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1-12 of 12
- Producer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Additional Crew
It's a wonderful and busy life for Frank Capra, Jr., president of EUE/Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina, currently the largest motion picture studio east of Hollywood. A second-generation filmmaker, Capra is the son of the late Lucille Rayburn Warner Capra and world-renowned director, Frank Capra, a native of Sicily, who is best known as director of the classic It's a Wonderful Life (1946). He is the eldest of three children that include brother Tom and sister Lucille. While growing up, the Capra children had the best of both worlds: relatively normal lives with friends balanced by dinners with guests who could include Barbara Stanwyck,Jean Harlow, James Stewart, Lionel Barrymore or Gary Cooper. Capra has said that growing up in a show-business household seldom interfered with holiday time and family life, for which he credits his father and mother. He has been active in the film industry for over four decades.
Capra did not start out to be a filmmaker. It wasn't until after he studied at the California Institute of Technology and later graduated from Pomona College with a degree in geology that he chose movie making as a career. Again, he chose the best of both worlds, deciding to combine his interest in film with his scientific background by making films that documented government research programs conducted by Hughes Tool Co. (the parent company of Hughes Aircraft). During his time with Hughes Tool, Capra made films centered on the construction of torpedoes and helicopters contracted by U.S. military branches. With the Vietnam draft imminent, Capra enlisted in the army's film unit, the Signal Corps, and for the next three years taught combat motion picture photography to soldiers stationed in New Jersey. He also taught techniques of combat motion picture photography from land and air while serving in Vietnam.
After his discharge from the army, Capra worked on a number of TV shows including Dennis the Menace (1959), Hazel (1961), Gunsmoke (1955), "Rifleman, The" (1960)_, Zane Grey Theatre (1956) and Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958). Working his way to assistant director, Capra continued to work in television and eventually migrated to producing feature films that included Born Again (1978), The Black Marble (1980) and An Eye for an Eye (1981).
In 1983 Capra was sent to Wilmington, North Carolina, by producer Dino De Laurentiis to find a location for the feature film Firestarter (1984). Both he and De Laurentiis found Wilmington a wonderful place to live and work and continued to film projects here. In 1996 Capra was appointed President and CEO of EUE Screen Gems Studios. He was presented an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and also received a Directors Guild of America award in 2000 in recognition of his instrumental role in transforming Wilmington into a regional production center for both television and film, as well as for his significant contributions as a creator of original programming. He is a member of numerous professional associations, including the Executive Branch Committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the North Carolina Governor's Film Council and the North Carolina Southeast Film Advisory Board. Capra is also a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, instructing film classes in the university's film studies degree program.- Writer
- Actor
- Sound Department
James Costigan, the Emmy Award-winning TV writer and Broadway dramatist, was born James Smith in East Los Angeles, California on March 31, 1926. He won three Emmy Awards, for "Little Moon of Alban" (which appeared on the Hallmark Hall of Fame) in 1959; Love Among the Ruins (1975), a TV movie starring Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier in 1976; and Eleanor and Franklin (1976) in 1977. He was also nominated for an Emmy for his adaptation of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw (1959) in 1960.
He established himself as a TV screenwriter during the Golden Age of TV drama in the 1950s, when he wrote for the anthology series, including General Electric Theater, Studio One, and the United States Steel Hour. In the early 1960s, Costigan tried to establish himself as a Broadway playwright, but did not achieve the success he had experienced on television. "Little Moon of Alban" was staged on Broadway in 1960 but closed after 20 performances. "The Beast in Me", a musical based on James Thurber's fables for which he wrote the book and lyrics and even acted in, was a bigger flop, closing after just four performances.
His last Broadway play, the 1964 comedy "Baby Want a Kiss", was a relative success. Put on under the aegis of the Actor's Studio and starring superstar Paul Newman and his wife, Oscar-winner Joanne Woodward, the play ran for 148 performances.
James Costigan died of heart failure on December 19, 2007. He was 81 years old.- Dwain Luce was born on 25 April 1916 in Mobile, Alabama, USA. He died on 19 December 2007 in Mobile, Alabama, USA.
- Willy Sommerfeld was born on 11 May 1904 in Danzig, West Prussia, Germany [now Gdansk, Pomorskie, Poland]. He died on 19 December 2007 in Berlin, Germany.
- Gerry Fiddleman was born on 24 January 1940 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Hawkeye's Night Stories (2007). She died on 19 December 2007 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Jirí Sternwald was born on 14 October 1910 in Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary. He was a composer, known for Já, spravedlnost (1968), Distant Journey (1949) and Hudba z Marsu (1955). He died on 19 December 2007 in Prague, Czech Republic.- Additional Crew
John Garraty was born on 4 July 1920 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. John is known for The Great Depression (1993), The Yanks Are Coming (1974) and The Congress (1989). John was married to Rita Angelo, Gail Neilson and Joan Perkins. John died on 19 December 2007 in Sag Harbor, New York, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Bobby Pirron was born on 16 October 1918 in Zürich, Kanton Zürich, Switzerland. He was an actor, known for Shirts Up Knickers Down (1972), Weltberühmt in Österreich - 50 Jahre Austropop (2006) and Eröffnung der Wiener Festwochen 2019 (2019). He died on 19 December 2007 in Vienna, Austria.- Milorad Dimitrijevic was a director and writer, known for TE Obrenovac - Hidraulicna ispitivanja (1981), Pokret Gorana (1976) and Lovackim stazama (1964). He died on 19 December 2007 in Belgrade, Serbia.
- Srboljub Ivanovic was an actor, known for Sunce tudjeg neba (1968). He died on 19 December 2007 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
- Wallace Benepe was born on 26 February 1939 in the USA. Wallace was a producer, known for The American Hobo (2003). Wallace died on 19 December 2007.
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Emile Gardaz was born on 29 August 1931 in Échallens, Canton de Vaud, Switzerland. He was a writer, known for Spectacle d'un soir (1964), Sacré Ulysse (1982) and The Eurovision Song Contest (1956). He died on 19 December 2007 in Lausanne, Canton de Vaud, Switzerland.