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Franklin J. Schaffner

 
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: May 30, 1920 in Tokyo, Japan
  • Died: Jul 02, 1989 in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California
  • Occupation: Director, Actor
  • Active: '50s-'80s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Adventure
  • Career Highlights: Planet of the Apes, Patton, The Boys From Brazil
  • First Major Screen Credit: Studio One: The Man Who Had Influence (1950)

Biography

Born in Japan to American Protestant missionaries, director Franklin J. Schaffner first set foot on American soil at age five. After spending his childhood in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Schaffner studied pre-law at Franklin and Marshall College, then moved on to Columbia University's law school. After World War II navy service, Schaffner decided to abandon law; virtually by a fluke, he received an assistant director's job with the March of Time, a filmed news service. From there Schaffner went to CBS' news, sports and public affairs department. Producer Worthington Miner took note of some of the documentaries Schaffner had assembled at CBS, and put the young director in charge of the fledgling TV network's dramatic department. Among Schaffner's TV directorial credits were such top-level anthologies as Studio One, Playhouse 90 and DuPont Show of the Month. Hollywood producer Jerry Wald was impressed by Schaffner's TV output and hired the director to helm the 1963 film The Stripper. The following year, Schaffner directed the film he personally considered his finest: The Best Man (1964), which won several awards (but not the Oscar it deserved). Schaffner's first big-budget project was The Warlord (1965); the director later credited this period epic with sparking his fascination with different cultures. One couldn't find a culture more different than the simian society of Planet of the Apes (1968), a film that Schaffner was engaged to direct after Blake Edwards pulled out. The box-office success of Planet prompted 20th Century-Fox to assign Schaffner another potential blockbuster, the Oscar-winning Patton (1970). It is at this point that Schaffner's Hollywood career truly peaked; with the exception of such films as Papillon (1973), most of the director's subsequent projects were of diminishing quality. By 1982, a weary Schaffner was trying to make a workable film out of the Luciano Pavoratti disaster Yes, Giorgio. Just before his death in 1989, Franklin Schaffner returned to the small, intimate type of film with which he began his career with the uneven but occasionally worthwhile Welcome Home. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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Wikipedia: Franklin J. Schaffner
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Franklin Schaffner
Born Franklin James Schaffner
May 30, 1920(1920-05-30)
Tokyo, Japan
Died July 2, 1989 (aged 69)
Santa Monica, California, USA
Spouse(s) Helen Jean Gilchrist (1948-1989)

Franklin James Schaffner (May 30, 1920 - July 2, 1989) was an American film director.

Contents

Early life

The son of missionaries, Schaffner was born in Tokyo, Japan and raised in that country. He returned to the United States and graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he was active in drama. He studied law at Columbia University in New York City but his education was interrupted by service with the United States Navy in World War II during which he served with American amphibious forces in Europe and North Africa. In the latter stages of the war he was sent to the Pacific Far East to serve with the United States Office for Strategic Services.

Career

Returning home after the war, he found work in the television industry with March of Time and then joined the CBS network. He won directing Emmys for his work on the original 1954 CBS teleplay, Twelve Angry Men. Schaffner earned two more Emmy awards for his work on the 1955 TV adaptation of the Broadway play, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, shown on the anthology series Ford Star Jubilee. He won his fourth Emmy Award for his work on the series, The Defenders.

In 1960, he directed Allen Drury's stage play Advise and Consent. His first Hollywood motion picture was praised and he directed the influential hit Planet of the Apes. His next film, Patton was a major success for which he won the Academy Award for Directing and the Directors Guild of America for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures. Jerry Goldsmith composed the scores for a number of his later films, including Planet of the Apes, Papillon and The Boys from Brazil.

Schaffner was elected President of the Directors Guild of America in 1987.

Personal life

Schaffner married Helen Jane Gilchrist in 1948. The couple had two children, Jennie and Kate.

Schaffner died on July 2, 1989 at the age of 69. He was released 10 days before his death from a hospital where he was being treated for lung cancer. Obituaries stated he died of cancer.

Critical perception

Screenwriter William Goldman identified Schaffner in 1981 as being one of the three best directors (then living) at handling 'scope' (epicness) in films. The other two were David Lean and Richard Attenborough.[1]

Filmography

Year Film Academy Award Wins Academy Award Nominations Notes
1963 The Stripper 1 feature film debut
1964 The Best Man 1 film adapted from a stage play by Gore Vidal
1965 The War Lord
1967 The Double Man
1968 Planet of the Apes 1 2 film won an Honorary Academy Award
1970 Patton 7 10 won Academy Award for Best Director and Directors Guild of America Award for Best Director
1971 Nicholas and Alexandra 2 6
1973 Papillon 1
1976 Islands in the Stream 1
1978 The Boys from Brazil 3 film stars Laurence Olivier in his final Academy Award-nominated acting role
1980 Sphinx
1982 Yes, Giorgio 1
1987 Lionheart
1989 Welcome Home final feature film

References

  1. ^ John Bradey, "The craft of the screenwriter", 1981. Page 168

External links

v • d • e
Films directed by Franklin Schaffner

The Stripper (1963) · The Best Man (1964) · The War Lord (1965) · The Double Man (1967) · Planet of the Apes (1968) · Patton (1970) · Nicholas and Alexandra (1971) · Papillon (1973) · Islands in the Stream (1977) · The Boys from Brazil (1978) · Sphinx (1981) · Yes, Giorgio (1982) · Lionheart (1987) · Welcome Home (1989)
v • d • e
Academy Award for Best Director

Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise (1961) · David Lean (1962) · Tony Richardson (1963) · George Cukor (1964) · Robert Wise (1965) · Fred Zinnemann (1966) · Mike Nichols (1967) · Carol Reed (1968) · John Schlesinger (1969) · Franklin Schaffner (1970) · William Friedkin (1971) · Bob Fosse (1972) · George Roy Hill (1973) · Francis Ford Coppola (1974) · Miloš Forman (1975) · John G. Avildsen (1976) · Woody Allen (1977) · Michael Cimino (1978) · Robert Benton (1979) · Robert Redford (1980)

Complete List · (1927–1940) · (1941–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001-present)
v • d • e
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series

Jack Smight (1959) · Robert Mulligan (1960) · George Schaefer (1961) · Franklin Schaffner (1962) · Stuart Rosenberg (1963) · Tom Gries (1964) · Paul Bogart (1965) · Sydney Pollack (1966) · Alex Segal (1967) · Lee H. Katzin (1968) · David Greene (1969) · Paul Bogart (1970) · Daryl Duke / Fielder Cook (1971) · Alexander Singer / Tom Gries (1972) · Jerry Thorpe / Joseph Sargent (1973) · John Korty / Robert Butler (1974) · Bill Bain (1975)
Complete list: (1959–1975) · (1976–2000) · (2001–present)
v • d • e
Presidents of the Screen Directors Guild and the Directors Guild of America

King Vidor (1936) · Frank Capra (1939) · George Stevens (1941) · Mark Sandrich (1943) · John Cromwell (1944) · George Marshall (1948) · Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1950) · George Sidney (1951) · Frank Capra (1960) · George Sidney (1961) · Delbert Mann (1967) · Robert Wise (1971) · Robert Aldrich (1975) · George Schaefer (1979) · Jud Taylor (1981) · Gilbert Cates (1983) · Franklin Schaffner (1987) · Gene Reynolds (1993) · Jack Shea (1997) · Martha Coolidge (2002) · Michael Apted (2003) · Taylor Hackford (2009)

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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