Born in New York and raised in Queens, John Frankenheimer wanted to become a professional tennis player. He loved movies and his favorite actor was Robert Mitchum. He decided he wanted to be an actor but then he applied for and was accepted in the Motion Picture Squadron of the Air Force where he realized his natural talent to handle a camera. After his military discharge he began a TV career in 1953 convincing CBS to hire him as an assistant director, which consisted mainly working as a cameraman at that time. He eventually started to direct the show he was working on as an assistant director. Frankenheimer still didn't want to direct films. He liked to direct live television, and he would have continued to do it if the profession itself hadn't cease to exist. He first turned to the big screen with The Young Stranger which he hated to do because he thought he didn't understand movies and wasn't used to work with only one camera. Disappointed his with first feature film experience he returned to his successful television career directing a total of 152 live television shows between 1954 and 1960. He took another chance to move to the cinema industry, working with Burt Lancaster in The Young Savages ending up becoming a successful filmmaker best known by expressing on films his views on important social and philosophical topics.


When Senator Robert F. Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, it was his good friend John Frankenheimer who had personally driven him there that day. Was fluent in French. Was approached by Albert R. Broccoli to screen test for the role of James Bond in Dr. No (1962) (Frankenheimer began his career as an actor). Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985." Pages 365-372. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988. Directed the television debuts of Sir John Gielgud and Ingrid Bergman in "The Browning Version" episode for "The DuPont Show of the Month" (1957) and The Turn of the Screw (1959/I) (TV), respectively. Famous for his use of innovative camera angles, Frankenheimer was acclaimed for a shot in The Manchurian Candidate (1962) that is slightly out of focus. Frankenheimer said that the shot was an accident. The camera-work of most directors in "The Golden Age" of TV drama was static, reflecting most TV directors' backgrounds in the theater, who typically used blocking more appropriate for a stage production. Frankenhiemer was one of the first TV directors to use multiple camera angles, a moving camera, quick editing, and close-ups. One of his biggest dreams when he started directing was to work with a concert orchestra. He eventually did it twice, in Prophecy (1979) and The Holcroft Covenant (1985). Had been working on directing Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) at the time of his death. Directed six actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Burt Lancaster, Telly Savalas, Thelma Ritter, Angela Lansbury, Edmond O'Brien, and Alan Bates.