John Michael Frankenheimer (February 19, 1930 – July 6, 2002) was an American film and television director known for social dramas. He won four consecutive Emmy Awards in the 1990s for the television movies Against the Wall, The Burning Season, Andersonville and George Wallace, which also received a Golden Globe award. He was considered one of the last remaining directors who insisted on having complete control over all elements of production, making his style unique in Hollywood.
His 30 feature films and over 50 plays for television were notable for their influence on contemporary thought. He became a pioneer of the “modern-day political thriller,” having begun his career at the peak of the Cold War. Many of his films were noted for creating “psychological dilemmas” for his male protagonists along with having a strong “sense of environment,” similar in style to films by director Sidney Lumet, for whom he had earlier worked as assistant director. He developed a “tremendous propensity for exploring political situations” which would ensnare his characters.
Movie critic Leonard Maltin writes that “in his time [1960s]… Frankenheimer worked with the top writers, producers and actors in a series of films that dealt with issues that were just on top of the moment—things that were facing us all.” Among his credits were The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Birdman of Alcatraz (also 1962), The Train, (1964), Seven Days in May (also 1964) and Ronin (1998).
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John Frankenheimer Biography / Wiki
| Name | John Frankenheimer |
| Also Know | |
| Gender | Male |
| Known For | Directing |
| Place of Birth | New York City, New York, USA |
| Date of Birth | 1930-02-19 |
| Age(as in 2022) | 72 |
| Deathday | 2002-07-06 |
John Frankenheimer Acting Movies
| Movie Name | Character | Release Date | Overview |
| Jazz Seen | Self | 2001-10-06 | “Jazz Seen” is an exploration of the life of William Claxton, whose photographs turned the world of jazz on its keen and perceptive ear. Various jazz … |
| Yul Brynner: The Man Who Was King | Self | 1995-01-01 | There is only one Yul Brynner. No other actor had his looks, his range of talents, his energy, and his capacity to draw others into the spell of his c… |
| Steve McQueen: The Lost Movie | Himself | 2021-01-01 | The story of the abandoned production of ‘Day of the Champion’, a movie about Formula 1 which was set to film in 1966…. |
| Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans | Himself (Archival Footage) | 2015-05-16 | Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans interweaves stunning newly discovered footage and voice recordings with original interviews. It is the true story of … |
| Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s “Island of Dr. Moreau†| Himself (archive footage) | 2014-08-24 | The story of the insane scandals related to the remake of “Island of Dr. Moreau†—originally a novel by H. G. Wells—, which was brought to the… |
| Val | Self (archive footage) | 2021-07-23 | For over 40 years Val Kilmer, one of Hollywood’s most mercurial and/or misunderstood actors has been documenting his own life and craft through film… |
John Frankenheimer Directing Movies
| Movie Name | Job | Release Date | Overview |
| Birdman of Alcatraz | Director | 1962-07-04 | After killing a prison guard, convict Robert Stroud faces life imprisonment in solitary confinement. Driven nearly mad by loneliness and despair, Stro… |
| The Manchurian Candidate | Director | 1962-10-01 | Near the end of the Korean War, a platoon of U.S. soldiers is captured by communists and brainwashed. Following the war, the platoon is returned home,… |
| Reindeer Games | Director | 2000-02-25 | After assuming his dead cellmate’s identity to get with his girlfriend, an ex-con finds himself the reluctant participant in a casino heist…. |
| The Train | Director | 1964-09-24 | As the Allied forces approach Paris in August 1944, German Colonel Von Waldheim is desperate to take all of France’s greatest paintings to Germany. He… |
| French Connection II | Director | 1975-05-18 | “Popeye” Doyle travels to Marseilles to find Alain Charnier, the drug smuggler that eluded him in New York…. |
| Grand Prix | Director | 1966-12-21 | The story tells about the confrontation of four first-class racers of Formula 1. Each of the competitors had their own additional motivation to becom… |
| Dead Bang | Director | 1989-03-24 | Los Angeles homicide detective Jerry Beck searches for the murderer who killed a police officer on Christmas Eve. The investigation takes Beck inside … |
| Seconds | Director | 1966-10-05 | A secret organisation offers wealthy people a second chance at life. The customer picks out someone they want to be and the organisation surgically al… |
| Andersonville | Director | 1996-03-03 | This lengthy docudrama records the harrowing conditions at the Confederacy’s most notorious prisoner-of-war camp. The drama unfolds through the eyes o… |
| Path to War | Director | 2003-10-28 | A powerful drama of soaring ambition and shattered dreams that takes a provocative insider’s look at the way the USA goes to war—as seen from inside… |
| Seven Days in May | Director | 1964-02-01 | A U.S. Army colonel alerts the president of a planned military coup against him…. |
| Ronin | Director | 1998-09-25 | A briefcase with undisclosed contents – sought by Irish terrorists and the Russian mob – makes its way into criminals’ hands. An Irish liaison ass… |
| Against the Wall | Director | 1994-03-26 | In 1971, a warden at Attica Penitentiary is caught up in a hostage crisis when inmates take over the prison to demand better living conditions…. |
| Prophecy | Director | 1979-06-15 | When a dispute occurs between a logging operation and a nearby Native American tribe, Dr. Robert Verne and his wife, Maggie, are sent in to mediate. C… |
| Year of the Gun | Director | 1991-09-10 | In this thriller, American novelist David Raybourne (Andrew McCarthy) accidentally becomes entangled in the Red Brigade’s terrorist plan to kidnap Ita… |
| The Island of Dr. Moreau | Director | 1996-08-23 | A shipwrecked sailor stumbles upon a mysterious island and is shocked to discover that a brilliant scientist and his lab assistant have found a way to… |
| The Holcroft Covenant | Director | 1985-09-20 | A man who was a confidant of Adolf Hitler dies and leaves a fortune to make amends for his Nazi past—but his son has to search the world to find it…. |
| The Iceman Cometh | Director | 1973-11-10 | Set in 1912, inside a dive bar named The Last Chance Saloon, its destitute patrons eagerly await the arrival of Hickey, who arrives annually and props… |
| George Wallace | Director | 1997-08-24 | George Wallace is a 1997 television film starring Gary Sinise as George Wallace, the former Governor of Alabama. It was directed by John Frankenheimer… |
| Ambush | Director | 2001-01-01 | While escorting an elderly man to an undisclosed location, The Driver is confronted by a van full of armed men and is warned that the old man has stol… |
| The Gypsy Moths | Director | 1969-08-29 | Three skydivers and their travelling thrill show barnstorm through a small midwestern town one Fourth of July weekend…. |
| The Challenge | Director | 1982-07-23 | Rick, a down-and-out American boxer, is hired to transport a sword to Japan, unaware that the whole thing is a set up in a bitter blood-feud between t… |
| 52 Pick-Up | Director | 1986-11-07 | Harry Mitchell is a successful Los Angeles manufacturer whose wife is running for city council. His life is turned upside down when three blackmailers… |
| The Horsemen | Director | 1971-08-16 | In the poor, desolate northern provinces of the mountainous feudal Sunni kingdom of Afghanistan (before the Soviet-engineered republican revolutions),… |
| Black Sunday | Director | 1977-03-11 | An Israeli anti-terrorist agent must stop a disgruntled Vietnam vet cooperating in a Black September PLO plot to commit a terrorist attack at the Supe… |
| The Fourth War | Director | 1990-03-08 | Cold War drama about two gung-ho border commanders (Roy Scheider, Jurgen Prochnow) who carry out their own private war against each other on the Germa… |
| 99 and 44/100% Dead | Director | 1974-08-29 | Uncle Frank Kelly calls on Harry Crown to help him in a gang war. The war becomes personal when Harry’s new girlfriend is kidnapped by Uncle Frank’s e… |
| I Walk the Line | Director | 1970-11-18 | Henry Tawes, a middle-aged sheriff in a rural Tennessee town, is usually the first man to criticize others for their bad behavior. Miserable in his ma… |
| All Fall Down | Director | 1962-04-06 | Ralph and Annabell Willart are a feuding couple who are constantly bickering over their worthless, good-for-nothing son Berry-Berry. When Berry-Berry … |
| The Young Savages | Director | 1961-05-24 | A district attorney investigates the racially charged case of three teenagers accused of the murder of a blind Puerto Rican boy…. |
| The Fixer | Director | 1968-12-08 | Set in tsarist Russia around the turn of the century and based on a true story of a Russian Jewish peasant Yakov Bog who was wrongly imprisoned for a … |
| The Extraordinary Seaman | Director | 1969-05-14 | Marooned sailors discover a World War II ship haunted by its late captain…. |
| The Young Stranger | Director | 1957-02-01 | The lack of communication between a wealthy film producer and his troubled teenage son after the boy is involved in an altercation at a movie theater … |
| The Fifth Column | Director | 1960-01-29 | A TV film made as part of The Buick-Electra Playhouse…. |
| The Burning Season | Director | 1994-09-17 | Based on the true story of a Brazilian rubber tapper who leads his people in protest against government and developers, who want to cut down their par… |
| Story of a Love Story | Director | 1973-05-24 | Harry is a married writer who has an affair with a woman whose husband knows that she is unfaithful. As a result of his work, Harry has trouble distin… |
| Riviera | Director | 1987-01-01 | TV-movie directed by Alan Smithee (John Frankenheimer)…. |
| Days of Wine and Roses | Director | 1958-10-02 | An alcoholic falls in love with and gets married to a young woman whom he systematically addicts to booze so they can share his “passion” together…. |
| The Rainmaker | Director | 1982-10-23 | The Rainmaker is a made for TV movie starring Tommy Lee Jones… |
| Rod Serling: Submitted for Your Approval | Director | 1995-11-29 | The life and career of the renowned television writer and creator of the classic science fiction series, “The Twilight Zone.”… |
| The Snows of Kilimanjaro | Director | 1960-03-25 | A writer reflects on his life as he lies dying from an infection after a safari in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro, after Earnest Hemingway’s short st… |
| Padlocks | Director | 1954-11-09 | A criminal fleeing from the police stops to rob an eccentric old recluse of her treasures…. |
| Forbidden Area | Director | 1956-10-04 | Why are so many B-99 bombers from Hibiscus Air Base crashing or simply disappearing? Colonel Price comes up with a terrifying explanation, but will an… |
| Startime: Turn of the Screw | Director | 1959-10-20 | The Turn of the Screw was episode 3 of the television program Startime, which aired 33 episodes between October 6, 1959, and May 31, 1960. It was an a… |
| Director | Cadaverous scream legend the Crypt Keeper is your macabre host for these forays of fright and fun based on the classic E.C. Comics tales from back in … | ||
| Director | An American radio–television anthology series, created in 1947 by Canadian director Fletcher Markle, who came to CBS from the CBC…. | ||
| Director | Climax! is an American anthology series that aired on CBS from 1954 to 1958. The series was hosted by William Lundigan and later co-hosted by Mary Cos… | ||
| Director | Danger is an American anthology series which aired on CBS from September 19, 1950 to May 31, 1955. … | ||
| Director | Startime is an anthology show of drama, comedy, and variety, and was one of the first American television shows broadcast in color. The program was ai… | ||
| Director | BMW film presents “The Hire”, a series of eight short films produced for the Internet in 2001 and 2002. A form of branded content, all eight films fea… | ||
| Director | Playhouse 90 is an American television anthology series that was telecast on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. It originated from CBS… | ||
John Frankenheimer Production Movies
| Movie Name | Job | Release Date | Overview |
| The Manchurian Candidate | Producer | 1962-10-01 | Near the end of the Korean War, a platoon of U.S. soldiers is captured by communists and brainwashed. Following the war, the platoon is returned home,… |
| Andersonville | Executive Producer | 1996-03-03 | This lengthy docudrama records the harrowing conditions at the Confederacy’s most notorious prisoner-of-war camp. The drama unfolds through the eyes o… |
| Grand Prix | Executive Producer | 1966-12-21 | The story tells about the confrontation of four first-class racers of Formula 1. Each of the competitors had their own additional motivation to becom… |
| The Burning Season | Producer | 1994-09-17 | Based on the true story of a Brazilian rubber tapper who leads his people in protest against government and developers, who want to cut down their par… |
| Path to War | Executive Producer | 2003-10-28 | A powerful drama of soaring ambition and shattered dreams that takes a provocative insider’s look at the way the USA goes to war—as seen from inside… |
| Seconds | Co-Executive Producer | 1966-10-05 | A secret organisation offers wealthy people a second chance at life. The customer picks out someone they want to be and the organisation surgically al… |
| Seven Days in May | Co-Executive Producer | 1964-02-01 | A U.S. Army colonel alerts the president of a planned military coup against him…. |
| Startime: Turn of the Screw | Producer | 1959-10-20 | The Turn of the Screw was episode 3 of the television program Startime, which aired 33 episodes between October 6, 1959, and May 31, 1960. It was an a… |
Writing
| Movie Name | Job | Release Date | Overview |
| Grand Prix | Writer | 1966-12-21 | The story tells about the confrontation of four first-class racers of Formula 1. Each of the competitors had their own additional motivation to becom… |
| Dead Bang | Screenplay | 1989-03-24 | Los Angeles homicide detective Jerry Beck searches for the murderer who killed a police officer on Christmas Eve. The investigation takes Beck inside … |
Other Info
| Movie Name | Job | Release Date | Overview |
| Exorcist: The Beginning | In Memory Of | 2004-08-20 | Having lived through traumatizing events during WWII, Father Lankester Merrin takes a sabbatical from the Church to conduct archaeological excavations… |
| The Butterfly Effect 2 | In Memory Of | 2006-08-17 | After his girlfriend, Julie, and two best friends are killed in a tragic auto accident, Nick struggles to cope with his loss and grief. Suffering from… |
Credit: TMDB
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