John Frankenheimer (February 19, 1930 – July 6, 2002) was an American film and television director.
A native of New York City, he started out wanting to be an actor but then changed his mind while working with the Motion Picture Squadron of the U.S. Air Force. After being discharged, he started out directing live-action films during the "Golden Age of Television" (like Sidney Lumet), before directing his first theatrical film in 1957, The Young Stranger.
Though he tackled a variety of film genres (except romantic comedy), he was best known for his action films and thrillers, at least for his theatrical films, and was known for his use of unusual camera angles and his work with Depth of Field and Rack Focus shots. When his work in Hollywood dried up in the 80's and 90's, he went back to television, and won several Emmy Awards for the miniseries or movies he directed.
Films directed by John Frankenheimer include:
- For Whom the Bell Tolls (1959)
- The Turn of the Screw (1959)
- Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)
- The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
- Seven Days in May (1964)
- The Train (1964)
- Seconds (1966) (1966)
- Grand Prix (1966)
- The Fixer (1968)
- The Extraordinary Seaman (1969)
- The Gypsy Moths (1969)
- I Walk the Line (1970)
- The Iceman Cometh (1973)
- The French Connection II (1975)
- Black Sunday (1977)
- Prophecy (1979)
- 52 Pick Up (1986)
- Year of the Gun (1991)
- Against the Wall (1994)
- The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)
- Andersonville (1996)
- Ronin (1998)
- Reindeer Games (2000)
- Path to War (2002)
- An Asskicking Christmas: Dead Bang, Ronin, and Reindeer Games all take place around Christmastime.
- Author Appeal: He had a great love of France, having moved there briefly at the end of the sixties and learned French cooking and becoming fluent in the language. As such, quite a few of his films are set there and often show the country from an American perspective.
- Production Posse: Worked with Burt Lancaster on five films, and also worked several times with Whit Bissell, Edmond O'Brien and Richard Anderson, among others.
- Rated M for Manly: He's up there with Sam Peckinpah and Samuel Fuller in terms of machismo in his films, especially his work with Burt Lancaster.
- Real Men Cook: He was a tough Air Force veteran and director of action films who could control even the likes of Marlon Brando and a trained Cordon Blue chef.
- What Could Have Been: Was actually considered at one point to play James Bond.
