Frank Borzage
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Frank Borzage[1] (April 23, 1894[2] –- June 19, 1962) was an American film director and actor famed for his mystical romanticism.
Borzage's father, Luigi, was born in Roncone, Austria-Hungary in 1859. As a stone mason, he sometimes worked in Switzerland; he met his future wife, Maria Ruegg (1860, Ricken - 1947), in Zürich, where she worked in a silk factory. Luigi Borzaga immigrated to Hazelton, Pennsylvania in the early 1880s; he worked as a coal miner there and soon brought his Swiss fiancée with him.
The couple married in Hazelton in 1883, and had their first child, Henry, in Wyoming in 1885. They settled in the Mormon stronghold of Salt Lake City, Utah, where they gave birth to Frank, and remained until 1919. Altogether, the couple had fourteen children, eight of whom survived childhood: Henry (1885-1971), Mary, Bill (1892-1973), Frank, Daniel (1896-1975), Lew (1898-1974), Dolly (1901) and Susan (1905). Luigi Borzaga died in Los Angeles in a car accident in 1934; his wife died of cancer in 1947.
Borzage started working in Hollywood in 1912 as an actor, and continued until 1917. His directorial debut came in 1915 with his film The Pitch o' Chance.
On June 7, 1916, Borzage married vaudeville and film actress Lorena "Rena" B. Rogers in Los Angeles. Although he loved her and treated her well, he and his wife were not compatible: she preferred parties, luxury, and travel, while he was less social, except in his athletic activities. Furthermore, Rena secretly had an abortion around 1921— Borzage loved children—and had several female lovers. Despite their common affection, Rena became dissatisfied with her husband, who, according to family members, had discreet affairs with Lupe Vélez, Mary Pickford, Marion Davies, Joan Crawford, and Hedy Lamarr.[3] By 1940 the strain on their marriage had become too great. At a double celebration for Rena's birthday and their anniversary on June 7, Borzage, who then had a drinking problem, suddenly left his mansion and moved out. A divorce was granted on January 22, 1941; Rena obtained $250,000 in damages and interest. Despite this, the couple maintained contact.
For his 1927 film, Seventh Heaven, he became the first person ever to win the Academy Award for Directing. His other films include: Street Angel (1928), Lucky Star (1929), A Farewell to Arms (1932), The Mortal Storm (1940), Strange Cargo (1940), and The Spanish Main (1945). After 1948, his output was sporadic. His last film work was sequences in Edgar G. Ulmer's 1962 film L'Atlantide (Journey Beneath The Desert), for which he was uncredited.
Borzage died of cancer in 1962 at the age of 68, and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. For his contributions to film, Borzage was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Borzage told The Literary Digest his name was pronounced "in three syllables, and g in get, bor-zay'gee." (Charles Earle Funk, What's the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936.)
- ^ To gain a professional advantage, Borzage subtracted a year from his date of birth while still a teenager; many sources thus give 1893 as his birthdate. Dumont, p. 32.
- ^ Dumont, p. 290.
[edit] Further reading
- Dumont, Hervé. Frank Borzage: the Life and Times of a Hollywood Romantic. McFarland, 2006.
- Lamster, Frederick. "Souls Made Great Through Love and Adversity": the Film Work of Frank Borzage. Scarecrow, 1981.
[edit] External links
- IMDb profile
- Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database
- They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?
- A Farewell to Arms (1932) - This Borzage-directed adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's novel has fallen into the public domain and is available online through the Internet Archive.
| Preceded by — |
Academy Award for Best Director 1927-1928 for Seventh Heaven co-awardee with Lewis Milestone |
Succeeded by Frank Lloyd for The Divine Lady |
| Preceded by Norman Taurog for Skippy |
Academy Award for Best Director 1931-1932 for Bad Girl |
Succeeded by Frank Lloyd for Cavalcade |
Categories: Wikipedia articles needing factual verification | American film actors | American silent film actors | American film directors | English-language film directors | Best Director Academy Award winners | Hollywood Walk of Fame | Italian-Americans | People from Utah | Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries | 1894 births | 1962 deaths
