John Frankenheimer is sometimes likened to a "wunderkind in the tradition of Orson Welles" because he directed numerous quality television dramas while still in his 20s. He was also one of a handful of directors who established their reputation in high-quality, high­ budget television dramas and later moved on to motion pictures.

     As with other television directors of the 1950s, Frankenheimer began his training in the theater, first with the Williams Theater Group at Williams College and then as a member of the stock company and director at Highfield Playhouse in Falmouth, Massachusetts. He later moved to Washington, D.C., where he acted in an American Theater Wing production. While in Washington, he both acted in and directed radio productions and began working at WTOP-TV.

     After a stint with the U.S. Air Force, during which he directed two documentaries, Frankenheimer began his television career as an assistant director at CBS. He worked on weather and news shows, and moved on to Lamp unto My Feet, The Garry Moore Show, and Ed­ ward R. Murrow's Person to Person. As his career advanced, Frankenheimer directed dramatizations on See It Now and You Are There (working under director Sydney Lumet). He also directed episodes of the comedy series Mama (CBS, 1949-57, based on John Van Druten play/ Remember Mama), but it was his directorial efforts on television anthologies where Franken­heimer made his mark.

     Frankenheimer began directing episodes of the suspense anthology series Danger in the early 1950s. Producer Martin Manulis hired Frankenheimer as a co director on the critically acclaimed Climax! (CBS, 1954-58), an hour-long drama series that originally aired live. When Manulis moved on to CBS's Play­ house 90 in 1954, he brought Frankenheimer with him. Over the next few years, Frankenheimer directed 140 live television dramas on such anthologies as Studio One (CBS), Playhouse 90, The DuPont Show of the Month (CBS), Ford Startime (NBC), Sunday Showcase (NBC), and Kraft Television Theatre (NBC). He directed such productions as The Days of Wine and Roses (October 2, 1958), The Browning Version (April 23, 1959; Sir John Gielgud's television debut), and The Turn of the Screw (October 20, 1959; Ingrid Bergman's television debut).

     Frankenheimer's production of Ernest Hemingway For Whom the Bell Tolls (Playhouse 90) was one of the first dramas to be presented in two parts (March 12 and I9, 1959) and, at $400,000, was the most expensive production at that time. Unlike most of his other productions, For Whom the Bell Tolls was taped for presentation because the actors were involved in other theatrical productions in New York. The production's intensive five-week rehearsal and ten-day shooting schedule had to be organized around the actors' other theatrical appearances.

     Most directors of live television came from a similar theatrical background and, as such, used a static camera and blocked productions in a manner similar to a live stage play. A firm believer that a production is the sole creative statement of its director, Frankenheimer was one of the first directors of the "Golden Age" to utilize a variety of camera angles and movement, fast­ paced editing, and close-ups to focus the audience's attention. However, some critics have labeled his technique as gimmicky or contrived. Frankenheimer's most famous use of the camera appears in his 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate, in which one shot is slightly out of focus. Ironically, the shot, which has been widely acclaimed as artistically brilliant, was, according to the director, an accident and merely the best take for actor Frank Sinatra.

     Frankenheimer went on to make other memorable films, such as The Birdman of Alcatraz (which, in 1955, he had wanted to do as a live Playhouse 90 production), Seven Days in May, Grand Prix, The Fixer, and The Iceman Cometh. Personal problems and a decline in the number of quality scripts offered him forced Frankenheimer to take a leave from the industry. Returning to television in the 1990s, Franken­heimer directed the original HBO production Against the Wall (March 26, 1994) about the 1971 Attica Prison riot. Always drawn to intimate stories and psychological portraits, in this production Frankenheimer explored the relationship between an officer taken hostage and the inmate leader of the uprising. More recently, he directed the miniseries Andersonville (March 3 and 4, 1996) and George Wallace (August 24 and 26, 1997) for TNT, and in May 2002 his final tele­ vision project, Path to War, about the escalation of the Vietnam War during the Johnson administration, aired on HBO in May 2002. Two months later, on July 6, Frankenheimer died of a stroke due to complications from spinal surgery.

     Frankenheimer received nine Emmy nominations for his directorial work on television: Portrait in Celluloid (I 955, Climax!, CBS), Forbidden Area (1956, Playhouse 90, CBS), The Comedian (I 957, Playhouse 90), A Town Has Turned to Dust (1958, Playhouse 90), The Turn of the Screw (1959, Ford Startime, NBC), Against the Wall, The Burning Season (1994, HBO), Andersonville, and George Wallace.