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Frank Perry

 
Artist: Frank Perry
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Pop Artists

Similar Artists:

Wolff & Hennings, Stephan Micus, Robert Julian Horky, Rootsman, Laraaji, Soren Hyldgaard, Lucia Hwong, William Eaton, Wally Badarou
  • Active: '80s
  • Genres: New Age
  • Instrument: Percussion
  • Representative Albums: "Deep Peace/New Atlantis," "New Atlantis," "Deep Peace"

Biography

Frank Perry is a modern musical mystic who takes his inspiration from ancient ideas concerning the power of sound to transform consciousness. Buddhist traditions, the writings of Plato, and Pythagoras's famous treatise Music of the Spheres are all seriously taken into consideration by this percussionist. Perry has rejected the rhythmic qualities of drums, woodblocks, etc., in favor of instruments like Chinese Buddha gongs and Tibetan bells, producing ethereal, elongated resonances. His albums feature extended compositions that are quiet and delicate, yet abstract in nature, and his liner notes are filled with lengthy discussions of the philosophies behind the music. His work is likely to be fascinating to many listeners, especially those who also enjoy the Celestial Harmonies Tibetan Bells series of releases by Henry Wolff and Nancy Hennings. However, people with more conventional musical and religious tastes may find Perry's style and ideas disturbing. ~ Linda Kohanov, All Music Guide
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Director: Frank Perry
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Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: Aug 21, 1930 in New York City, New York
  • Died: Aug 30, 1995
  • Occupation: Director, Actor, Writer
  • Active: '60s-'80s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Comedy
  • Career Highlights: David and Lisa, The Swimmer, Dummy
  • First Major Screen Credit: Island Women (1958)

Biography

American director Frank Perry went to work for the Westport Country Playhouse as a teenager, albeit in the capacity of parking lot attendant. Perry eventually worked his way up to producer at the Playhouse, beginning a show business career that would extend into the 1990s, interrupted only by Korean War service. After putting in time as a TV documentary producer, Perry directed the 1962 film David and Lisa, a location-shot drama about two emotionally disturbed teenagers in a mental institution. Thanks to the attractiveness of stars Keir Dullea and Janet Margolin, David and Lisa developed a following among teens and young adults, making Perry quite bankable in Hollywood. Perry's second film, the low-budget Ladybug Ladybug (1962), was a study of how a false nuclear attack announcement would effect otherwise normal people -- a disturbingly prescient premise, given the subsquent Cuban Missile Crisis. The Swimmer (1968), based on a John Cheever story, was a somewhat surrealistic drama that followed a wealthy suburbanite (Burt Lancaster), who witnesses his life deteriorating as he travels from swimming pool to swimming pool in his exclusive Connecticut neighborhood. Many of Perry's works were similarly concentrated character studies, notably Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970) and Play it as It Lays (1972). Somehow or other, Perry's work has since devolved from sensitivy to sensationalism, notably with his campy interpretations of the notorious Mommie Dearest (1981) and the phlegmatic "sinning clergy" epic Monsignor (1982). For many years, Frank Perry worked in collaboration with his wife, the late writer/producer Eleanor Perry. They separated in 1970 and went off to their own individual projects. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Wikipedia: Frank Perry
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Frank Perry
Born August 21, 1930
New York City
Died August 29, 1995
New York City

Frank Perry (August 21, 1930 – August 29, 1995) was an American stage and film director, producer and screenwriter.

Contents

Early life

Perry was born in New York City where as a teenager he began pursuing his interest in the theater with a job as a parking lot attendant for the Westport Country Playhouse in nearby Westport, Connecticut. He attended the University of Miami. He produced several plays at Westport, and then turned for a time to producing television documentaries.

Career

A veteran of the Korean War, he returned to the entertainment industry after being discharged and made his Hollywood directorial debut in 1962 with the low-budget drama film David and Lisa. Based on the novel by Theodore Isaac Rubin, the screenplay was written by his wife, Eleanor Perry, who would receive a nomination for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay. A character study of two emotionally disturbed teenagers, the film was successful at the box office and met with much critical acclaim, earning him a nomination for an Academy Award for Directing.

Perry went on to direct and produce a number of films, including The Swimmer in 1968 based on a John Cheever story and 1969's Trilogy written by Truman Capote. Frank and Eleanor Perry divorced in 1971.

Perry is most regarded for his character studies involving a dysfunctional family such as that in his wife's script of the Sue Kaufman novel Diary of a Mad Housewife that earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for Carrie Snodgress and his 1972 film Play It As It Lays starring Tuesday Weld that brought her a Golden Globe Best Actress nomination. Both of these films Perry produced and directed, but he is probably best remembered for directing the controversial 1981 bio-drama Mommie Dearest, an adaptation of a biography by actress Joan Crawford's adoptive daughter, which portrayed the famous movie starlet as a cruel, sadistic tyrant.

Death

Diagnosed with prostate cancer, in 1992 Frank Perry made his final film. An autobiographical documentary, On the Bridge recounted Perry's lengthy battle with cancer, from which he died in 1995, eight days after his 65th birthday.

Further reading

  • Beaver, Jim. Frank Perry. Films in Review, November 1981.

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

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Artist. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Director. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Frank Perry".  Read more