He is best remembered for playing the character of Batty Brennan for 10 years in Ireland's first TV soap, The Riordans.
[1] He was born in Dublin, Ireland to a family interested in amateur dramatics, which included his brother Harry O'Donovan.
In the 1940s he set up his own acting company and for years toured Ireland and England with the "Frank O'Donovan Show" or the "Dublin Follies".
In 1940 he recorded "The Road by the River" which was later covered by many singers in Ireland, including Margo O'Donnell who had a hit with it in 1968, and T.R.
He appeared in the films Murder in Eden (1961), Johnny Nobody (1961), The Quare Fellow (adaptation of Brendan Behan's play, 1962) and Flight of the Doves (1971).