Film director, born in Palermo, Sicily. His family moved to California when he was six, and he began to earn money by selling newspapers, playing the banjo, and doing odd jobs. After receiving a degree in chemical engineering at the California Institute of Technology (1918), he joined the army as a private. Discharged as a lieutenant, he held a variety of jobs until he talked his way into directing a short film, Fultah Fisher's Boarding House (1922), in San Francisco. He spent time learning the film business, and then became a joke writer for Our Gang comedies and for the comedian Harry Langdon. He also directed a number of Langdon films and short comedies. His work as a director frequently celebrated the decency and integrity of the common man as he combats corruption in high places, and he earned Oscars for It Happened One Night (1934), Mr Deeds Goes to Town (1936), and You Can't Take It With You (1938). The film that eventually became his most popular, It's A Wonderful Life (1947), did not receive any special attention at its initial release.
Frank Capra (May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991) was an Academy Award winning Italian-American film director and a major creative force behind a number of highly popular films of the 1930s and 1940s, including the classics It's a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, among others.
Early life
Born Francesco Rosario Capra in Bisacquino, Sicily, Capra moved to the United States in 1903 with his father Salvatore, his mother Rosaria Nicolosi and his siblings Giuseppa, Giuseppe, and Antonia. In California they met up with Benedetto Capra, (the oldest sibling) and settled in Los Angeles, California, where Frank Capra graduated from Throop Institute (later renamed the California Institute of Technology) with a B.S.
Career
Like other prominent directors of the thirties and forties, Capra began his career in silent films, notably by directing and writing silent film comedies starring Harry Langdon and the Our Gang kids.
After the 1934 Oscar winning romantic comedy It Happened One Night, which also won best acting awards for Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, Capra directed a steady stream of films for Columbia intended to be inspirational and humanitarian.
Capra`s films in the 1930`s enjoyed great success at the Academy Awards. It Happened One Night was the first film to win all five top oscars, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay. In 1936 Capra won his second Best Director oscar for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and in 1938 he won his third Best Director oscar in just five years for You Can't Take It with You which also won Best Picture.
Between 1942 and 1948, when he produced State of the Union, Capra also directed or co-directed eight war documentaries including Prelude to War (1942), The Nazis Strike (1942), The Battle of Britain (1943), Divide and Conquer (1943), Know Your Enemy Japan (1945), Tunisian Victory (1945) and Two Down and One to Go (1945).
It's a Wonderful Life (1946) is perhaps Capra's most widely known and long-lasting film to date.
Even though the copyright on the film itself lapsed, it was still protected by virtue of it being a derivative work of all the other copyrighted material used to produce the film such as the script, music, etc. As a result, the film is no longer shown as much on television (NBC is currently the only one licensed to show the film on U.S. network television).
The American Film Institute named it one of the best films ever made, putting it at the top of the list of AFI's 100 Years...
Capra's final theatrical film was 1961's Pocketful of Miracles, with Glenn Ford and Bette Davis.
Capra films usually carry a definite message about the basic goodness of human nature and show the value of unselfishness and hard work.
Capra in the media
In 1971, Capra published his autobiography, The Name Above the Title.
Capra was also the subject of a 1991 biography by Joseph McBride entitled Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success.
Death and legacy
Frank Capra died in La Quinta, California of a heart attack in his sleep in 1991 at the age of 94.
His son Frank Capra, Jr. - one of the three children born to Capra's second wife, Lou Capra - is president of Screen Gems, in Wilmington, North Carolina. Frank Capra's grandson is Frank Capra III.
User Comments Add a comment…