- Frank Cvitanovich
Frank Cvitanovich (14 August 1927 - 12 August 1995) was a Canadian documentary film maker, who made much of his best work for British television.
Early Years
Cvitanovich was born in
Vancouver , the son of a Yugoslavian immigrant. His father founded his own salmon fishing fleet and young Frank worked for him as an apprentice, before trying his hand as a poker player, theatre hand, film runner and professional American footballer. A severe knee injury ended his gridiron career in California, but Cvitanovich convinced the makers of Gene Autry's ‘The Singing Cowboy’ TV show that he could direct. He made a further 31 episodes in Hollywood, before moving to London in the mid-fifties and setting up his own film company. In 1970 Cvitanovich was the co-director ofFestival Express . A documentary account of a five-day Canadian rock tour, that took several influential bands across Canada by train, it was finally released with contemporary interview footage in 2003.Thames Television
Cvitanovich’s greatest work was for
Thames Television during the nineteen seventies, under the enlightened reign of Director of ProgrammesJeremy Isaacs . His first film for Thames was ‘Bunny’ (1972), a moving account of the treatment given to his own brain-damaged son in a Philadelphia clinic. The film won Cvitanovich an International Emmy. Frank loved sport and his very first documentary was a study of a baseball player in decline. For Thames he made films about motorcycle championBarry Sheene , the footballing ‘Charlton Brothers’ and ‘Saturday’s Heroes’(1976) about life behind the scenes at Tottenham Hotspur F.C.. Other subjects included a day in the life of an East End park, and ‘The Kilnsey Show’ about a Yorkshire wall-building competition. Yorkshire was also the setting for ‘Beauty, Bonny, Daisy, Violet, Grace and Geoffrey Morton’ (1974) Cvitanovich’s best loved film, and the winner of a BAFTA and several other awards.Marriage & Child
Cvitanovich was married five times. His wives included TV director Midge Mackenzie (mother of his only son Bunny) and the TV presenter and journalist
Janet Street Porter .References
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19950818/ai_n14000982
External links
Frank Cvitanovich at the
Internet Movie Database
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