Roslyn Franken

Roslyn was born in Montreal, Canada, to John and Sonja Franken, two unlikely survivors of World War II. Her father remarkably survived the Nagasaki atomic bomb as a Prisoner of War in Japan, while her mother miraculously survived the concentration camps in Nazi Europe including Auschwitz, the most notorious of them all. As immigrant parents who triumphed over unimaginable horrors, they were determined to provide Roslyn with a strong education and do whatever they could to ensure she had the best opportunities for a secure and stable future. So when at age 12, Roslyn announced she wanted to be an actress, they were less than thrilled. She remembers her father smiling and encouraging her to get a good education in a more practical field of study so that she would have something to fall back on in case the acting career "didn't work out". Roslyn had her first real taste of the live stage as the lead role of Sandra Dee in her high school production of Grease. Although the wondrous taste lingered, wanting to please her parents, Roslyn listened to them and in 1989 graduated from university with a "practical" Bachelor degree in Business Administration but with a minor in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management. She figured that at very least she could maybe one day be self-employed. That was her dream, to do her own thing in her own way. Working in a routine 9 to 5 job was never something Roslyn could aspire to. In 1991, Roslyn moved to Ottawa to work as an independent contractor for a Dale Carnegie Training franchise selling public speaking courses, never knowing at the time that she would one day become a public speaker. Then in 1994, she got a job with Hearst Publishing based out of New York City where she could work from a home-based office managing book sales to wholesalers across Eastern Canada, never knowing at the time that she would one day become a published author herself. She wasn't exactly self-employed, but the job allowed for the same freedoms of being able to set her own schedule without having to go to an office and report to a boss everyday. Coincidences? Maybe. Or maybe it was "meant to be". When diagnosed with cancer in 1995 at age 29, Roslyn quickly learned that she inherited her parents' determination, strength of will and never-give-up attitude in her fight to beat cancer. At 39 and at her heaviest weight, Roslyn chose to fight back once again only this time to win her battles with food and weight issues once and for all. Her successful weight loss journey led to the writing of her first book, Th A List, a self-help guide which outlines her 9 principles for healthy eating and positive living that changed her life. To further educate and inspire people with her 9 principles, Roslyn took The A List from the page to the stage with her lighten up for good presentations. She wasn't quite an actress, but it certainly allowed her to fulfill her childhood desire to be on stage in front of live audiences. In her presentations, she touched briefly on lessons learned through her cancer journey that influenced her approach to physical and emotional health and well-being. She also mentioned in passing about her parents' wartime experiences as examples of resiliency and positive mental attitude. To her surprise these two things she barely touched on were precisely what people repeatedly told her they would have wanted to hear much more about in her presentation. This is what led to the writing of her second book entitled Meant to Be (isbn: 978-0-9784274-1-2). Roslyn then took her book from the page to the stage once again by adapting her book into a multi-media stage presentation. In addition to her storytelling, this inspirational presentation includes family photos, video clips from a Gemini award-nominated television documentary entitled tea at the embassy about her father's quest for an apology from the Japanese legislature for their wartime atrocities, an audio clip of her mother singing a solo performance in one of the biggest concert halls in Amsterdam shortly after the war, and a live musical performance by Roslyn herself. When Jim Fitzpatrick (actor, writer, producer) read Meant to Be and got to know Roslyn, he immediately saw the potential for taking the book from the page and stage to the big screen. He could easily see how the book could be turned into a powerful screenplay of an unforgettable love story between two ordinary young people who become extraordinary after being held captives by two different enemies, in two different parts of the world, in two different wars happening simultaneously. He couldn't help but marvel at how on top of surviving their years of captivity against all odds, these two brave survivors were brought together in the most amazing of circumstances to experience an enduring love that is rare to find at best. He understood that their story was undoubtedly "meant to be". Jim and Roslyn are co-writers and co-executive producers on this dynamic film project under Five Star Studios Inc. and Roslyn intends to make her acting debut in this epic film.