CAPRA, FRANK

born May 18, 1897, near Palermo, Sicily, Italy died Sept. 3, 1991, La Quinta, Calif., U.S. American motion-picture director best known for a series of gently satiric situation comedies during the 1930s, including such classics as It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and It's a Wonderful Life (1946). Capra's family emigrated to Los Angeles when he was six. After graduating from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, in 1918, he became an army engineering instructor. From 1921 Capra was a director of motion-picture shorts, a property man, a film cutter, a writer of film titles, a gag writer for Mack Sennett comedies, and a director of such popular Harry Langdon comedies as Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926), The Strong Man (1926), and Long Pants (1927). Capra emerged as a major director with such box-office successes as That Certain Thing (1928) and Platinum Blonde (1931). Collaborating with scriptwriter Robert Riskin, he released the comedy hit Lady for a Day (1933), followed by three classic comedies that brought him Academy Awards for best director: It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), and You Can't Take It with You (1938). Similar in their humorous presentation of a naive idealistic hero, the films evidence an essential optimism as the hero triumphs over the shrewd representatives of the world. Capra departed from his comedy style in the fantasy Lost Horizon (1937) and Meet John Doe (1941), an expos of fascist elements in American society. During World War II he made a series of U.S. Army documentaries called Why We Fight, as well as other documentaries, and directed Arsenic and Old Lace (1944). His notable films of the postwar period included It's a Wonderful Life, State of the Union (1948), and Pocketful of Miracles (1961), his last film. An autobiography, Frank Capra: The Name Above the Title, appeared in 1971.