John Frankenheimer Biography (1930-2002)



Full name, John Michael Frankenheimer; born February 19, 1930, in Malba, NY;died of a stroke, July 6, 2002, in Los Angeles, CA. Director and producer. Frankenheimer's long and active career began in television. After leaving the film unit of the U.S. Air Force, Frankenheimer secured an assistant director position at CBS in New York. His first television directing job was an episodeof the series You Are There in 1954. Frankenheimer moved to California in 1954 and continued his affiliation with CBS, directing episodes of Climax! and Playhouse 90, including such well received live dramas as "The Last Tycoon," "For Whom the Bell Tolls," and "The Turn of the Screw."Frankenheimer made his feature film directing debut in 1956 with The YoungStranger. Before his second feature, The Young Savages in 1961, Frankenheimer tried his hand at stage work, directing the Broadway productionof The Midnight Sun in 1959. Frankenheimer began a successful collaboration with actor Burt Lancaster beginning with The Young Savages. Other films with Lancaster included Seven Days in May, The Birdman of Alcatraz, The Train, and Grand Prix and established Frankenheimer as a successful action director. In 1962 Frankenheimer directed and coproduced critically acclaimed film The Manchurian Candidate, a suspensefilm set during the Cold War. Though Frankenheimer worked continuously throughout the late 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, he had more failures (e.g., BlackSunday) than successes (such as French Connection II), and he found his demand in the entertainment industry wane. In the early 1990s, however,Frankenheimer's career caught a second wave when he began working with cabletelevision network HBO. After directing an episode of the series Tales from the Crypt in 1992, he directed the HBO movie Against the Wall,a tale about the 1971 Attica prison revolt, in 1994. Frankenheimer won his first Emmy Award for Against the Wall. He quickly followed up with HBO movie The Burning Season, which he also produced and which garnered hima second Emmy Award for directing. Frankenheimer won a third Emmy Award fordirecting the miniseries Andersonville and a fourth for the miniseriesGeorge Wallace. He then returned to the big screen in 1998 with the action picture Ronin, a box office success. Frankenheimer's final worksincluded the action film Reindeer Games in 2000 and a prequel to The Exorcist, filmed in 2002 and still unreleased at the time of his death.

Nationality
American
Gender
Male
Occupation
director, producer
Birth Details
February 19, 1930
Malba, New York, United States
Death Details
July 6, 2002
Los Angeles, California, United States

Further Reference

Periodicals



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