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Frank Perry (August 21 1930 – August 29 1995) was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 stage
Theatre

Theatre is the branch of the performing arts defined by Bernard Beckerman as what "occurs when one or more actor, isolated in time and/or Theater , present themselves to Audience." By this broad definition, theatre has existed since the dawn of man, as a result of human tendency for story telling....
 and film director
Film director

A film director, or filmmaker, is a person who directs the making of a film. A film director visualizes the Screenplay, controlling a film's artistic and dramatic aspects, while guiding the technical crew and actors in the fulfillment of his or her vision....
, producer
Film producer

A film producer is someone who creates the conditions for making film. The producer initiates, co-ordinates, supervises and controls matters such as fund-raising, hiring key personnel and arranging for distributors....
 and screenwriter
Screenwriter

Screenwriters or scenarists are scriptwriters who write the screenplays from which films and television programs are made.Most screenwriters start their careers writing on speculation....
.

Perry was born in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 where as a teenager he began pursuing his interest in the theater with a job as a parking lot attendant for the Westport Country Playhouse in nearby Westport, Connecticut
Westport, Connecticut

Westport is a coastal New England town located on Long Island Sound in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Connecticut, 47 miles north of New York City in the United States....
. He attended the University of Miami
University of Miami

The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 in the city of Coral Gables, Florida, Florida, United States, a historic suburb of Miami, Florida....
. He would develop his talents to where he produced several plays at Westport then turned for a time to producing television documentaries.

A veteran of the Korean War
Korean War

The Korean War refers to a period of military conflict between North Korea and South Korea regimes, with major hostilities lasting from June 25, 1950 until the armistice signed on July 27, 1953....
, he returned to the entertainment industry after being discharged and made his Hollywood directorial debut in 1962 with the low-budget drama film David and Lisa
David and Lisa

David and Lisa is a low-budget film film director by Frank Perry, often cited as one of his best works. Based on the novel by Theodore Isaac Rubin, the screenplay, written by Frank Perry's wife Eleanor Perry, tells the story of a bright young man suffering from a severe case of obsessive-compulsive disorder ....
.






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Frank Perry (August 21 1930 – August 29 1995) was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 stage
Theatre

Theatre is the branch of the performing arts defined by Bernard Beckerman as what "occurs when one or more actor, isolated in time and/or Theater , present themselves to Audience." By this broad definition, theatre has existed since the dawn of man, as a result of human tendency for story telling....
 and film director
Film director

A film director, or filmmaker, is a person who directs the making of a film. A film director visualizes the Screenplay, controlling a film's artistic and dramatic aspects, while guiding the technical crew and actors in the fulfillment of his or her vision....
, producer
Film producer

A film producer is someone who creates the conditions for making film. The producer initiates, co-ordinates, supervises and controls matters such as fund-raising, hiring key personnel and arranging for distributors....
 and screenwriter
Screenwriter

Screenwriters or scenarists are scriptwriters who write the screenplays from which films and television programs are made.Most screenwriters start their careers writing on speculation....
.

Perry was born in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 where as a teenager he began pursuing his interest in the theater with a job as a parking lot attendant for the Westport Country Playhouse in nearby Westport, Connecticut
Westport, Connecticut

Westport is a coastal New England town located on Long Island Sound in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Connecticut, 47 miles north of New York City in the United States....
. He attended the University of Miami
University of Miami

The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 in the city of Coral Gables, Florida, Florida, United States, a historic suburb of Miami, Florida....
. He would develop his talents to where he produced several plays at Westport then turned for a time to producing television documentaries.

A veteran of the Korean War
Korean War

The Korean War refers to a period of military conflict between North Korea and South Korea regimes, with major hostilities lasting from June 25, 1950 until the armistice signed on July 27, 1953....
, he returned to the entertainment industry after being discharged and made his Hollywood directorial debut in 1962 with the low-budget drama film David and Lisa
David and Lisa

David and Lisa is a low-budget film film director by Frank Perry, often cited as one of his best works. Based on the novel by Theodore Isaac Rubin, the screenplay, written by Frank Perry's wife Eleanor Perry, tells the story of a bright young man suffering from a severe case of obsessive-compulsive disorder ....
. Based on the novel by Theodore Isaac Rubin
Theodore Isaac Rubin

Theodore Isaac Rubin is an United States psychiatrist and author. He lives in New York City. Rubin is a past president of the American Institute for Psychoanalysis and the Karen Horney Institute for Psychoanalysis....
, the screenplay was written by his wife, Eleanor Perry
Eleanor Perry

Eleanor Perry was an United States writer known primarily for her screenplays.Born Eleanor Irene Rosenfeld in Cleveland, Ohio, she attended Western Reserve University, where she wrote for the college's literary magazine....
, who would receive a nomination for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay
Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay

The Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. It is awarded each year to the screenwriter of a Adapted_screenplay from another source ....
. A character study of two emotionally disturbed teenagers, the film was successful at the box office and met with much critical acclaim, earning him a nomination for an Academy Award for Directing
Academy Award for Directing

The Academy Award for Achievement in Directing is one of the Academy Award presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to Film directors working in the film industry....
.

Frank Perry went on to direct and produce a number of films including The Swimmer
The Swimmer (film)

The Swimmer is a 1968 in film film directed by Frank Perry and starring Burt Lancaster. A surreal, allegorical tale, it is based on The Swimmer by John Cheever, adapted by Eleanor Perry ....
 in 1968 based on a John Cheever
John Cheever

John Cheever was an United States novelist and short story writer, sometimes called "the Anton Chekhov of the suburbs." His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the Westchester County, New York suburbs, and old New England villages based on various South Shore towns around Quincy, Massachusetts, where he was born....
 story and 1969's Trilogy written by Truman Capote
Truman Capote

Truman Capote was an United States writer whose short stories, novels, plays, and non-fiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "non-fiction novel"....
. Frank and Eleanor Perry divorced in 1971.

Perry is most regarded for his character studies involving a dysfunctional family
Dysfunctional family

A dysfunctional family is a family in which conflict, misbehavior and even abuse on the part of individual members of the family occur continually and regularly, leading other members to accommodate such actions....
 such as that in his wife's script of the Sue Kaufman
Sue Kaufman

Sue Kaufman is an American author best known for Diary of a Mad Housewife....
 novel Diary of a Mad Housewife
Diary of a Mad Housewife

Diary of a Mad Housewife is a 1970 in film drama film about a frustrated wife, portrayed by Carrie Snodgress, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won a Golden Globe award in the same category....
 that earned a Best Actress Oscar
Academy Award for Best Actress

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry....
 nomination for Carrie Snodgress
Carrie Snodgress

Caroline "Carrie" Snodgress was a Golden Globe Award-winning, Academy Award-nominated United States actress....
 and his 1972 film Play It As It Lays
Play It As It Lays

Play It as It Lays is a 1970 in literature novel by the United States writer Joan Didion.Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005....
 starring Tuesday Weld
Tuesday Weld

Tuesday Weld is an American actress.Weld began her acting career as a child, and progressed to more mature roles during the late 1950s. She won a Golden Globe Award in 1960....
 that brought her a Golden Globe Best Actress nomination. Both of these films Perry produced and directed, but he is probably best remembered for directing the controversial 1981 bio-drama Mommie Dearest
Mommie Dearest (film)

Mommie Dearest is a 1981 in film Cinema of the United States biographical film drama film about Joan Crawford, starring Faye Dunaway. The film was film director by Frank Perry....
, an adaptation of a biography
Biography

A biography is a description of someone's life, usually published in the form of a book or essay, or in some other form, such as a film. An autobiography is a biography by the same person it is about....
 by actress Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford After an absence of nearly two years from the screen, Crawford staged a comeback by starring in Mildred Pierce , for which she won the Academy Award for Academy Award for Best Actress....
's adoptive daughter, which portrayed the famous movie starlet as a cruel, sadistic tyrant.

Diagnosed with prostate cancer
Prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is a disease in which cancer develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. It occurs when cell s of the prostate Mutation and begin to multiply out of control....
, in 1992 Frank Perry made his final film. An autobiographical documentary
Documentary film

Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to "document" reality. Although "documentary film" originally referred to movies shot on film stock, it has subsequently expanded to include video and new media productions that can be either direct-to-video or made for a televis...
 called On the Bridge, it recounted Perry's lengthy battle with cancer, from which he died in 1995, 8 days after his 65th birthday.

Frank Perry was also the uncle of singer/songwriter Katy Perry.

Further reading

  • Beaver, Jim
    Jim Beaver

    James Norman Beaver, Jr. is an United States stage, film, and television actor, a playwright, screenwriter, and film historian, who uses the professional name Jim Beaver....
    . Frank Perry. Films in Review, November 1981.


External links

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