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Who Is Franklin Saint Based On? Franklin Saint Real Life

The FX crime series 'Snowfall' is a realistic portrayal of the 1980s Los Angeles drug scene, with Franklin Saint emerging as the young kingpin. Franklin begins as a marijuana distributor for his uncle Jerome Saint, but soon discovers the potential of crack cocaine. He then forms a partnership with CIA agent Theodore "Teddy" McDonald, who provides him with cocaine in exchange for money to finance the fight against communism in Nicaragua. 

Viewers may be curious if the main character is based on a true person - while the show is highly realistic, there is no evidence that this is the case.

#1. Who Is Franklin Saint Based on?


Source: USA Today


John Singleton, Eric Amadio, and Dave Andron have not revealed if Franklin Saint is based on a real person. However, Singleton drew on his own experiences growing up in Los Angeles to craft the protagonist. While attending the ATX Festival in 2017, he stated that the show is "kind of like my formative years". He noticed the differences between his friends and family in South Central and his schoolmates in the Valley, which inspired him to create the series many years later.

“Kids from the ghetto smoked weed and my friends from junior and high school did coke. But this is before crack, so it was an interesting thing to see how the transition was where that drug was accessible to people in the ‘hood,” Singleton added about the foundation of the series. Singleton and his team explored the same through Franklin. Several storylines are allegedly true, apparently including the CIA operating illegally within the United States. Singleton and other writers relied on first-hand accounts to conceive the same storyline. Through the fictional Franklin, the creative heads of the series manage to connect the reality and fiction that form the narrative of ‘Snowfall.’

Source: The Direct


Franklin can be considered a fictional tragic hero conceived to narrate the tale of the crack-cocaine epidemic that happened in Los Angeles in the 1980s. “It’s an untold story. It’s the story about how cocaine changed Los Angeles. There’s a whole kind of oral history, folk tale about this era. And no one has dramatized it. I wanted to do that. It’s a nostalgic show. But very, very edgy,” Singleton told Los Angeles Times. Since a protagonist figure helps the writers of the series to drive the narrative forward with an emotional attachment with the audience, Singleton and others must have created Franklin to represent the distinct individuals who were a part of the real-life drug empire of the time.

#2. Is Snowfall’s Franklin Saint Based on a Real Person?


Source: Page Six


One of the real-life figures who share unignorable similarities to Franklin is Ricky “Freeway Rick” Ross. Rick managed to build a drug empire in Los Angeles in the 1980s. The convicted drug trafficker even accused Singleton of stealing his life story to create Franklin Saint and his saga. “And all of a sudden, Snowfall came out. I was very disappointed in John. I thought that he was different,” Rick said while appearing on Lord Jamar’s ‘Yanadameen Godcast.’ In the podcast, Rick revealed that he had dealings with Nicaraguan rebel operatives who were funded by the United States government. Singleton, however, couldn’t confirm Rick’s claims since he died on April 28, 2019.

Since Rick did build a crack cocaine empire in Los Angeles during the exact period ‘Snowfall’ is set, one may not be able to completely disregard his claims. Still, Franklin isn’t a fictionalized version of Rick since the two of them share several differences. Ultimately, Franklin can be identified as a fictional character with parallels between real-life figures.

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