-Was born in Sicily
-His last name, "Capra," was translated "She-goat" to show his families relationship with the land.
-He was Catholic.
-Immigrated to the US in 1903 when he was six.
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| Frank & his wife Lucielle with one of their Sons |
-Graduated from High School, and attended the California Institute of Technology.
-Studied Chemical Engineering and graduated in the spring of 1918.
-Enlisted in the army as a Second Lieutenant during WWI.
-Became a naturalized U.S. Citizen in 1920.
-Around this time he suffered from an undiagnosed burst appendix.
-Hopped freight trains for a few years.
-He married actress Helen Howell in 1923 but they divorced in 1928.
-Married once again to Lucielle Warner in 1928, of which, they had a daughter and three sons.
DIRECTING
-Wrote scripts for the Silent Star Comedian Harry Langdon.
-Started his life-long partnership with Harry Cohn and his studio, Columbia Pictures, in 1928.
-Later in life Capra would only make one MGM movie whis was an unsuccessful "State of the Union" in 1948.
-His adaptation to the new sound pictures was as a direct result of his College degree.
-It was said of him by Cohn as his films were released, "It was the beginning of Columbia making a better quality of pictures"
-His salary was raised from $1k a movie to $25k per year.
-His first real sound picture was "The Younger Generation" in 1929.
-Some have stated that this picture was close resemblance to Capra's own life as an immigrant, of which, Capra denied.
-His favorite screenwriter was Robert Riskin, of which, most of the wise-cracking and sharp dialogue came from in Capras films.
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| "It Happened One Night" Oscars |
-"It Happened One Night" was the first to win all five of the top Oscars; Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay. (This was not repeated until 1975 with "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest).
-After his success and the making of "Broadway Bill" he conceived the new dimension of conveying a message to the public through his films.
-"Mr. Deeds Goes To Town" and "You Can't Take It With You" also won him the Best Director Oscars totaling in the only three he would receive.
-He received three nominations for Best Director:
-"Lady For a Day" won out by Frank Lloyd's "Cavalcade"
-"Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" won out by Victor Flemming's "Gone With the Wind"
-"It's a Wonderful Life" won out by William Wyler's "The Best Years of Our Lives"
MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON
-The U.S. Senate voted 96-0 on having the film, "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" removed from public distribution.
-Capra himself questioned whether or not to release a "political" movie as WWII began, but realized it was rather a movie about America's democratic ideals.
-Harry Cohn paralleled his concern on releasing this film to the feelings of Abraham's who was asked to sacrifice his son Isaac.
-Nominated for 11 Academy Awards but only winning two, was unfortunately contributed to the other releases in the year; "Gone with the Wind" & "The Wizard of Oz."
-Before France became occupied by the Nazi's they chose this film as their favorite stating it as the film that most expressed the "perseverance of democracy and the American way."
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| Distinguished Service Medal presented by General Marshal |
-Film author Richard Glazer speculated that John in "Meet John Doe" was an expression of Capra's rise from drifting to a national figure.
-On Dec. 11th 1941 after Pearl Harbor Capra quit directing and enlisted in the Army for the second time at age 44.
-Capra said of this; "I had a guilty conscience. In my films I championed the cause of the gentle, the poor, the downtrodden. Yet I had begun to like the Aga Khan. The curse of Hollywood is big money.
-He was assigned to work directly under Chief of Staff George C. Marshall on directing War Documentaries.
-Footage used came from military and government sources and many newsreels secretly found from enemy sources.
-Walt Disney aided with animated charts and many famous Hollywood composers like Alfred Newman and Dimitri Tiomkin created the background music.
-Winston Churchill ordered that all of them be shown to the British public in theaters.
-After his career ended, Capra regarded these films as his most important work.
-As a Colonel he received the Distinguished Service Medal in 1945.
AFTER THE WAR
-Capra along with William Wyler and George Stevens founded "Liberty Films" which only had on completed film, "It's a Wonderful Life."
-As a box office disappointment it still was nominated for five Academy Awards.
-The movie has been listed by "The American Film Institute" as one of the top 100 films of all time.
-He was sent to India to combat the Communist films and defend the right of Free Enterprise.
-On his return Secretary of State Dean Acheson commended Capra for "virtually single-handily forestalling a possible Communist take-over in Indian films."
WINDS OF CHANGE
-In the 1950's his ideas that had been popular to depression-era and pre-war audiences, became less popular to the prospering post-war Americans.
-Directed two more films with Paramount; "Riding High" in 1950 and "Here Comes the Groom: in 1951.
-Though Capra was not called to testify by the HUAC he was still a prime target because of his past associations with blacklisted screenwriters.
-He said of this time; "The winds of change blew through the dream factories of make-believe... The hedonists, the homosexuals, the hemophiliac bleeding hearts, the God-haters, the quick-buck artists who substituted shock for talent, all cried: 'shake 'em! Rattle 'em! God is dead. Long live pleasure! Nudity? Yea! Wife-swapping? Yea! Liberate the world from prudery. Emancipate our films from morality!'"
-He re-enlisted a third time at age 53 when the Korean war broke out, but was rejected for his age.
-Retired from Hollywood in 1952 at the age of 55.
-Another of his last pictures was "Pocketful of Miracles" made in 1961 which was a remake of his earlier film in 1933 "Lady for a Day."
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| Frank Capra with Jimmy Stewart |
-Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty by vote, declared May 12th 1962 as "Frank Capra Day"
-On this occasion John Ford announced that Capra had also received the Order of the British Empire by the recommendation of Churchill.
-In 1982 he received the AFI Life Achievement Award.
-In 1986 he also received the National Medal of Arts.
-He Died of a heart attack in his sleep at age 94 in 1991.
-He was buried at the Coachella Valley Public Cemetery in Coachella, California.
All of these above were facts on Capra's life I was unaware of until now. How touched I am by his heroism and American ideals that he so powerfully expressed on films and through-out his life. I am sure that I have missed quite a few and would appreciate your comments to add to this list.
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