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Filmmaker Frank Capra Jr. Found Family Business Hard To Resist

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By MARGALIT FOX, The New York Times

Published: December 23, 2007

Updated: 12/22/2007 11:13 pm

Frank Capra Jr., who never wanted to go into his father's business but found in the end he could not resist its pull, died Wednesday in Philadelphia. He was 73 and lived in Wilmington, N.C.

The cause was prostate cancer, said Bill Vassar, the executive vice president of EUE/Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington, of which Capra was president.

A film and television producer, Capra was a son of Oscar-winning Hollywood director Frank Capra, whose best-known film, "It's a Wonderful Life," was released in 1946. In the last two decades, the younger Capra was known for helping make North Carolina an important center for film, television and commercial production. In the mid-1980s, he helped to found EUE/Screen Gems there, becoming its president in 1997.

Capra came to the Wilmington area in 1983, when he was producing "Firestarter" (1984), an adaptation of the Stephen King novel. He needed an antebellum mansion to burn down, and found one nearby in Winnabow, N.C. The owners demurred, so Capra built a replica on their property and burned that down.

He was taken with the area and later persuaded Dino De Laurentiis, who had financed the film, to build a studio there.

Among the projects filmed at EUE/Screen Gems during Capra's tenure are "Black Knight" (2001), "Domestic Disturbance" (2001), "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" (2002), "A Walk to Remember" (2002) and the television shows "Dawson's Creek" and "One Tree Hill."

Capra, who began his film career in the 1960s, was the associate producer of three "Planet of the Apes" sequels and "Play It Again, Sam" (1972), written by Woody Allen.

He later produced "Billy Jack Goes to Washington" (1977), "Born Again" (1978), "The Black Marble" (1980), "Marie" (1985) and other films.

Frank Warner Capra Jr. was born in Los Angeles on March 20, 1934, to Frank Capra and the former Lucille Rayburn Warner. His was a normal childhood, he often said in interviews, if normal entails having Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart and Barbara Stanwyck at the family dinner table every now and then.

Planning to be a scientist, Capra earned a bachelor's degree in geology from Pomona College in 1955.

Combining his education with the family trade, he got a job making technical documentaries for the Hughes Tool Co. (Owned by Howard Hughes, the company was the corporate parent of Hughes Aircraft.)

He later served in the Army Signal Corps, where he made training films and taught combat filmmaking.

Capra was a second assistant director on several television shows, including "Hazel," "Dennis the Menace," "Gun- smoke" and "The Rifleman."

He did the same job, uncredited, on "Pocketful of Miracles" (1961), directed by his father and starring Glenn Ford and Bette Davis.

Capra's first marriage, to Priscilla Anne Pearson, ended in divorce. He is survived by his wife, Deborah, of Santa Barbara, Calif.; two sons from his first marriage, Frank III, of Studio City, Calif.; and Jonathan, of Wilmington; a daughter from his second marriage, Christina, of Santa Barbara; two siblings, Lucille Capra of Traverse City, Mich.; and Tom, of Palm Desert, Calif.; and one grandchild. Frank Capra Sr. died in 1991.

As a boy, Capra was allowed to visit the set of "It's a Wonderful Life" to watch his father work, a rare treat.

In recent years he screened the film each December at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington.

The screening was scheduled to go ahead Friday as planned, Vassar said.

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