In 1889, leaving New York's Casino Theatre, he made his appearance as a star in The Oolah.

Plays in which he starred subsequently include The Merry Monarch (1890); The Lion Tamer (1891); The Little Corporal (1898); The Strollers (1901); The Little Father of the Wilderness (1905); 'nd The Bachelor's Baby (1909), which he also wrote.

He was the author of Joseph Jefferson: Reminiscences of a Fellow Player (1906), The Eugene Field I Knew (1898), Francis Wilson's Life of Himself (1924), and John Wilkes Booth: Fact and Fiction of Lincoln's Assassination (1929), written with information from his close friend Edwin Booth.

In 1935, the first president of Actors Equity, Francis Wilson, a winter resident in Clearwater, convinced a friend, Mary Curtis Bok (later Zimbalist,) to contribute $5,000 for the construction of a permanent home for the Clearwater Players.

Mrs. Bok agreed to the contribution on the condition that the Theater would be named after Francis Wilson, who at that time was the premier actor of the New York stage.