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##### September 4, 1991 OBITUARY ## Frank Capra, Whose Films Helped America Keep Faith in Itself, Is Dead at 94 ##### By PETER B. FLINT Frank Capra, the Academy Award- winning director whose movies were suffused with affectionate portrayals of the common man and the strengths and foibles of American democracy, died yesterday at his home. He was 94 years old and lived in La Quinta, Calif., a suburb of Palm Springs. He died in his sleep, said his son Tom, executive producer of NBC's "Today" show in New York. Mr. Capra, the son of illiterate Sicilian peasants who came to this country by steerage when he was 6, was one of Hollywood's pre-eminent directors in the 1930's and 40's, one of the first whose name appeared on marquees and above the title in film credits. Won 3 Oscars He was the first to win three directorial Oscars -- for "It Happened One Night" (1934), "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" (1936) and "You Can't Take It With You" (1938). The motion picture academy also voted the first and third movies the best of the year. Capra movies were idealistic, sentimental and patriotic. His major films embodied his flair for improvisation and spontaneity, buoyant humor and sympathy for the populist beliefs of the 1930's. 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 self-defense of Longfellow Deeds at a hilarious sanity hearing in "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town;" in the impassioned filibuster by James Stewart as an incorruptible Senator in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," in Mr. Cooper's battle to prevent a power-crazed industrialist from taking dictatorial control of the country in "Meet John Doe," and in Mr. Stewart's salvation by a guardian angel in "It's a Wonderful Life." Bluffed His Way In The typical hero in almost all later Capra movies was a homespun American crusader, an honest and naive idealist threatened by evil forces. He eventually wins out because of his innate goodness, wit and courage -- and the critical aid of a shrewd, knowledgable girlfriend. Mr. Capra bluffed his way into silent movies in 1922 and, despite total ignorance of movie making, directed and produced a profitable one-reeler. He then diligently learned his craft, advancing from prop man to gag writer to director-producer. He rose to fame at Columbia Pictures, which, when he began, was a minor production company headed by the tyrannical Harry Cohn. Impressed by Mr. Capra's brashness, Mr. Cohn let him direct a series of adventure films and he became the key director in making Columbia a major studio. His first major success was "Lady for a Day," a rambunctious 1933 comedy based on a Damon Runyon tale. A year later, "It Happened One Night," a comedy sleeper, became the first movie to win all five major Academy Awards: best film, director, screenplay, actor and actress. "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" centered on a hayseed hero who, inheriting $20 million, seeks to subsidize farms for the Depression's jobless. Successful Gamble Mr. Capra then gambled successfully on a costly and opulent filming of a mystical novel, "Lost Horizon," by James Hilton, about a remote Tibetan paradise called Shangri-la, starring Ronald Colman. "You Can't Take It With You" was based on a Pulitzer-Prize play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart about an unconventional family." "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" evoked the wrath of both the Senate and the Washington press corps for depicting a corrupt Senator and a tippling journalist. But the 1939 film was regarded by critics as one of Mr. Capra's most brilliant. "Meet John Doe" drew criticism for what was seen as a "cop-out" happy ending. But Bosley Crowther of The Times called the 1941 movie "superlative" and said it was "by far the hardest-hitting and most trenchant picture on the theme of democracy" Mr. Capra had yet made. By the late 1940's, however, the director's optimism no longer coincided with the mood of Americans and his movies were described by some reviewers as naive, sentimental and sanctimonious "Capra-corn." In his autobiography, unabashedly called "The Name Above the Title," he acknowledged his "gee whiz" philosophy, but defended it. "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," he wrote. Proud and independent, Mr. Capra was a pioneer in gaining autonomy over the films he made, from the first concept to final cuts. He collaborated with his scriptwriters, usually Robert Riskin, and, under his "one-man, one- film" credo, he produced as well as directed all his later movies. Many Innovations Capra innovations included accelerated, faster-than-life pacing with overlapping dialogue; unaffected, conversational speech; removal of men's makeup, and the tape recording of previews to gauge audience reactions that might necessitate revisions. Noted for getting actors to perform at the top of their talent, Mr. Capra made stars of Harry Langdon, Jean Harlow and Barbara Stanwyck. Soft-spoken in private life, he could be a tough professional, matching wits and barbs with Harry Cohn and, as president of the Directors Guild, forcing major producers, after a bitter dispute in 1939, to recognize and grant concessions to the guild. He was also a former president of the motion picture academy. Mr. Capra was an articulate, effervescent and competitive man who had a short, wiry build, a square jaw, and glistening teeth. He dressed casually, favoring flat caps, sweaters and rumpled trousers. Frank Capra was born on May 18, 1897, in Palermo, Sicily. In 1903 his family crossed the Atlantic in steerage and settled in Los Angeles. Vowing to rise from poverty, the boy read voraciously. He worked from elementary school on, first selling newspapers while battling other newsboys for choice selling sites. Unlike his six siblings, he went to college, the California Institute of Technology, where he won a scholarship while holding several jobs, and was graduated in 1918. He then enlisted in the Army, where he taught mathematics. After World War I, unable to get engineering work, he became a vagabond for several years, roaming around the West, doing menial jobs and variously selling books and wildcat mining stocks. He tricked his way into movies by giving an aspiring producer the impression he was a director. For $75 he adapted and directed a Rudyard Kipling barroom poem, spending $1,700 to make the one-reeler, which was sold to Pathe for $3,500. Mr. Capra became, successively, a prop man, film cutter, assistant director, title-frame writer and gag writer for Hal Roach's "Our Gang" comedies and Mack Sennett's Keystone Comedies. At Columbia Pictures he made a quickie comedy, "That Certain Thing," won a long-term contract and directed successes like "Submarine," "Flight," "Dirigible," "Platinum Blonde," with Jean Harlow, and "The Miracle Woman," with Barbara Stanwyck. Took Up Contemporary Issues Hitting his stride, he turned to contemporary issues. In "American Madness" (1932), a banker (Walter Huston) lends money on the basis of character rather than collateral. The bank suffers a run, but the people he had trusted save the day. In "The Bitter Tea of General Yen," Mr. Capra dealt daringly with racism and miscegenation. The movie, starring Miss Stanwyck and Nils Asther, opened Radio City Music Hall in 1933. In the next eight years, Mr. Capra made an unbroken succession of hits. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, he joined the Army again. Before going on active duty he filmed Broadway farce, "Arsenic and Old Lace," starring Cary Grant. During the war, Colonel Capra produced a series of acclaimed propaganda movies showing the contrast between freedom and totalitarianism. The first of the series, "Prelude to War," won the best-documentary Oscar in 1942. He also won the Distinguished Service Medal, France's Legion of Merit and the Order of the British Empire. After the war, Mr. Capra and several colleagues formed an independent production company, Liberty Films. But financing and taxes became obstacles and they eventually sold the company to Paramount. Though Mr. Capra got $1 million in the sale, he lost full control of the film-making process. His Favorite Film In 1946, while still enjoying full control at Liberty, he co-wrote and directed "It's a Wonderful Life," a quintessential Capra fantasy reflecting his conviction that no man who has friends is a failure. The film, starring James Stewart as a small-town battler who is saved from suicide by an angel, was faulted by some reviewers for sentimentality. Nonetheless, the movie won many admirers over the decades and is invariably telecast at Christmastime. It was Mr. Capra's favorite among his films. He went on to direct a series of acclaimed films until, in 1961, he remade "Lady for a Day," retitled "Pocketful of Miracles," starring Bette Davis, a Prohibition-era lampoon that was widely regarded as dated and rambling. It was his last movie. In 1967 he and his wife left Hollywood for La Quinta, where he gardened, golfed, fished, hunted and, as a self-taught musician, played many stringed instruments. Mr. Capra's wife Lucille, who was known as Lu, died in 1984, 52 years after their wedding. In addition to his son Tom, he is survived by another son, Frank Jr., of Malibu, Calif.; a daughter, Lucille, of Findlay, Ohio, and 10 grandchildren. Frank Capra's career spanned nearly four decades. These are the films he directed. Long Pants, 1927 For the Love of Mike, 1927 Submarine, 1928 The Younger Generation, 1929 The Donovan Affair, 1929 Flight, 1929 Ladies of Leisure, 1930 Rain or Shine, 1930 Dirigible, 1931 The Miracle Woman, 1931 Platinum Blonde, 1931 Forbidden, 1932 American Madness, 1932 The Bitter Tea of General Yen, 1933 Lady for a Day, 1933 It Happened One Night, 1934 Broadway Bill, 1934 Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, 1936 Lost Horizon, 1937 You Can't Take It With You, 1938 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, 1939 Meet John Doe, 1941 Tunisian Victory, 1944 Arsenic and Old Lace, 1944 It's a Wonderful Life, 1946 State of the Union, 1948 Riding High, 1950 Here Comes the Groom, 1951 A Hole in the Head, 1959 Pocketful of Miracles, 1961
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