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Frank Russell Capra (May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991) was an American
film director and a creative force behind a number of films of the 1930s and 1940s, including
It Happened One Night (1934),
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936),
Lost Horizon (1937),
You Can't Take It With You (1938),
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939),
Meet John Doe (1941),
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) and
It's a Wonderful Life (1946).
Early life
Born
Francesco Rosario Capra in
Bisacquino,
Sicily, Italy, Capra and his family—his father Salvatore, his mother Rosaria Nicolosi, and his siblings Giuseppa, Giuseppe, and Antonia—
immigrated to the United States in 1903.
In
California the family met with Benedetto Capra (the oldest sibling) and settled in
Los Angeles. Frank Capra attended
Manual Arts High School there. In 1918, Frank Capra graduated from Throop Institute (now the
California Institute of Technology) with a
Bachelor of Science degree in
chemical engineering.
During
World War I, Capra enlisted in the
United States Army on October 18, 1918. He taught
ballistics and
mathematics to artillerymen at Fort Winfield Scott in the
Presidio of San Francisco. While there, he caught
Spanish flu and was medically discharged with rank of
second lieutenant on December 13, 1918.
He became a
naturalized U.S. citizen in 1920, adopting the name
Frank Russell Capra.
Film career
Capra began as a
prop man in
silent films.
[ Capra 1971, pp. 17, 20.] However, he wrote and directed silent film comedies starring
Harry Langdon and the
Our Gang kids. Capra went to work for
Mack Sennett in 1924 and then moved to
Columbia Pictures, where he formed a close association with screenwriter
Robert Riskin (husband of
Fay Wray) and cameraman
Joseph Walker. However,
Sidney Buchman replaced Riskin as writer in 1940.
For the 1934 film
It Happened One Night,
Robert Montgomery and
Myrna Loy were originally offered the roles, but each felt that the script was poor, and Loy described it as one of the worst she had ever read, later noting that the final version bore little resemblance to the script she and Montgomery were offered.
[Kotsabilas-Davis and Loy 1987, p. 94.] After Loy,
Miriam Hopkins and
Margaret Sullavan also each rejected the part.
[Wiley and Bona 1987, p. 54.] Constance Bennett wanted to, but only if she could produce it herself. Then
Bette Davis wanted the role,
[Weems, Erik. "It Happened One Night - Frank Capra." Updated June 22, 2006.] but she was under contract with
Warner Brothers and
Jack Warner refused to loan her to Columbia Studios.
[Chandler 2006, p. 102.] Capra was unable to get any of the actresses he wanted for the part of Ellie Andrews, partly because no self-respecting star would make a film with only two costumes.
[moviediva: It HappenedOneNight] Harry Cohn suggested
Claudette Colbert to play the lead role. Both Capra and
Clark Gable enjoyed making the movie; Colbert did not. After the 1934 film
It Happened One Night, Capra directed a steady stream of films for Columbia Pictures, intended to be inspirational and humanitarian.
The best known of Capra's films are
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, the original
Lost Horizon,
You Can't Take It with You,
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and
It's a Wonderful Life. His ten-year break from screwball comedy ended with the comedy
Arsenic and Old Lace. Among the actors who owed much of their early success to Capra were
Gary Cooper,
Jean Arthur,
James Stewart,
Barbara Stanwyck,
Cary Grant and
Donna Reed. Capra called Jean Arthur "
[1] favorite actress".
Capra's films in the 1930s enjoyed 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; in 1938 he won his third Director Oscar in five years for
You Can't Take It with You, which also won Best Picture. In addition to his three directing wins, Capra received directing nominations for three other films (
Lady for a Day,
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and
It's a Wonderful Life). On May 5, 1936, Capra was also host of the
8th Academy Awards ceremony.
World War II
Frank Capra was commissioned as a
major in the
United States Army Signal Corps during
World War II. He produced
State of the Union and directed or co-directed eight documentary
propaganda films between 1942 and 1948, including the seven-episode U.S. government-commissioned
Why We Fight series—consisting of
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)—as well as produced the African-American targeted
The Negro Soldier (1944).
Why We Fight is widely considered a masterpiece of
propaganda and won an Academy Award.
Prelude to War won the 1942
Academy Award for Documentary Feature. Capra regarded these films as his most important works. As a
colonel, he received the
Distinguished Service Medal in 1945.
Post-war
[
A Wonderful Life.jpg|thumb|right|250px|[[Donna Reed],
James Stewart, and
Karolyn Grimes in
It's a Wonderful Life]] (1946).
It's a Wonderful Life (1946) was considered a box office disappointment but it was nominated for the
Academy Awards for
Best Director,
Best Picture,
Best Actor,
Best Sound Recording and
Best Editing. 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... 100 Cheers, a list of what AFI considers to be the most inspirational American movies of all time. The film also appeared in another AFI Top 100 list: it placed at 11th on
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies list of the top American films.
Capra directed two films at
Paramount Pictures starring
Bing Crosby,
Riding High (1950) and
Here Comes the Groom (1951). It was eight years before he directed another theatrical film,
A Hole in the Head with
Frank Sinatra, which was his first film in color.
Capra's final theatrical film was with
Glenn Ford and
Bette Davis, named
Pocketful of Miracles (1961). He planned to do a
science fiction film later in the decade but never got around to pre-production. Capra produced several science-related television specials in color for the
Bell Labs, such as
Our Mr. Sun (1956),
Hemo the Magnificent (1957),
The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays (1957), and
Meteora: The Unchained Goddess (1958). These educational science documentaries were popular favorites for showing in school science classrooms.
In 1982, the
American Film Institute honored Frank Capra with television film
The American Film Institute Salute to Frank Capra, hosted by Jimmy Stewart. In 1986, Capra received the
National Medal of Arts.
Autobiography
In 1971, Capra published his autobiography,
The Name Above the Title. Uncompromising in its details, it offers a compelling self-portrait. It is, however, not considered to be entirely reliable as regards dates and facts; one commentator asserts that it "appears to have been a lie practically from beginning to end".
[Gewen 1992]
Capra was also the subject of a 1991 biography by Joseph McBride entitled
Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success. McBride challenges many of the impressions left by Capra's autobiography.
Personal life
Capra was a
Republican who was active in the
anti-Communist cause and also donated funds to the
Human Life Amendment PAC
[Political Donations.].
His son
Frank Capra, Jr. — one of the four children born to Capra's second wife, Lou Capra — was the president of
EUE Screen Gems Studios, in
Wilmington, North Carolina, until his death on December 19, 2007. Frank Capra's grandson is
Frank Capra III. Frank Capra Sr's eldest of 11 great grandchildren, Hannah, was born in 1993.
Death and legacy
Frank Capra died in
La Quinta, California, of a
heart attack in his sleep in 1991 at the age of 94. He was interred in the Coachella Valley Cemetery in
Coachella, California.
He left part of his ranch in
Fallbrook, California, to
Caltech.
[The Caltech Y History] The Cinema Archives, run by film historian
Jeanine Basinger, at
Wesleyan University contain the personal papers of Capra.
Style
Capra films usually carry a definite message about the basic goodness of human nature and show the value of unselfishness and hard work. His wholesome, feel-good themes have led some to call his
Capra-corn, but those who hold his vision in high regard prefer the term
Capraesque. It may be argued that much of the 'feel-good' type of cinema, which has become a genre of its own, is largely Frank Capra's legacy.
Awards and honours
Academy Awards
Capra was nominated six times for Best Director and six times for Outstanding Production/Best Picture. Out of six nominations for Best Director, Capra received the award three times. Tied with
William Wyler, he has recieved the second highest number of Best Director awards in Academy Awards history, behind John Ford, who received four Oscars for directing.
American Film Institute
Directors Guild of America
Golden Globe Award
Venice Film Festival
American Film Institute recognition
United States National Film Registry
Filmography
See also
