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John Frankenheimer's films have always reflected his views on important
social and philosophical topics. Birdman of Alcatraz and The Fixer
explore the indomitability of the human spirit. Seven Days In May
details the anatomy of a military coup. The Manchurian Candidate
is an indictment of the McCarthy era. The Train questions whether
a work of art is more important than human life. Black Sunday and
Year of the Gun confront one of the modern world's most distressing
dilemmas, international terrorism.
Frankenheimer's films also reveal the care and integrity with which he
composes each frame, his trademark mastery of the steadicam and dolly, and
his signature shot: wide-angle compositions in which actors fill both foreground
and background with tremendous depth and focus. Frankenheimer's cameras
have ridden on Grand Prix racing cars, trains and motorcycles; have been
knocked around in riots; and lingered over love scenes. He is equally adept
at intimate, psychological films, such as All Fall Down and The
Iceman Cometh, and action-oriented pictures, including Grand Prix,
Gypsy Moths, Black Sunday, Against the Wall and Andersonville.
Frankenheimer's first experiences in movie-making came in the Air Force,
when he directed documentaries while stationed in Burbank, California. In
1953, Frankenheimer talked his way into CBS in New York as an assistant
director. Starting with the weather and news, he soon worked his way onto
such shows as Person to Person, See It Now, Danger and You Are
There. Within a year and a half of his discharge from the Air Force,
Frankenheimer was one of the two directors of the weekly Climax!
dramatic series, and eventually helmed 42 episodes of the fabled Playhouse
90 anthology series.
Between Playhouse 90 and two other anthology showcases, Frankenheimer
directed 152 live television dramas between 1954 and 1960, averaging one
every two weeks. His work during this period includes The Last Tycoon
(starring Jack Palance), For Whom the Bell Tolls (Jason Robards,
Maureen Stapleton and Eli Wallach), The Comedian (Mickey Rooney,
Kim Stanley and Mel Torme), the original Days of Wine and Roses (Cliff
Robertson and Piper Laurie), Old Man (Geraldine Page and Sterling
Hayden), The Turn of the Screw (Ingrid Bergman), Face of a Hero
(Jack Lemmon) and The Browning Version, featuring Sir John Gielgud's
first television appearance. The Academy of Television Arts and Science
honored Frankenheimer with six consecutive Emmy® nominations during
this period, and Radio and Television Daily twice voted him Best
Director.
Frankenheimer turned to the feature screen full-time in 1956. It wasn't
until 1993 that he returned to his television roots, to direct Against
the Wall, which won him the Emmy® for Best Director. In 1994, he
directed and produced The Burning Season, winning a second Emmy®
for Best Director and three Golden Globes: Best Motion Picture for Television;
Best Actor, Raul Julia; and Best Supporting Actor, Edward James Olmos. He
won his third consecutive Best Director Emmy® for Andersonville
in 1996.
Also in 1996, the Museum of Modern Art and Museum of Television &
Radio in New York hosted, for the first time in their histories, a joint
retrospective of Frankenheimer's film and television work. The distinguished
film critic Charles Champlin authored Frankenheimer's professional biography,
John Frankenheimer: A Conversation With Charles Champlin. The book
was commissioned by the Director's Guild of America and published by Riverwood
Press in May 1995.
JOHN FRANKENHEIMER
FILMOGRAPHY
- The Young Stranger
- RKO, 1957
- James MacArthur, James Dailey, Kim Hunter
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- The Young Savages
- UA, 1961
- Burt Lancaster, Dina Merrill, Shelley Winters
- All Fall Down
- MGM, 1962
- Warren Beatty, Eva Marie Saint, Karl Malden, Angela Lansbury
- Birdman of Alcatraz
- UA, 1962
- Burt Lancaster, Karl Malden, Thelma Ritter, Edmond O'Brien, Neville
Brand,
- Telly Savalas
- The Manchurian Candidate
- UA, 1962
- Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Angela Lansbury, Janet Leigh
- Seven Days in May
- Paramount, 1964
- Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Fredric March, Ava Gardner, John Houseman
- The Train
- UA, 1965
- Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield, Jeanne Moreau
- Seconds
- Paramount, 1966
- Rock Hudson, Salome Jens, John Randolph, Will Geer, Jeff Corey, Murray
Hamilton
- Grand Prix
- MGM, 1966
- James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves Montand, Toshiro Mifune, Jessica
Walter
- The Extraordinary Seaman
- MGM, 1967
- David Niven, Faye Dunaway, Alan Alda, Mickey Rooney
- The Fixer
- MGM, 1968
- Alan Bates, Dirk Bogarde, Ian Holm, David Warner
- The Gypsy Moths
- MGM, 1969
- Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Gene Hackman, Scott Wilson, Bonnie Bedelia
- I Walk The Line
- Columbia, 1970
- Gregory Peck, Tuesday Weld, Estelle Parsons, Ralph Meeker
- The Horseman
- Columbia, 1971
- Omar Shariff, Leigh Taylor-Young, Jack Palance
- Impossible Object
- Valoria, 1973
- Alan Bates, Dominique Sanda, Evans Evans
- The Iceman Cometh
- Aft Distribution, 1973
- Lee Marvin, Fredric March, Robert Ryan, Jeff Bridges, Evans Evans,
Moses Gunn,
- Bradford Dillion
- 99 and 44/100% Dead
- 20th Century-Fox, 1974
- Richard Harris, Chuck Connors, Edmond O'Brien
- French Connection II
- 20th Century-Fox, 1975
- Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, Bernard Fresson
- Black Sunday
- Paramount, 1976
- Robert Shaw, Bruce Dern, Marthe Keller, Fritz Weaver
- Prophecy
- Paramount, 1979
- Talia Shire, Robert Foxworth, Armand Assante
- The Challenge
- Embassy, 1982
- Scott Glenn, Toshiro Mifune, Atsuo Nakamura
- The Holcroft Covenant
- Universal, 1985
- Michael Caine, Anthony Andrews, Victoria Tennant, Lilli Palmer, Michael
Lonsdale
- 52 Pick-Up
- Cannon Group, 1986
- Roy Scheider, Ann-Margret, John Glover, Kelly Preston, Clarence Williams
III
- Dead Bang
- Warner Bros., 1988
- Don Johnson, Penelope Ann Miller, William Forsythe, Bob Balaban
- The Fourth War
- New Age Release, 1989
- Roy Scheider, Jurgen Prochnow, Tim Reid, Harry Dean Stanton
- The Year of the Gun
- Triumph Releasing, 1991
- Andrew McCarthy, Valeria Golino, Sharon Stone
- Against the Wall
- HBO Pictures, 1993
- Kyle MacLachlan, Samuel L. Jackson, Clarence Williams III, Frederic
Forrest,
- Harry Dean Stanton, Anne Heche
- The Burning Season
- HBO Pictures, 1994
- Raul Julia, Edward James Olmos, Sonia Braga Kamala Dawson, Nigel Havers
- Esai Morales, Tony Plana
- Andersonville
- TNT Original Films, 1996
- Jarrod Emick, Frederic Forrest, Cliff DeYoung, William Macy,
- Justin Henry, Jan Triska
- The Island of Dr. Moreau
- New Line Cinema, 1996
- Val Kilmer, Marlon Brando
- George Wallace
- TNT Original Films, 1997
- Gary Sinise, Mare Winningham, Angelina Jolie, Clarence Williams III
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