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Frank Capra

Frank Capra 1897-1991, an American film director, author of some highly popular films.

Born in Bisacquino, Sicily (Italy), Capra moved with his family to America in 1903, settling in Los Angeles, where he graduated from Throop College of Technology (later CalTech). In 1930 Capra went to work for Mack Sennett and then Columbia where he formed a close association with (writer) Robert Riskin and (cameraman) Joseph MacDonald, although in 1940 Sidney Buchman replaced Riskin as writer.

After the Oscar winning romantic comedy It Happened One Night he produced a steady stream of films intended to be inspirational and humanitarian - the three best known are Mr. Deeds Goes To Town, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and It's a Wonderful Life.

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 (1945), Tunisian Victory (1945) and Two Down and One to Go (1945). His work for the Why We Fight series at this time is widely considered a masterpiece of propaganda, surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will: Capra was faced with the task of convincing an isolationist nation of the need to become involved in the war, desegregate the troops, and ally with the Russians, among other things.

Capra's film It's a Wonderful Life was the first film for Jimmy Stewart after his service in World War Two. The film is often shown on television on Christmas Day, and taken as a sacharine valentine to traditional America. It is much more than that: a look at the pettiness, incompetence and bullying of small-town life. It is also an almost frightening portrait of a depressive man (played by Jimmy Stewart) with suicidal wishes. The fact that that tone is ignored in the public perception speaks to Capra's talent in creating this dismal story, then throwing the hero into an alternative world nightmare and shattering it with a blast of pure joy and love at the end.

In 1971, Capra published his autobiography, The Name Above the Title. Thought unreliable in its details, it offers a compelling self-portrait.

Capra was also the subject of a 1991 biography by Joseph McBride entitled Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success. McBride corrects many of the impressions left by Capra's autobiography.

Capra won an Academy Award for Directing in 1934 for It Happened One Night, in 1936 for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, and in 1938 for You Can't Take It with You; It Happened One Night and You Can't Take It with You also won an Academy Award for Best Picture.

Frank Capra died in 1991 and was interred in the Coachella Valley Cemetery, Coachella, California.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2003.

Frank Capra Facts

OccupationDirector
BirthdayMay 18, 1897
SignTaurus
BirthplaceBisacquino, Sicily, Italy
Date of deathSeptember 3, 1991 (La Quinta, California, USA, age 94)
Height5' 7" (1m70)  How tall is Frank Capra compared to you?
Awards1947 Golden Globe Awards: Best Director - Motion Picture (for It's a Wonderful Life)
1939 Academy Awards: Best Director (for You Can't Take It with You)
1937 Academy Awards: Best Director (for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town)
1935 Academy Awards: Best Director (for It Happened One Night)

Selected Filmography

History Rediscovered: Prelude to War
Arsenic and Old Lace
History Rediscovered: The Battle of China
Battle of Russia
The John Ford Story
Attack the Battle For new Britain
Battle of Britain
It's a Wonderful Life
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Continue » Find more details on the Frank Capra Movies page