Frank Borzage
Directing
Born 1894-04-23
Died 1962-06-19
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
157 credits
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Frank Borzage (April 23, 1894 – June 19, 1962) was an Academy Award-winning American film director and actor, known for directing 7th Heaven (1927), Street Angel (1928), Bad Girl (1931), A Farewell to Arms (1932), Man's Castle (1933), History Is Made at Night (1937), The Mortal Storm (1940) and Moonrise (1948).
In 1912 Borzage found employment as an actor in Hollywood; he continued to work as an actor until 1917. His directorial debut came in 1915 with the film The Pitch o' Chance.
He was a successful director throughout the 1920s, but reached his peak in the late silent and early sound era. Absorbing visual influences from the German director F.W. Murnau, who was also resident at Fox at this time, Borzage developed his own style of lushly visual romanticism in a hugely successful series of films starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, including 7th Heaven (1927), for which he won the first Academy Award for Best Director, Street Angel (1928) and Lucky Star (1929). He won a second Oscar for 1931's Bad Girl.
He directed 14 films between 1917 and 1919 alone. His greatest success in the silent era was with Humoresque, a box office winner starring Vera Gordon.
Borzage's trademark was intense identification with the feelings of young lovers in the face of adversity, with love in his films triumphing over such trials as World War I (7th Heaven and A Farewell to Arms), disability (Lucky Star), the Depression (Man's Castle), a thinly disguised version of the Titanic disaster in History Is Made at Night, and the rise of Nazism, a theme which Borzage had virtually to himself among Hollywood filmmakers from Little Man, What Now? (1933) to Three Comrades (1938) and The Mortal Storm (1940).
His work took a spiritual turn in such films as Green Light (1937), Strange Cargo (1940) and The Big Fisherman (1959). Of his later work only the film noir Moonrise (1948) has enjoyed much critical acclaim. After 1948, Borzage's output was sporadic.
In 1955 and 1957, he was awarded The George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film.
Frank Borzage died of cancer in 1962, aged 68.
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Filmography
— top 60 of 157
Directing
47 credits
A Farewell to Arms
Desire
7th Heaven
The Mortal Storm
The Spanish Main
Strange Cargo
The Lady
Immediate Lee
Bad Girl
Unlucky Luke
Stage Door Canteen
Matchin' Jim
Flight Command
Humoresque
Jack
The River
Magnificent Doll
History Is Made at Night
No Greater Glory
The Big Fisherman
China Doll
Three Comrades
The Pilgrim
Moonrise
Billy the Kid
Liliom
I've Always Loved You
Smilin' Through
The Atom
That's My Man
Little Man, What Now?
The Shining Hour
Journey Beneath the Desert
Whom the Gods Would Destroy
The Circle
Lucky Star
I Take This Woman
Young America
The Vanishing Virginian
Big City
Stranded
Man's Castle
The Shoes That Danced
Mannequin
A Flickering Light
Seven Sweethearts
Street Angel
Producing
16 credits
A Farewell to Arms
Desire
The Mortal Storm
The Spanish Main
Strange Cargo
Stage Door Canteen
No Greater Glory
China Doll
I've Always Loved You
Smilin' Through
That's My Man
The Shining Hour
Stranded
Man's Castle
Mannequin
Seven Sweethearts
Acting
15 credits
This Is Your Life
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
Hollywood Preview
Jeanne Eagels
Immediate Lee
Unlucky Luke
Matchin' Jim
The Hammer
Granddad
Jack
Samson
The Pilgrim
The Panther
Aloha Oe
A Flickering Light
Other credits
4 credits
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