American film director and actor
Brother of assistant director Lew Borzage.
Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, CA., in the Garden of Everlasting Peace.
Brother of actor Danny Borzage.
First person to ever win the Academy Award for Best Director.
Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 41-47. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.
He separated from his wife in 1940. They divorced in 1941.
Was a licensed pilot.
Directed 2 actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Janet Gaynor , Margaret Sullavan. Gaynor won, Sullavan didnt.
His father Luigi Borzaga was from Roncone in Trentino, then Austria-Hungary and his mother from Zurich, Switzerland. The family immigrated to the U.S. in Pennsylvania where his father worked as a coal miner for a time. The family then headed west to Wyoming and then to Salt Lake City where Frank was born.
Worked with a touring company, eventually graduating to acting. Entered films as an actor in westerns and comedy shorts in 1912, alternating leading roles with character parts as villains. Began to direct the following year. Borzage worked under contract at Fox, 1925-1932; at Warner Brothers (1934-1937); and at MGM (1937-1942). His films were often characterised by sentimentality and pathos.
His father, Luigi Borzaga, was a stone mason who was killed in a car crash in Los Angeles in 1934.
Many of his films combine romanticism with spirituality, or feature the lives of lovers imperiled by adversity, usually turbulent socio/political events, as for example, the First World War, the Great Depression or the rise of fascism.
Noted for his technical skills. His films often had a lyrical appeal and were visually striking. He was especially effective in matching mythical subjects with innovative camera work and lighting.
Won a 1962 D.W. Griffith Award for outstanding contributions in the field of film direction.
He was Lon Chaney s first choice to direct The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923/I) .
Along with Ang Lee and George Stevens he holds the record of winning 2 Best Director Oscars without having directed a Best Picture winner.
Make the audience sentimental instead of the player. Make the audience,act. .
