Franklin Role No Joke to Philadelphian : Career: The former industrial photographer not only looks like Ben, he makes a living being Ben during a full schedule of appearances.

Ralph Archbold has spent the past 17 years pretending to be somebody else. For the plump, long-haired, 48-year-old Philadelphian the charade is serious business.

Archbold is the quintessential Ben Franklin: He looks like Ben, dresses like Ben, talks like Ben and even has the same birthday, Jan. 17. He practically lives in his seven hand-stitched replicas of Franklin’s 18th-Century suits while making his way through a full schedule of appearances around the city.

Archbold also makes a living being Ben.

“I’m doing these things as a full-time career,” Archbold said in a recent interview. “I have a printing press made in the style of the 1600s, an armonica (musical instrument using glasses designed by Franklin), four bookcases full of reference books.

“You have actors who only have a costume,” he said.

Archbold does not consider himself an actor even though he’s acting out the Franklin character.

“I’m a speaker. I’m not an actor. As a speaker the important thing to me is not my performance. I do everything I can to make my importance as the message,” he said.

Archbold’s career as Franklin began in 1972 when the Detroit native, then a free-lance industrial photographer, was taking an adult school class in linguistics.

One day he poked his head inside the acting class next door and was asked to read one of the roles. That whetted his interest in acting and he spent the summer dressing as Franklin and speaking for 10 minutes every hour in Detroit in front of a replica of Independence Hall. That was just the beginning.

Archbold is particularly busy this year as Philadelphia celebrates the bicentennial of Franklin’s death with a yearlong series of programs, exhibits, lectures and more.

“This is my year. But this is my year in Philadelphia rather than around the country,” Archbold said. “Nineteen eighty-seven was a national celebration, so you did this in cities where they were interested in having an event.”

That year Archbold traveled around the country more frequently while Philadelphia and the nation marked the bicentennial of the signing of the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia.

On any given day, Archbold can be found around town--and beyond--with spectacles halfway down his nose, ruffled cuffs and calves in white stockings bulging out of his knee-length pants.

One recent day he visited four schools in Harrisburg and spoke at night to the Adhesive and Sealant Council meeting at the Franklin Institute.

The next day he posed for a series of photo opportunities and spoke to the Harleysville Insurance Co. meeting. He was so busy that day he had to decline a bit part in the TV series “thirtysomething.”

The show called for an actor to play Ben Franklin during filming of a fictitious public service announcement promoting Philadelphia.

Archbold said he handles 95% of the business in Philadelphia that calls for a Franklin impersonator.

“Generally we prefer to use Ralph Archbold because he plays Franklin full time,” R.C. Staub, a spokesman for the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, said.

“Other actors do a variety of acting. Ralph has been doing it for 17 years,” Staub said. “Others can learn a role and do certain parts, but he always is our first choice. He’s very convincing.”

When Archbold, who is divorced, isn’t playing Franklin, he does the laundry and cooks dinner for his two sons who live with him.

He has a marketing director but handles much of the business himself.

“I earn more in a year like this, but I also spend more,” Archbold said, declining to give his annual income. “My phone bill last month was close to $1,000. I had $5,000 in printing expenses. The expenses of marketing are high.”

Archbold said he has no intentions of shedding his Franklin persona and retreating to anonymity.

“I work a lot and would like to keep going. Sometimes I feel I want to scale down and cut back on operations, but I also want to serve the market,” he said.

And as far as anyone can tell, there will always be a market for Ben Franklin.