benjamin franklin biography movie

Franklin: next episode, recaps, cast and everything we know about the Benjamin Franklin limited series

Michael Douglas plays Benjamin Franklin in a new Apple TV Plus limited series.

Benjamin Franklin was one of the US founding fathers, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, inventor and now the subject of a brand new limited series on Apple TV Plus . Franklin is set to follow the historical figure during a critical point in history, one where the future of America was still very much undecided.

This won't be the first TV series to focus on a founding father, as HBO previously made the acclaimed series John Adams starring Paul Giamatti. Benjamin Franklin was a fixture in that series, played by the late Tom Wilkinson, but now he is the subject of the story and is being played by an even more recognizable star, Michael Douglas.

Interested? Read on to find out more about Franklin , including when the next episode is and who else is starring in the series.

Franklin next episode

Franklin episode 4 premieres on Apple TV Plus on Friday, April 19.

In order to watch Franklin , you need to have an Apple TV Plus subscription.

Franklin recaps

Read the synopses for the Franklin episodes that have been released thus far and our in-depth recaps for each episode:

Franklin episode 1, "Sauce for Prayers" "As the American Revolution hangs in the balance, Benjamin Franklin and his grandson navigate a treacherous web of secrets and lies to secure the nation's freedom." Read WTW's Franklin episode 1 recap .

Franklin episode 2, "Welcome, Mischief" "An arms operation is threatened by a ruthless opponent. The Paris police watch Franklin's every move. Temple makes a confession." Read WTW's Franklin episode 2 recap .

Franklin episode 3, "Pride and Gout" "Bad news arrives from America. Franklin finds himself ensnared in the traps of Versailles. Temple bows down before a star." Read WTW's Franklin episode 3 recap .

Franklin episode 4, "Small Revenge" "Franklin pays back an insult—and receives the favor of a king. A new lover catches his eye, and an old rival turns up to thwart him."

Franklin cast

Portraying Benjamin Franklin is Hollywood legend Michael Douglas. Douglas is an Oscar-winning actor for his role as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street , as well as an Emmy winner for playing Liberace in the TV limited series Behind the Candelabra . Many will know him from his more recent work in Marvel's Ant-Man franchise and from his Netflix show The Kominsky Method alongside the late Alan Arkin .

The rest of the Franklin cast includes: 

• Noah Jupe ( A Quiet Place ) as Temple Franklin
• Thibault de Montalembert ( Call My Agent! ) as Comte de Vergennes
• Daniel Mays ( Line of Duty ) as Edward Bancroft
• Ludivine Sagnier ( Lupin ) as Madame Brillon
• Eddie Marsan ( Back to Black ) as John Adams
• Assaad Bouab ( Call My Agent! ) as Beaumarchias
• Jeanne Balibar ( Irma Vep ) as Madame Helvetius
• Theodore Pellerin ( There's Someone Inside Your House ) as Marquis de Lafayette

Franklin plot

The TV series is based off of Stacy Schiff's book, " A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France and the Birth of America ." Here is the official synopsis for the series:

"In December 1776, Franklin is world famous for his electrical experiments, but his passion and power are put to the test when — as the fate of American independence hangs in the balance — he embarks on a secret mission to France.

"At age 70, without any diplomatic training, Franklin convinced an absolute monarchy to underwrite America’s experiment in democracy. By virtue of his fame, charisma and ingenuity, Franklin outmaneuvered British spies, French informers and hostile colleagues to engineer the Franco-American alliance of 1778 and the peace treaty with England in 1783.

"The eight-year French mission stands as Franklin’s most vital service to his country, without which America could not have won the Revolution. Diplomats and historians still regard it as the greatest single tour of duty by an ambassador in our nation’s history."

Franklin trailer

The official trailer for Franklin is here, previewing a series with plenty of political intrigue around one of the most influential moments in world history. Watch the full trailer directly below:

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Michael Balderston is a DC-based entertainment and assistant managing editor for What to Watch, who has previously written about the TV and movies with TV Technology, Awards Circuit and regional publications. Spending most of his time watching new movies at the theater or classics on TCM, some of Michael's favorite movies include Casablanca , Moulin Rouge! , Silence of the Lambs , Children of Men , One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Star Wars . On the TV side he enjoys Only Murders in the Building, Yellowstone, The Boys, Game of Thrones and is always up for a Seinfeld rerun. Follow on Letterboxd .

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You’d be hard-pressed to find a more worthy, time-tested miniseries about America’s founding than HBO’s “ John Adams ”—a riveting, elegant chronicle of one of our nation’s most famed architects. It’s a subject writer Kirk Ellis can’t seem to get away from; here, in 2024, he, along with co-writer Howard Korder (“Boardwalk Empire”), zeroes in on another of Adams’ contemporaries, Benjamin Franklin, for an eight-episode miniseries on Apple TV+. But where “John Adams” illuminated one of American history’s more self-serious advocates for liberty and equality, “Franklin” has a bit of fractured fun with its more libertine protagonist.

It’s 1776, and the Revolutionary War is raging; to drum up monetary and logistical support from France, America sends Benjamin Franklin (a wry, taciturn Michael Douglas ) across the Atlantic with his teenage grandson and aide Temple ( Noah Jupe ) in tow. There, the two ingratiate themselves to French society, attempting to work their way through the deeply entrenched barriers that keep them from the purse-string-holders who might unlock the coffers of the French war machine. In the early stretches, “Franklin” sees both American boys engaged in a charm offensive with their hosts, whether it’s Benjamin batting eyes at Anne Louise Brillon de Juoy (a radiant Ludivine Sagnier ) or Temple cozying up to a group of idealistic revolutionaries (including “On Becoming a God in Central Florida”’s Théodore Pellerin as the charming Gilbert du Motier, who’d soon become the famed Marquis de Lafayette). 

However, the more their efforts find purchase within the French aristocracy, the more their problems compound: British spies and representatives quickly enter the negotiation to either stop Franklin entirely or present a suitably attractive offer to the Americans to stop the war in exchange for concessions. What’s more, Franklin’s own physician, Edward Bancroft ( Daniel Mays ), juggles his care for Franklin with his work as a double agent for the Brits. That’s to say nothing of a mid-negotiation interruption by Franklin’s stateside rival, John Adams ( Eddie Marsan ), whose uptight self-righteousness threatens to derail Franklin’s more socially deft handling of the French mood. And as the pair of them and John Joy claw their way to a formally signed treaty with Britain at war’s end, their competing perspectives about what America should look like and how it should treat its allies come to loggerheads.

“Franklin”’s see-sawing priorities are made clear in the show’s entertaining title sequence, a Pythonesque array of figures drawn from political cartoons of the time showing Franklin in varying states of scandal and intrigue. That’s also captured in Tim van Patten’s thorough, considered direction; he and cinematographer David Franco lean heavily on natural light and desaturated blues to craft a France still clinging to ostentatiousness even as its own cruddiness becomes clear (see: the frequent reveals of characters pissing against stone walls of ornate architecture). Jay Wadley ’s score effortlessly balances the classical stuffiness of 18th-century France with modern scoring techniques that sell the show’s frequent dips into political thriller mode. 

As Franklin, Douglas is an entertainingly droll figure; he balances the presumed historical wit of the real Franklin with a decidedly Douglas-ian twinkle in his eye. He’s grandfatherly with Temple, but no less a hedonist than someone like Gordon Gekko—he plays Franklin as if one of his erotic-thriller protagonists from “ Basic Instinct ” or “ Fatal Attraction ” got zapped back in time and slapped on a powdered wig. He’s wizened but no less amorous for his advanced years, the kind of aging playboy that fits in nicely with the pre-French Revolution decadence around him. Douglas handles the dry wit of Ellis and Korder’s script with a nimbleness belying his years, even as Franklin’s own health threatens to leave him bedridden for much of the latter stages. 

While he plays well against his co-stars, especially his paternal guidance of Jupe’s Temple, he comes most alive when sniping with Adams, who appears halfway through the series as if he were Nick Fury about to rope Ben into the Founders Initiative. Marsan’s energy as Adams is decidedly different from Giamatti’s in Ellis’ original 2008 miniseries—“Franklin” feels like a series-long extension of that series’ third episode, which depicted a more truncated version of these events—but no less welcome. He’s a haughtier, more confrontational balm to Franklin’s frivolity, a junior statesman who hasn’t yet figured out how to play the game. (His private attempts to speak and memorize French are some of the show’s more archly funny moments.)

The show stumbles more when focusing on Temple, though Jupe plays the role with an admirable, youthful pluck. Where Franklin struggles to carve out a legacy in his final years, Temple comes of age, losing himself in the frippery and bustle of French life. He falls in love with an opera singer, gets involved in love triangles, and even finds a job as a page rushing letters across Paris at speed. While these subplots could carry a show on their own, they pale in comparison with the heftier statecraft of Douglas’ sections; in a show already stretching past eight hours, they often feel like distractions, and don’t sufficiently contrast Ben Franklin’s more sophisticated statecraft to make them feel worth the runtime.

As historical dramas go, “Franklin” is a cracking glimpse at the delicate works required to build a republic, even from an ocean away. After all, America’s freedom from Britain was won by more than muskets on the battlefields of Lexington and Concord; it took gumption, charm, and no small amount of promise-making, whether real or illusory, to our allies. What Van Patten and his crew accomplish is the feeling of a new nation being forged in the waning embers of an old empire and the cautious optimism all parties feel toward that potential. 

Whole series screened for review. Franklin begins streaming on Apple TV+ April 12.

Clint Worthington

Clint Worthington is a Chicago-based film/TV critic and podcaster. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of  The Spool , as well as a Senior Staff Writer for  Consequence . He is also a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and Critics Choice Association. You can also find his byline at RogerEbert.com, Vulture, The Companion, FOX Digital, and elsewhere. 

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Franklin (2024)

Michael Douglas as Benjamin Franklin

Noah Jupe as Temple Franklin

Marc Duret as Monsieur Brillon

Daniel Mays as Edward Bancroft

Eddie Marsan as John Adams

Ludivine Sagnier as Anne Louise Brillon de Juoy

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'Franklin': Everything We Know About Michael Douglas' Benjamin Franklin Miniseries

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Does 'franklin' have a release date, is there a trailer for 'franklin', who stars in 'franklin', what is 'franklin' about, who is making 'franklin'.

Michael Douglas ' remarkable career dates back over half a century, with his Academy Awards win for Best Actor for Wall Street making just a small slice of his celebratory cake. Now at 80 years of age, Douglas is still flying , with recent years marking his introduction to the MCU in Ant-Man and the hit Netflix series The Kominsky Method . Like a train, Douglas keeps on powering forward, with his next project coming in the form of a high-budget historical drama about US Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin.

With Douglas in the lead role, and with a superb ensemble by his side, the excitement Franklin has drawn until now has been understandably impressive, especially considering Douglas' involvement was announced back in February 2022. With the series now right around the corner, now is the perfect time to find out everything we know about Franklin .

Franklin (2024)

Explores the story of one of the greatest gambles of Franklin's career. At age 70, Franklin outmaneuvered British spies and French informers while engineering the Franco-American alliance of 1778.

The official release date for Franklin is April 12, 2024 , with production on the project beginning way back in the summer of 2022. Franklin will be exclusively available to stream on Apple TV , joining the great list of TV shows and movies the streamer currently has to offer. The streaming service has been launching a wide array of original series in 2024, with Franklin joining a slate that already includes Manhunt , Masters of the Air , Sugar , Palm Royale , Constellation , and The New Look . The aforementioned release date will see the first three episodes all debut at once , with subsequent episodes set to be released weekly.

Watch on Apple TV+

Available to watch above, the official trailer for Franklin was released on March 13, 2024 . Showcasing gorgeous costumes and lavish set pieces aplenty , it is perhaps Michael Douglas himself that is best represented in this trailer, with his calculated portrayal of the Founding Father oozing out of every frame. The trailer promises a story brimming with tension and politics, with Benjamin Franklin's reputation as the most charming man in any room emanating out of both this trailer and Michael Douglas' performance. Brooding, luxurious, and with a little hint of raciness for good measure, this trailer paints the portrait of an epic adventure deserving of a wide audience, with the upcoming historical drama easy to be considered unmissable.

It is undeniable that Franklin's most important casting inclusion, and perhaps the series' biggest draw, is the double Academy Award-winner Michael Douglas in the titular role. Despite being 80 years old, the Wall Street actor is showing no signs of slowing down with this upcoming project marking a change of genre for Douglas, with the man himself admitting he'd never really tackled a period piece before. Speaking about his next leading role with CBS , Douglas said:

"For me, this series is such a reminder of how fragile democracy is. When you start thinking about the time we first created our Constitution, and to see the kind of shape that we're in now, it's a reminder. The success of the revolution was by no means assured. Had the Americans failed, the would-be founders would have been hanged. Franklin, America's first diplomat, understood the need to go slow and steady with the French".

The rest of the Franklin ensemble includes the likes of Noah Jupe ( A Quiet Place ) as Temple Franklin, Ludivine Sagnier ( Lupin ) as Madame Brillon, Eddie Marsan ( Back to Black ) as John Adams, Thibault de Montalembert ( Call My Agent! ) as Comte de Vergennes, Daniel Mays ( Line of Duty ) as Edward Bancroft, Assaad Bouab ( Homeland ) as Beaumarchias, Jeanne Balibar ( Irma Vep ) as Madame Helvetius, and Theodore Pellerin ( There's Someone Inside Your House ) as Marquis de Lafayette.

The upcoming historical drama is based on Stacy Schiff 's 2005 book A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America , which details what was arguably the Founding Father's greatest achievement in representing the US in France during the heights of the American Revolution, working his charismatic genius in Europe for eight long years. An official synopsis for Franklin reads:

"In December 1776, Franklin is world famous for his electrical experiments, but his passion and power are put to the test when — as the fate of American independence hangs in the balance — he embarks on a secret mission to France."

Against all odds, Benjamin Franklin took on the hostility of both the British and the French in an attempt to engineer a peace treaty with them at a time of major loss and bloodshed. What is perhaps even more impressive is that Franklin did this without any diplomatic experience whatsoever, and at the age of 70... although still some 10 years the junior of the legendary actor portraying him.

Franklin is directed by two-time Emmy-winning director Tim Van Patten , whose work particularly within the American historical sub-genre makes him the perfect fit for this project. Among the prolific shows that Van Patten has worked on are Band of Brothers , The Sopranos , Game of Thrones , The Pacific , Boardwalk Empire , Black Mirror , Deadwood , The Wire, and most recently Masters of the Air.

Speaking about the authenticity of Franklin to IGN , Van Patten said:

"We wanted to have the audience relate to it, on every level. The idea was to build a world that was totally authentic, viscerally authentic, you could feel it, right? I think it just helps us, in having the French language in it, elevates it."

The eight-episode series has been written by both Kirk Ellis and Howard Korder . Ellis is no stranger to making series about the US Founding Fathers, having served as a writer on the Emmy-winning HBO limited series John Adams . Executive producers on the project include the likes of Philippe Maigret , Mark Mostyn , and Tony Krantz . Jay Wadley wrote and composed the score for the series.

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Episode 8. Michael Douglas in "Franklin," premiering April 12, 2024 on Apple TV+.

Apple TV+’s new miniseries, Franklin, is now streaming. If you want to tune into the period drama centered around America’s founding fathers, find out how to watch Franklin and when new episodes will be released on Apple’s streaming service.

From Emmy-winning filmmakers — director Tim Van Patten ( Boardwalk Empire, The Pacific ) and writer and EP Kirk Ellis ( John Adams ) — Franklin is based on Stacy Schiff’s book, “ A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America .” The miniseries tells the story of Benjamin Franklin (portrayed by Michael Douglas), who travels to France in December 1776 on a secret mission.

“In December 1776, Benjamin Franklin is world-famous for his electrical experiments. But his passion and power are put to the test when he embarks on a secret mission to France—with the fate of American independence hanging in the balance,” the show’s synopsis reads. Van Patten told Variety that the revolutionaries are in “dire straits,” so Franklin was dispatched by Congress to persuade France to send guns and money, and ultimately bring the European country into the war on the side of the Americans.

The director added that Douglas, a two-time Academy Award winner, was a “good fit” to play the founding father. “He embodies a lot of Franklin’s spirit in that he is really smart, and charming, and completely contemporary in that he’s aware of everything that’s going on around him, on a global level and on a personal level. And he’s curious. And he has an absolute lust for life,” he explained.

“For me, personally, of the Founding Fathers, I feel he’s the most relatable, the most human,” Van Patten continued. “He embodies the American spirit. He was flawed, but he was also brilliant, and charming, and, arguably, our first humorist. I just liked him as a person. I’m not sure who said this, but someone said he’s the Founding Father he was going to hang out with. I think people will especially relate to him because he’s a humanist and a libertine and flawed like all of us.”

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Episode 3. Michael Douglas and Ludivine Sagnier in "Franklin," premiering April 12, 2024 on Apple ... [+] TV+.

One significant relationship depicted in the miniseries is between Franklin and Madame Brillon, played by Ludivine Sagnier, who “became a wonderful vessel to explore French society from a particularly feminine lens,” Ellis told the site.

“This was a woman who has gone completely invisible to history. At the time, she was one of the most accomplished musicians on both the piano and the harpsichord in Europe," Ellis explained. "Famous composers like Boccherini, her mentor, and J.S. Bach, wrote suites for her, which she would play in these private concerts. But she faced the whole nature of French society being strongly patriarchal.”

The historical drama also stars Noah Jupe, Thibault de Montalembert, Daniel Mays, Ludivine Sagnier, Eddie Marsan, Asaad Bouab, Jeanne Balibar, and Théodore Pellerin.

When Does Franklin Premiere On Apple TV+?

Episode 4. Michael Douglas and Noah Jupe in "Franklin," premiering April 12, 2024 on Apple TV+.

The first three episodes of Apple TV+’s miniseries, Franklin, premieres on Friday, April 12, 2024. New original titles typically drop at 12 a.m. ET on Apple TV+.

How To Watch Franklin

Episode 3. Daniel Mays and Michael Douglas in "Franklin," premiering April 12, 2024 on Apple TV+.

You can watch Franklin on Apple TV+. The streaming site offers a seven-day free trial to get started, and then the service is $9.99/month once the trial expires.

What Is The Franklin Release Schedule?

Episode 3. Théodore Pellerin in "Franklin," premiering April 12, 2024 on Apple TV+.

The initial three episodes of Franklin debuted together on April 12, 2024, while the remaining five will air on Fridays until the season finale on May 17, 2024. Check out the full release schedule for Franklin below.

• Aired on April 12, 2024 - Season 1, Episode 1, “Sauce for Prayers”
• Aired on April 12, 2024 - Season 1, Episode 2, “Welcome, Mischief”
• Aired on April 12, 2024 - Season 1, Episode 3, “Pride and Gout”
• Airing on April 19, 2024 - Season 1, Episode 4, “Small Revenge”
• Airing on April 26, 2024 - Season 1, Episode 5, TBA
• Airing on May 3, 2024 - Season 1, Episode 6, TBA
• Airing on May 10, 2024 - Season 1, Episode 7, TBA
• Airing on May 11, 2024 - Season 1, Episode 8, TBA

Franklin is now streaming on Apple TV+. Watch the official trailer below.

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Benjamin Franklin

By: History.com Editors

Updated: March 28, 2023 | Original: November 9, 2009

One of the leading figures of early American history, Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was a statesman, author, publisher, scientist, inventor and diplomat. Born into a Boston family of modest means, Franklin had little formal education. He went on to start a successful printing business in Philadelphia and grew wealthy. Franklin was deeply active in public affairs in his adopted city, where he helped launch a lending library, hospital and college and garnered acclaim for his experiments with electricity, among other projects. During the American Revolution , he served in the Second Continental Congress and helped draft the Declaration of Independence in 1776. He also negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War (1775-83). In 1787, in his final significant act of public service, he was a delegate to the convention that produced the U.S. Constitution .

Benjamin Franklin’s Early Years

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in colonial Boston. His father, Josiah Franklin (1657-1745), a native of England, was a candle and soap maker who married twice and had 17 children. Franklin’s mother was Abiah Folger (1667-1752) of Nantucket, Massachusetts , Josiah’s second wife. Franklin was the eighth of Abiah and Josiah’s 10 offspring.

Did you know? Benjamin Franklin is the only Founding Father  to have signed all four of the key documents establishing the U.S.: the Declaration of Independence (1776), the Treaty of Alliance with France (1778), the Treaty of Paris establishing peace with Great Britain (1783) and the U.S. Constitution (1787).

Franklin’s formal education was limited and ended when he was 10; however, he was an avid reader and taught himself to become a skilled writer. In 1718, at age 12, he was apprenticed to his older brother James, a Boston printer. By age 16, Franklin was contributing essays (under the pseudonym Silence Dogood) to a newspaper published by his brother. At age 17, Franklin ran away from his apprenticeship to Philadelphia, where he found work as a printer. In late 1724, he traveled to London, England, and again found employment in the printing business.

Benjamin Franklin: Printer and Publisher

Benjamin Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1726, and two years later opened a printing shop. The business became highly successful producing a range of materials, including government pamphlets, books and currency. In 1729, Franklin became the owner and publisher of a colonial newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette , which proved popular—and to which he contributed much of the content, often using pseudonyms. Franklin achieved fame and further financial success with “Poor Richard’s Almanack,” which he published every year from 1733 to 1758. The almanac became known for its witty sayings, which often had to do with the importance of diligence and frugality, such as “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”

In 1730, Franklin began living with Deborah Read (c. 1705-74), the daughter of his former Philadelphia landlady, as his common-law wife. Read’s first husband had abandoned her; however, due to bigamy laws, she and Franklin could not have an official wedding ceremony. Franklin and Read had a son, Francis Folger Franklin (1732-36), who died of smallpox at age 4, and a daughter, Sarah Franklin Bache (1743-1808). Franklin had another son, William Franklin (c. 1730-1813), who was born out of wedlock. William Franklin served as the last colonial governor of New Jersey , from 1763 to 1776, and remained loyal to the British during the American Revolution . He died in exile in England.

Benjamin Franklin and Philadelphia

As Franklin’s printing business prospered, he became increasingly involved in civic affairs. Starting in the 1730s, he helped establish a number of community organizations in Philadelphia, including a lending library (it was founded in 1731, a time when books weren’t widely available in the colonies, and remained the largest U.S. public library until the 1850s), the city’s first fire company , a police patrol and the American Philosophical Society , a group devoted to the sciences and other scholarly pursuits. 

Franklin also organized the Pennsylvania militia, raised funds to build a city hospital and spearheaded a program to pave and light city streets. Additionally, Franklin was instrumental in the creation of the Academy of Philadelphia, a college which opened in 1751 and became known as the University of Pennsylvania in 1791.

Franklin also was a key figure in the colonial postal system. In 1737, the British appointed him postmaster of Philadelphia, and he went on to become, in 1753, joint postmaster general for all the American colonies. In this role he instituted various measures to improve mail service; however, the British dismissed him from the job in 1774 because he was deemed too sympathetic to colonial interests. In July 1775, the Continental Congress appointed Franklin the first postmaster general of the United States, giving him authority over all post offices from Massachusetts to Georgia . He held this position until November 1776, when he was succeeded by his son-in-law. (The first U.S. postage stamps, issued on July 1, 1847, featured images of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington .)

Benjamin Franklin's Inventions

In 1748, Franklin, then 42 years old, had expanded his printing business throughout the colonies and become successful enough to stop working. Retirement allowed him to concentrate on public service and also pursue more fully his longtime interest in science. In the 1740s, he conducted experiments that contributed to the understanding of electricity, and invented the lightning rod, which protected buildings from fires caused by lightning. In 1752, he conducted his famous kite experiment and demonstrated that lightning is electricity. Franklin also coined a number of electricity-related terms, including battery, charge and conductor.

In addition to electricity, Franklin studied a number of other topics, including ocean currents, meteorology, causes of the common cold and refrigeration. He developed the Franklin stove, which provided more heat while using less fuel than other stoves, and bifocal eyeglasses, which allow for distance and reading use. In the early 1760s, Franklin invented a musical instrument called the glass armonica. Composers such as Ludwig Beethoven (1770-1827) and Wolfgang Mozart (1756-91) wrote music for Franklin’s armonica; however, by the early part of the 19th century, the once-popular instrument had largely fallen out of use.

READ MORE: 11 Surprising Facts About Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin and the American Revolution

In 1754, at a meeting of colonial representatives in Albany, New York , Franklin proposed a plan for uniting the colonies under a national congress. Although his Albany Plan was rejected, it helped lay the groundwork for the Articles of Confederation , which became the first constitution of the United States when ratified in 1781.

In 1757, Franklin traveled to London as a representative of the Pennsylvania Assembly, to which he was elected in 1751. Over several years, he worked to settle a tax dispute and other issues involving descendants of William Penn (1644-1718), the owners of the colony of Pennsylvania. After a brief period back in the U.S., Franklin lived primarily in London until 1775. While he was abroad, the British government began, in the mid-1760s, to impose a series of regulatory measures to assert greater control over its American colonies. In 1766, Franklin testified in the British Parliament against the Stamp Act of 1765, which required that all legal documents, newspapers, books, playing cards and other printed materials in the American colonies carry a tax stamp. Although the Stamp Act was repealed in 1766, additional regulatory measures followed, leading to ever-increasing anti-British sentiment and eventual armed uprising in the American colonies .

Franklin returned to Philadelphia in May 1775, shortly after the Revolutionary War (1775-83) had begun, and was selected to serve as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, America’s governing body at the time. In 1776, he was part of the five-member committee that helped draft the Declaration of Independence , in which the 13 American colonies declared their freedom from British rule. That same year, Congress sent Franklin to France to enlist that nation’s help with the Revolutionary War. In February 1778, the French signed a military alliance with America and went on to provide soldiers, supplies and money that proved critical to America’s victory in the war.

As minister to France starting in 1778, Franklin helped negotiate and draft the 1783  Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War.

Benjamin Franklin’s Later Years

In 1785, Franklin left France and returned once again to Philadelphia. In 1787, he was a Pennsylvania delegate to the Constitutional Convention. (The 81-year-old Franklin was the convention’s oldest delegate.) At the end of the convention, in September 1787, he urged his fellow delegates to support the heavily debated new document. The U.S. Constitution was ratified by the required nine states in June 1788, and George Washington (1732-99) was inaugurated as America’s first president in April 1789.

Franklin died a year later, at age 84, on April 17, 1790, in Philadelphia. Following a funeral that was attended by an estimated 20,000 people, he was buried in Philadelphia’s Christ Church cemetery. In his will, he left money to Boston and Philadelphia, which was later used to establish a trade school and a science museum and fund scholarships and other community projects.

More than 200 years after his death, Franklin remains one of the most celebrated figures in U.S. history. His image appears on the $100 bill, and towns, schools and businesses across America are named for him.

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Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin is best known as one of the Founding Fathers who never served as president but was a respected inventor, publisher, scientist and diplomat.

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Silence dogood, living in london, wife and children, life in philadelphia, poor richard's almanack, scientist and inventor, electricity, election to the government, stamp act and declaration of independence, life in paris, drafting the u.s. constitution, accomplishments, who was benjamin franklin.

Benjamin Franklin was a Founding Father and a polymath, inventor, scientist, printer, politician, freemason and diplomat. Franklin helped to draft the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution , and he negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris ending the Revolutionary War .

His scientific pursuits included investigations into electricity, mathematics and mapmaking. A writer known for his wit and wisdom, Franklin also published Poor Richard’s Almanack , invented bifocal glasses and organized the first successful American lending library.

FULL NAME: Benjamin Franklin BORN: January 17, 1706 DIED: April 17, 1790 BIRTHPLACE: Boston, Massachusetts SPOUSE: Deborah Read (1730-1774) CHILDREN: William, Francis, Sarah ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Capricorn

Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in Boston, in what was then known as the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Franklin’s father, English-born soap and candlemaker Josiah Franklin, had seven children with first wife, Anne Child, and 10 more with second wife, Abiah Folger. Franklin was his 15th child and youngest son.

Franklin learned to read at an early age, and despite his success at the Boston Latin School, he stopped his formal schooling at 10 to work full-time in his cash-strapped father’s candle and soap shop. Dipping wax and cutting wicks didn’t fire the young boy’s imagination, however.

Perhaps to dissuade him from going to sea as one of his other sons had done, Josiah apprenticed 12-year-old Franklin at the print shop run by his older brother James.

Although James mistreated and frequently beat his younger brother, Franklin learned a great deal about newspaper publishing and adopted a similar brand of subversive politics under the printer’s tutelage.

When James refused to publish any of his brother’s writing, 16-year-old Franklin adopted the pseudonym Mrs. Silence Dogood, and “her” 14 imaginative and witty letters delighted readers of his brother’s newspaper, The New England Courant . James grew angry, however, when he learned that his apprentice had penned the letters.

Tired of his brother’s “harsh and tyrannical” behavior, Franklin fled Boston in 1723 although he had three years remaining on a legally binding contract with his master.

He escaped to New York before settling in Philadelphia and began working with another printer. Philadelphia became his home base for the rest of his life.

Encouraged by Pennsylvania Governor William Keith to set up his own print shop, Franklin left for London in 1724 to purchase supplies from stationers, booksellers and printers. When the teenager arrived in England, however, he felt duped when Keith’s letters of introduction never arrived as promised.

Although forced to find work at London’s print shops, Franklin took full advantage of the city’s pleasures—attending theater performances, mingling with the locals in coffee houses and continuing his lifelong passion for reading.

A self-taught swimmer who crafted his own wooden flippers, Franklin performed long-distance swims on the Thames River. (In 1968, he was inducted as an honorary member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame .)

In 1725 Franklin published his first pamphlet, "A Dissertation upon Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain," which argued that humans lack free will and, thus, are not morally responsible for their actions. (Franklin later repudiated this thought and burned all but one copy of the pamphlet still in his possession.)

In 1723, after Franklin moved from Boston to Philadelphia, he lodged at the home of John Read, where he met and courted his landlord’s daughter Deborah.

After Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1726, he discovered that Deborah had married in the interim, only to be abandoned by her husband just months after the wedding.

The future Founding Father rekindled his romance with Deborah Read and he took her as his common-law wife in 1730. Around that time, Franklin fathered a son, William, out of wedlock who was taken in by the couple. The pair’s first son, Francis, was born in 1732, but he died four years later of smallpox. The couple’s only daughter, Sarah, was born in 1743.

The two times Franklin moved to London, in 1757 and again in 1764, it was without Deborah, who refused to leave Philadelphia. His second stay was the last time the couple saw each other. Franklin would not return home before Deborah passed away in 1774 from a stroke at the age of 66.

In 1762, Franklin’s son William took office as New Jersey’s royal governor, a position his father arranged through his political connections in the British government. Franklin’s later support for the patriot cause put him at odds with his loyalist son. When the New Jersey militia stripped William Franklin of his post as royal governor and imprisoned him in 1776, his father chose not to intercede on his behalf.

After his return to Philadelphia in 1726, Franklin held varied jobs including bookkeeper, shopkeeper and currency cutter. In 1728 he returned to a familiar trade - printing paper currency - in New Jersey before partnering with a friend to open his own print shop in Philadelphia that published government pamphlets and books.

In 1730 Franklin was named the official printer of Pennsylvania. By that time, he had formed the “Junto,” a social and self-improvement study group for young men that met every Friday to debate morality, philosophy and politics.

When Junto members sought to expand their reading choices, Franklin helped to incorporate America’s first subscription library, the Library Company of Philadelphia, in 1731.

In 1729 Franklin published another pamphlet, "A Modest Enquiry into The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency," which advocated for an increase in the money supply to stimulate the economy.

With the cash Franklin earned from his money-related treatise, he was able to purchase The Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper from a former boss. Under his ownership, the struggling newspaper was transformed into the most widely-read paper in the colonies and became one of the first to turn a profit.

He had less luck in 1732 when he launched the first German-language newspaper in the colonies, the short-lived Philadelphische Zeitung . Nonetheless, Franklin’s prominence and success grew during the 1730s.

Franklin amassed real estate and businesses and organized the volunteer Union Fire Company to counteract dangerous fire hazards in Philadelphia. He joined the Freemasons in 1731 and was eventually elected grand master of the Masons of Pennsylvania.

At the end of 1732, Franklin published the first edition of Poor Richard’s Almanack .

In addition to weather forecasts, astronomical information and poetry, the almanac—which Franklin published for 25 consecutive years—included proverbs and Franklin’s witty maxims such as “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise” and “He that lies down with dogs, shall rise up with fleas.”

In the 1740s, Franklin expanded into science and entrepreneurship. His 1743 pamphlet "A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge" underscored his interests and served as the founding document of the American Philosophical Society , the first scientific society in the colonies.

By 1748, the 42-year-old Franklin had become one of the richest men in Pennsylvania, and he became a soldier in the Pennsylvania militia. He turned his printing business over to a partner to give himself more time to conduct scientific experiments. He moved into a new house in 1748.

Franklin was a prolific inventor and scientist who was responsible for the following inventions:

• Franklin stove : Franklin’s first invention, created around 1740, provided more heat with less fuel.
• Bifocals : Anyone tired of switching between two pairs of glasses understands why Franklin developed bifocals that could be used for both distance and reading.
• Armonica : Franklin’s inventions took on a musical bent when, in 1761, he commenced development on the armonica, a musical instrument composed of spinning glass bowls on a shaft. Both Ludwig van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed music for the strange instrument.
• Rocking chair
• Flexible catheter
• American penny

Franklin also discovered the Gulf Stream after his return trip across the Atlantic Ocean from London in 1775. He began to speculate about why the westbound trip always took longer, and his measurements of ocean temperatures led to his discovery of the existence of the Gulf Stream. This knowledge served to cut two weeks off the previous sailing time from Europe to North America.

Franklin even devised a new “scheme” for the alphabet that proposed to eliminate the letters C, J, Q, W, X and Y as redundant.

Franklin’s self-education earned him honorary degrees from Harvard , Yale , England’s University of Oxford and the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

In 1749, Franklin wrote a pamphlet concerning the education of youth in Pennsylvania that resulted in the establishment of the Academy of Philadelphia, now the University of Pennsylvania .

In 1752, Franklin conducted the famous kite-and-key experiment to demonstrate that lightning was electricity and soon after invented the lightning rod.

His investigations into electrical phenomena were compiled into “Experiments and Observations on Electricity,” published in England in 1751. He coined new electricity-related terms that are still part of the lexicon, such as battery, charge, conductor and electrify.

In 1748, Franklin acquired the first of several enslaved people to work in his new home and in the print shop. Franklin’s views on slavery evolved over the following decades to the point that he considered the institution inherently evil, and thus, he freed his enslaved people in the 1760s.

Later in life, he became more vociferous in his opposition to slavery. Franklin served as president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and wrote many tracts urging the abolition of slavery . In 1790 he petitioned the U.S. Congress to end slavery and the trade.

Franklin became a member of Philadelphia’s city council in 1748 and a justice of the peace the following year. In 1751, he was elected a Philadelphia alderman and a representative to the Pennsylvania Assembly, a position to which he was re-elected annually until 1764. Two years later, he accepted a royal appointment as deputy postmaster general of North America.

When the French and Indian War began in 1754, Franklin called on the colonies to band together for their common defense, which he dramatized in The Pennsylvania Gazette with a cartoon of a snake cut into sections with the caption “Join or Die.”

He represented Pennsylvania at the Albany Congress, which adopted his proposal to create a unified government for the 13 colonies. Franklin’s “Plan of Union,” however, failed to be ratified by the colonies.

In 1757 Franklin was appointed by the Pennsylvania Assembly to serve as the colony’s agent in England. Franklin sailed to London to negotiate a long-standing dispute with the proprietors of the colony, the Penn family, taking William and his two enslaved people but leaving behind Deborah and Sarah.

He spent much of the next two decades in London, where he was drawn to the high society and intellectual salons of the cosmopolitan city.

After Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1762, he toured the colonies to inspect its post offices.

After Franklin lost his seat in the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1764, he returned to London as the colony’s agent. Franklin returned at a tense time in Great Britain’s relations with the American colonies.

The British Parliament ’s passage of the Stamp Act in March 1765 imposed a highly unpopular tax on all printed materials for commercial and legal use in the American colonies. Since Franklin purchased stamps for his printing business and nominated a friend as the Pennsylvania stamp distributor, some colonists thought Franklin implicitly supported the new tax, and rioters in Philadelphia even threatened his house.

Franklin’s passionate denunciation of the tax in testimony before Parliament, however, contributed to the Stamp Act’s repeal in 1766.

Two years later he penned a pamphlet, “Causes of the American Discontents before 1768,” and he soon became an agent for Massachusetts, Georgia and New Jersey as well. Franklin fanned the flames of revolution by sending the private letters of Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson to America.

The letters called for the restriction of the rights of colonists, which caused a firestorm after their publication by Boston newspapers. In the wake of the scandal, Franklin was removed as deputy postmaster general, and he returned to North America in 1775 as a devotee of the patriot cause.

In 1775, Franklin was elected to the Second Continental Congress and appointed the first postmaster general for the colonies. In 1776, he was appointed commissioner to Canada and was one of five men to draft the Declaration of Independence.

After voting for independence in 1776, Franklin was elected commissioner to France, making him essentially the first U.S. ambassador to France. He set sail to negotiate a treaty for the country’s military and financial support.

Much has been made of Franklin’s years in Paris, chiefly his rich romantic life in his nine years abroad after Deborah’s death. At the age of 74, he even proposed marriage to a widow named Madame Helvetius, but she rejected him.

Franklin was embraced in France as much, if not more, for his wit and intellectual standing in the scientific community as for his status as a political appointee from a fledgling country.

His reputation facilitated respect and entrees into closed communities, including the court of King Louis XVI . And it was his adept diplomacy that led to the Treaty of Paris in 1783, which ended the Revolutionary War. After almost a decade in France, Franklin returned to the United States in 1785.

Franklin was elected in 1787 to represent Pennsylvania at the Constitutional Convention , which drafted and ratified the new U.S. Constitution.

The oldest delegate at the age of 81, Franklin initially supported proportional representation in Congress, but he fashioned the Great Compromise that resulted in proportional representation in the House of Representatives and equal representation by state in the Senate . In 1787, he helped found the Society for Political Inquiries, dedicated to improving knowledge of government.

Franklin was never elected president of the United States. However, he played an important role as one of eight Founding Fathers, helping draft the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

He also served several roles in the government: He was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly and appointed as the first postmaster general for the colonies as well as diplomat to France. He was a true polymath and entrepreneur, which is no doubt why he is often called the "First American."

Franklin died on April 17, 1790, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the home of his daughter, Sarah Bache. He was 84, suffered from gout and had complained of ailments for some time, completing the final codicil to his will a little more than a year and a half prior to his death.

He bequeathed most of his estate to Sarah and very little to his son William, whose opposition to the patriot cause still stung him. He also donated money that funded scholarships, schools and museums in Boston and Philadelphia.

Franklin had actually written his epitaph when he was 22: “The body of B. Franklin, Printer (Like the Cover of an Old Book Its Contents torn Out And Stript of its Lettering and Gilding) Lies Here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be Lost; For it will (as he Believ'd) Appear once More In a New and More Elegant Edition Revised and Corrected By the Author.”

In the end, however, the stone on the grave he shared with his wife in the cemetery of Philadelphia’s Christ Church reads simply, “Benjamin and Deborah Franklin 1790.”

The image of Franklin that has come down through history, along with his likeness on the $100 bill, is something of a caricature—a bald man in a frock coat holding a kite string with a key attached. But the scope of things he applied himself to was so broad it seems a shame.

Founding universities and libraries, the post office, shaping the foreign policy of the fledgling United States, helping to draft the Declaration of Independence, publishing newspapers, warming us with the Franklin stove, pioneering advances in science, letting us see with bifocals and lighting our way with electricity—all from a man who never finished school but shaped his life through abundant reading and experience, a strong moral compass and an unflagging commitment to civic duty. Franklin illuminated corners of American life that still have the lingering glow of his attention.

• A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.
• Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.
• From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books.
• So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.
• In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history; for, even if I could conceive that I had compleatly overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.
• Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day.
• There never was a good war or a bad peace.
• In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.
• Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins.
• He does not possess wealth, it possesses him.
• Experience keeps a dear school, yet fools will learn in no other.

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Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "benjamin-franklin"

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1. Deck of Cards (2022)

45 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

The king of hearts has disappeared from the Kingdom of Cards, and the Joker and his friends set out on a quest to locate him, but there are other forces at play in the Kingdom, and someone might have an ace up their sleeve.

Director: Eric Notarnicola | Stars: Gregg Turkington , Joe Estevez , Mark Proksch , Michael Matthews

2. Jokes My Folks Never Told Me (1978)

R | 82 min | Comedy

Anthology film consisting of dirty sex jokes turned into short, comical, occasionally animated and often offensive sketches which include hillbillies, cheating, stds, double entendres, misunderstandings and male on beast bestiality.

Director: Gerry Woolery | Stars: Dave Adams , Patricia Alkaitis , James Arnold , J.J. Barry

3. Ben Franklin (2004 TV Movie)

100 min | Documentary, Biography, History

Ben Franklin rose from poverty to become a true Renaissance Man and Founding Father of America. This is the story of the man behind the myth.

Director: Joshua Alper | Stars: Charley Carfrey , Michael Kelberg , Maggie Lakis

4. Land of Liberty (1939)

Approved | 138 min | History

This film tells the history of the United States from pre-Revolution through 1939.

Director: Cecil B. DeMille | Stars: Gayne Whitman , Erville Alderson , Don Ameche , Heather Angel

5. Hellfire Club

Drama | Pre-production

London's notorious Hellfire Club, largely known for its outlandish activities of London's high and low societies during the mid-eighteenth century that included John Wilkes, Benjamin ... See full summary  »

6. We Can Do Better America (2018 Video)

1 min | Short, News

Founding father Benjamin Franklin views today's issues through a nonpartisan window to the present in this 30-second, social media PSA.

Director: Curtis Bechdholt | Star: Donald Watson

7. A Few Minutes with Benjamin Franklin in the 21st Century (2014)

4 min | Short, Comedy

Benjamin Franklin comes to the 21st Century to see how the Great American Experiment is going and finds himself perturbed by the Internet.

Director: Richard Jensen | Stars: William Engle , Michael Meyer

8. The Addams Family (1964–1966) Episode: The Addams Family Splurges (1965)

TV-G | 25 min | Comedy, Family, Horror

The Addams family hopes to vacation on the moon, but needs to raise a billion dollars. Using Gomez's new supercomputer, the family schemes to make the money by betting on horse races.

Director: Sidney Lanfield | Stars: Carolyn Jones , John Astin , Jackie Coogan , Ted Cassidy

9. Bewitched (1964–1972) Episode: My Friend Ben (1966)

TV-G | 25 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy

After Aunt Clara conjures up Benjamin Franklin, he gets arrested for stealing an antique firetruck as part of a supposed advertising stunt.

Director: William Asher | Stars: Elizabeth Montgomery , Dick York , Agnes Moorehead , George Tobias

10. Bewitched (1964–1972) Episode: Samantha for the Defense (1966)

11. dates that made history (2017–2020) episode: 4 juillet 1776: la déclaration d'indépendance américaine (2020).

26 min | Documentary, History

The Declaration of Independence set in motion a political experiment still alive today. The pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness was not easily achieved. To this day Democracy's fragile nature relies on the strength of a united purpose.

Director: Denis van Waerebeke | Stars: Patrick Boucheron , Nathan Perl-Rosenthal

12. Sleepy Hollow (2013–2017) Episode: The Kindred (2014)

TV-14 | 44 min | Action, Adventure, Crime

Ichabod Crane and Lt. Abbie Mills concoct a daring plan to try to rescue Ichabod's wife, Katrina, from the Headless Horseman by resurrecting a Frankenstein-like monster created by Benjamin ... See full summary  »

Director: Paul A. Edwards | Stars: Tom Mison , Nicole Beharie , Orlando Jones , Katia Winter

13. Wow, I Never Knew That! (2011– ) Episode: Episode #1.8 (2011)

TV-PG | 23 min | History

In this episode of Wow, I Never Knew That, it's one of the world's most famous train stations. GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL. We'll take you on a trip to reveal its many fascinating secrets. And ... See full summary  »

Director: David Harris Katz | Star: Jeff Johnson

14. Secrets of the Dead (2000– ) Episode: Ben Franklin's Bones (2015)

TV-14 | 58 min | Documentary, History, War

Why were skeletons found in the basement of Ben Franklin's home in England? Scientists investigate the people who lived at the house at the time, including a professor of medicine.

Director: Kate Thomas-Couth | Stars: Márcia Balisciano , Simon Chaplin , Lindsey Fitzharris , Melissa Hewson

15. Deadbeat (2014–2016) Episode: Death List Three (2016)

TV-MA | 23 min | Comedy, Fantasy

Pac finally gets answers from Danny, but they're not exactly the answers he was hoping for...

Director: Heath Cullens | Stars: Kurt Braunohler , John Henry Cox , William Jackson Harper , Brian Jung

Recently Viewed

Michael Douglas bets a benjamin on 'Franklin' TV series: How actor turned Founding Father

LOS ANGELES – Even Michael Douglas had doubts about portraying Benjamin Franklin in the Oscar-winning actor's first period drama.

Douglas, 79, who famously proclaimed "Greed is Good" in his iconic 1987 "Wall Street" role, just had to glance at Franklin's ubiquitous portrait on the $100 bill to see there wasn't much resemblance to the Founding Father.

"There was a lot of hesitancy from top to bottom. I'd take a look at a $100 bill and I was like, 'Hmm, I don't know,'" Douglas says of the role.

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So he leaned into Michael Douglas – from the hair to the laugh and the signature gravelly voice – to play the 18th-century giant, who lived from 1706-1790. "As well as people have known me over so many years, that persona was needed to lead this story through," says Douglas.

Here's how Douglas pulled off "Franklin" (streaming Fridays on AppleTV+), based on Stacy Schiff’s 2005 historical novel “A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, And The Birth of America."

Michael Douglas on playing Ben Franklin ‘I wanted to see how I looked in tights’

Why is Benjamin Franklin in France during 'Franklin'?

The 18th-century intellectual giant, most recently the subject of a 2022 Ken Burns documentary , is famous for helping Thomas Jefferson draft the Declaration of Independence, his lightning storm experiments on electricity and as the publisher whose wise sayings were chronicled in his annual Poor Richard's Almanack.

Yet Douglas was surprised to learn the critical role Franklin, who was 70 in 1776, played in secretly courting crucial French assistance for the floundering American Revolution against the two countries' mutual rival, England.

"I thought back to my high school history classes, and this crucial chapter of Franklin going to France wasn't even spoken of," says Douglas, who believes the series highlights the still-fragile state of American democracy. "We were in trouble in America and Franklin was the last hope. He improvised and because he was so smart, pulled it off."

Franklin, with his teenage grandson Temple (Noah Jupe), navigates British spies and the French court in the series shot throughout France, including at the famed Palace of Versailles.

Douglas brought the real long hair, bad French

Douglas has shown his transformational powers with his Emmy-winning performance as Liberace in 2013's HBO project "Behind the Candelabra."

But the actor decided to forgo the arduous daily makeup and prosthetics to become Franklin, which would have added physical changes such as the bald forehead, as well as heavier neck and body seen in portraits.

"It would have been 2 1/2 hours of makeup and then 40 minutes to take it off. That's a big part of your shooting day sitting in the chair," says Douglas. "When you're talking 160 shooting days, it made me nervous."

Douglas earned Franklin's likeness naturally by growing out his hair. The wilder look led to tabloid headlines but went down just fine with his wife of 23 years, actress Catherine Zeta-Jones.

"Catherine loves me any way she can get me," says Douglas. "And I had long hair in the '60s when I was a hippie. So it saved me from wearing a wig."

He donned the period outfit, embracing the tights , the custom-made shoes, the famed Franklin spectacles, and the marten fur hat that was the talk of France at the time. Voila! Ben Franklin by way of Michael Douglas.

"Within minutes of the series you're all in with him," insists director Tim Van Patten.

Same deal with Franklin's accent, which does not deviate much from the famous actor's distinctive voice. Even Douglas' poor French worked since written history shows Franklin also struggled with the language.

"I speak a little bit of French and thought I was pretty good until I saw the series," says Douglas. "I realized I was as bad as every American tourist in France."

Douglas insisted on the Franklin proud farting scenes

There are moments of joyous Founding Father flatulence in "Franklin."

"I have to take responsibility for that. I just thought he should fart a couple of times," says Douglas. "I mean he's in his 70s, he's not well, and passing wind can be funny."

It's also historically accurate and relevant since Franklin trumpeted the joys of tooting in France. In the 1781 satirical essay "Fart Proudly," Franklin proclaimed the joys of "discharging freely the wind from (the) Bowels" seven times a day.

"I read the fart essay and thought it was fabulous," says Douglas, who pushed to have it included. "At first they were like, 'Nah!' But I said, read this, it's one of the joys of life."

Franklin invented the glass armonica, Douglas never mastered it

Douglas was also impressed to learn that Franklin invented an instrument that makes music through water-filled glass bottles, the glass armonica.

"He had all the tricks, bells and whistles to make himself a universal man," says Douglas. The actor plays the instrument in "Franklin," but never mastered it. "I was able to get sounds out of it, but let's just say that scene was recorded," says Douglas.

Douglas eventually got used to seeing himself as Franklin, especially during a scene where the French celebrity is feted at a gallery filled with paintings and statutes of his likeness. "I laughed my ass off when I walked into that room filled with portraits," says Douglas. "I had to keep at least one of them. So I took one of the more over-the-top paintings."

He confesses the framed Douglas-Franklin watercolor is not yet in the New York home he shares with Zeta-Jones.

"It's in storage," says Douglas. "We haven't quite found the proper place to hang it up."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Michael Douglas bets a benjamin on 'Franklin' TV series: How actor turned Founding Father

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Biography - Benjamin Franklin: Citizen of the World (A&E DVD Archives)

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&E presents an in-depth biography of Benjamin Franklin, a unique individual who came to symbolize the inventiveness and industriousness of an entire nation. The program explores Franklin's diverse accomplishments in the fields of science, civics and politics, from his discovery of electricity and the fuel-efficient Franklin stove to Poor Richard's Almanac and his contributions to the continental Congress and early American history. Using expert commentary, archival material and Franklin's own writings, the program tells the story of one of the most unique, captivating and colorful figures in American history.

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• Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
• Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.75 x 5.75 x 0.53 inches; 4 ounces
• Media Format ‏ : ‎ DVD
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0002V7KUA
• Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1
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