Frank Capra, (1914-1991)   died at the age of  94 in his home in Ja Qunta, Riverside County CA. Capra, the son of  illiterate Sicilian peasants who was born May 18, 1897, Palermo, Sicily. In 1903, his family came to this country, he was 6. Capra was one of  Hollywood's preeminent directors in the 1930s and '40s. He was one of the first directors whose name appeared on marquees and above the title in film credits. He was the first to win three Oscars, for: ``It Happened One Night" (1934), ``Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" (1936) and ``You Can't Take It With You" (1938). His major films embodied  his flair for improvisation, spontaneity, humor and sympathy for the populist beliefs of  the 1930s.

The typical hero was a home spun American crusader, an honest and naive idealist threatened by evil forces. He eventually wins out because of  his innate goodness, wit, courage and the critical aid of a shrewd, knowledgeable girlfriend.

Generations of moviegoers and television viewers have reveled in the hitch-hiking antics of Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in ``It Happened One Night;" in Gary Cooper's whimsical and hilarious hearing in ``Mr. Deeds Goes to Town;" in the impassioned filibuster by James Stewart as an incorruptible senator in ``Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and in Cooper's battle in ``Meet John Doe" to prevent a power- crazed industrialist from taking dictatorial control of  the country. The Deed movie made ``doodling" and ``pixilated" household words.

He rose to fame at Columbia Pictures, which, when he began, was a minor production company headed by the tyrannical Harry Cohn. Impressed by Capra's brashness, Cohn let him direct a series of adventure films. Capra became the key director in making Columbia a major studio. His first major success was ``Lady for a Day," a rambunctious 1933 comedy.

A year later, ``It Happened One Night," a comedy sleeper, was the first movie to win all five major Academy Awards best film, director, screenplay, actor and actress.

His next film, ``Broadway Bill," was an inventive satire on horse racing that starred Myrna Loy and Warner Baxter. ``Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" centered on a hayseed hero who, inheriting $20 million, seeks to subsidize farms for the depressions jobless.

By the late 1940s, the director's optimism no longer coincided with the mood of Americans, and his movies were labeled ``Capracorn". In his autobiography The Name Above the Title, he says ``I always felt the world cannot fall apart as long as free men see the rainbow, feel the rain and hear the laugh of a child."
 

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FRANK CAPRA'S FIIMS

          Fultah Fisher's      1921

    Boarding Howe (short) 1922

    Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (co-director, co-screenwriter)  1926

    The Strong Man  1926

    His Fint Flame (co-screenwriter)  1927

    Long Pants  1927

    For the love of Mike 1927

    That Certain Thing  1928

    So This is Iove  1928

    The Matinee Idol,  1928

    The Way of the Strong  1928

    Say it with Sables  1928

    Submarine  1928

    The Power of the Press  1928

    The Younger Generation  1929

    The Donovan Affair  1929

    Flisht  1929

    Ladys of  leiw  1930

    Rain or Shine  1930

    Dirigib  1931

    The Miracle Woman  1931

    Platinum Blonde  1931

    Forbidden  1932

    AmericanMadnoss   1932

    The Bitter Toa of  General Yin  1933

    Lady for a Day   1933

    It Happened One Night  1934

    Broodway Bill  1934

    Mr. Deeds Goes to Town  (producer) 1936

    Lost Horizon (producer)1937

    You Can't Take it  1937

    With You (producer) 1938

    Mr. Smith Goes to Washingto (producer)1939

    Meet John Doe (producer) 1941

    Prelude to War  (co-director) 1942

    The Nasis Strik (co-director) 1942

    Divide and Conquer (co-director)194

    Battle of Britin (co-director) .1943

    Battle of Russia (producer)1943

    Battle of China (co-diredor)194

    The Negro Soldier 1944  documentry Frank Capra

    War Comes to America  (producer)1944

    Tunisian Victory  (co-director) 1944

    Anenic and Old heel  1944

    Know Your Enemy: Japan  (co-director) 1945

    Two Down and One to Go  1945

    It's a Wonderful Life  (co producer, co-screenwriter) 1946

    Stote of the Union  (co-producer)  1948

    Riding High (producer)  1950

    Here Comes the Groom  (producer) 1951

    Our Mr. Sun (TV science special) 1956

    Hemo the Magneficent  (TV science special) 1957

    A Hole in the Head  (producer)  1959

    Pocket ful of Miracals  (producer)