchen. Then they got their hands on the plastic utensils and got into an argument whenever the spork could be used for self-defense after that things got ugly as Frank would poke him with a spork on his butt making Giles's Mother spank Frank. He also once tried to run for school secretary during 8th grade and won.

He would later Graduate Westmore Middle School in 1978 after that he went to Crossland High School and graduated there in 1982.

Adulthood

Frank and Susan in their Honeymoon in 1983

He met Susan Heffley and fell in love with her. They went to Isla de Corales on their honeymoon. He married her and had their first child, Rodrick, in 1991, then Greg Heffley in 1995, and then Manny in 2004. 

Appearance

Book

The book's illustrations depict Frank with an elliptical face, wearing a tie and suit with a few strands of curled hair. Sometimes, Greg illustrates his father as wearing boxer shorts and a vest, but this is only when his father goes to bed. He also sometimes wears a cap on his head. Usually, at home, he doesn't wear a tie and suit.

Online Book

In the online version, he looks nearly the same, except that there are many little strands of hair on the back of his head.

Film

In the movie, like everybody else in his family, Frank has rough brown hair and light skin. He usually wears business outfits, just like he does in the books and the online version.

Gallery

Frank as a child

Frank as a teenager

Bad time to screw up

Frank himself

Frank in the movie

Frank in the movie 2

Sweetie licking Frank in the online version

"Me and my dad have absolutely nothing in common."

For more images, see Frank Heffley/Gallery.

Trivia

• He confirms he grew up in Plainview in Wrecking Ball.
• Frank is hinted to be an office worker in many of the books, and he is shown to be working in an office in The Third Wheel, however the information on his profession and where he works remain unknown.
• Frank is a junk-food addict, therefore implying that he may have a high cholesterol level. This is considered rather ironic as Frank is not depicted as being overweight. Although it's possible he may have a high metabolism, just like Greg.
• Frank shows deep hate for heavy metal music and strongly disapproves of Rodrick's ambition to becoming a professional rock musician.
  • Despite this, it's implied that Frank secretly hopes that Rodrick's band, Löded Diper would get a record contract so they could go on tour and be out of the house for good.
• Despite spoiling their youngest son just as much as Susan, Frank seems frustrated with babying Manny so much, thus proving that he does have his limits with his youngest son.
  • As depicted in Rodrick Rules how Manny is too stubborn to be potty trained
  • Also in The Last Straw, when Manny refused to give up his pacifier, Frank threw away Manny's pacifiers, forcing him to go cold turkey.
• He is implied to suffer from gephyrophobia (Fear of bridges) in The Long Haul. He also gets dizzy when he drives over them, but it is unknown whether the dizziness is a response to fear or if he's afraid because he's anticipating the dizziness.
• In addition to his interest in assembling toy Civil Wars battlefields, Frank also likes Civil War stuff, as depicted in the third movie. He's shown to take the reenacting very seriously, wanting it to be as historically accurate as possible. He also wants to take great care of his figurines going so much as wrapping each one with tons of bubble wrap.
• Frank's age is not revealed in the books. However, in the second movie, Greg mentioned that Frank and Susan could be at least 40.
• In The Meltdown, it's revealed he used to play with Greg and Rodrick all the time when it snowed until one time when Rodrick dumped a shovel load of snow down his back.
• He is the eldest of his three brothers.
• Throughout the series, Frank has a bad habit of jumping to conclusions without giving anyone time to explain what actually happened.
• It's shown that Frank was supposed to be bald with some hair at the back of his head, as shown in the sketches in The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary (Dog Days).
• In The Last Straw, Greg claims that Frank will be happy when all adolescents will be in juvenile hall, in Alcatraz, or something. That means he doesn't like or hate adolescents.