Frank Borzage

Frank Borzage, born in Salt Lake City in 1894 and died in 1962, was an American film director and actor who became the first person to win the Academy Award for Best Director, for 7th Heaven at the first Academy Awards in 1927. The son of Italian and Swiss immigrants, he toured with theatre companies as a teenager, found work in Hollywood in 1912 and began directing short films in 1915. At Fox in the late silent and early sound years he developed a lushly visual romantic style, working with Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell on films such as 7th Heaven, Street Angel and Lucky Star. He won a second Oscar for Bad Girl in 1931 and directed A Farewell to Arms, Man's Castle, History Is Made at Night, The Mortal Storm and Moonrise. His last credited film was The Big Fisherman in 1959. His films often set young lovers against war, poverty, disaster or the rise of Nazism.