Peter Franke, born in 1941 in Breslau, studied voice at the Folkwang School in Essen started his acting career at the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus in 1969, from where he moved on to the Schauspiel Frankfurt, the Bremen Theater, the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Hamburg's Thalia Theater, the Hamburg Kammerspiele and the St. Pauli Theater, where he appeared on stage in 2004 in a production of the "Threepenny Opera" alongside Ulrich Tukur and Eva Mattes.  

Peter Franke made his debut as a screen actor in 1975 with a small role in Volker Schlöndorff's "Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum"("The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum"). Since then he has appeared, mostly in smaller supporting roles, in well over 100 television productions as well as some 30 feature films. His most important feature films include Uwe Schrader's milieu study "Kanakerbraut" (1984), Tom Tykwer's psychodrama "Die tödliche Maria" ("Deadly Maria", 1993), Peter Lichtefeld's road movie "Zugvögel - ... einmal nach Inari" ("Train Birds", 1998) and Sönke Wortmann's "Das Wunder von Bern" ("The Miracle of Bern", 2003), in which he portrayed soccer legend Sepp Herberger.  

Franke has been increasingly active in television since the mid-1990s. Here he appeared in films such as Bernd Schadewald's "Der Pirat" with Jürgen Vogel, "Die Rückkehr des Vaters" (2004) with Vadim Glowna or the drama "Nichts ist vergessen" (2007) as well as in TV series such as "Die Gang" (1997), "Der Dicke" (2007) or "Rennschwein Rudi Rüssel" (2008-2010), in which he played the grandfather of the family.  

Franke had a leading role on the big screen in 2011 in the tragicomedy "Sohnemänner". In it, he embodied a man who engages in a feud with his adult son over the decision of who gets to take over the care of his stone-aged grandmother.  

In the next few years, the indefatigable Peter Franke continued to appear in a large number of TV and cinema productions. In 2012 alone, he was seen in seven TV roles, such as the father of the main characters in Friedemann Fromm's euthanasia drama "Komm, schöner Tod" and in the comedies "Schleuderprogramm" and "Ganz der Papa." He had other important roles in the next few years as the head of a crook family in the eight-part series "Unter Gaunern" (2015), as Axel Prahl's best friend in Lars Jessen's modern home movie "Vadder, Kutter, Sohn" (2017) and as the loving grandfather of an unintentionally pregnant teenager in David Dietl's family drama "Ellas Baby" (2017). In addition, he took on numerous smaller TV drama supporting roles as well as episodic roles in series such as "Die Spezialisten - Im Namen der Opfer" (2018), "Kommissar Dupin" (2021) and "Die Eifelpraxis" (2021).  

In 2022, Franke, now 81, was seen in the Munich "Tatort" episode "Flash" as a therapist suffering from dementia. In Lars Jessen's bestselling film adaptation "Mittagsstunde," he had a central role as the father of Charly Hübner's main character, who is in need of care.