Biography for
Fred Zinnemann More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

29 April 1907, Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria)

Date of Death

14 March 1997, London, England, UK (heart attack)

Height

5' 6½" (1.69 m)

Mini Biography

Initially grew up wanting to be a violinist, but while at the University of Vienna decided to study law. While doing so, he became increasingly interested in American film and decided that was what he wanted to do. He became involved in European filmaking for a short time before coming to America to study film.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Chris Ulrich

Spouse

Renee Bartlett

(1936 - 14 March 1997) (his death) 1 child

Trivia

Awarded first annual John Huston Award for Artists Rights [1994]

Father of film director-producer Tim Zinnemann.

Former father-in-law of Meg Tilly.

He is widely credited with an incident known as "you first". The story goes that when Oscar winner Zinnemann sat down in a office for a meeting with a young executive, the executive asked him to list what he had done in his career. Zinnemann humiliated the executive by reportedly answering, "Sure. You first.".

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890- 1945". Pages 1238-1247. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.

He directed the film debuts of Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando and Meryl Streep.

Directed 18 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Hume Cronyn, Montgomery Clift, Gary Cooper, Julie Harris, Frank Sinatra, Donna Reed, Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Anthony Franciosa, Audrey Hepburn, Glynis Johns, Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw, Wendy Hiller, Jason Robards, Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Fonda and Maximilian Schell. Cooper, Redgrave, Robards, Sinatra, Reed and Scofield won Oscars for their performances in one of Zinneman's movies. Additionally, Ivan Jandl received a Juvenile Awards for is performance in Zinneman's The Search (1948).

Is portrayed by Bruce Gray in Sinatra (1992) (TV) and by Walker Edmiston in Grace Kelly (1983) (TV)

Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1961

Is portrayed by 'Peter James Haworth' in Hollywoodland (2006).

His father was an Austrian Jewish doctor.

Became a naturalized US citizen in 1936.

After abandoning his law studies at the University of Vienna, he was trained to be a cinematographer at the École Technique de Photographie in Paris (1927).

He was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute in recognition of his outstanding contribution to film culture.

Personal Quotes

I'm not in pictures to promote my private personality. I'm in it for the joy of it.

[on directing Ethel Waters in The Member of the Wedding (1952)] Every time I'd try to help her, she'd roll her eyes to the heavens and say, "God is my director!" How can you argue with that?

I will always think of myself as a Hollywood director, not only because I grew up in the American film industry, but also because I believe in making films that will please a mass audience, and not just in making films that express my own personality or ideas. I have always tried to offer an audience something positive in a film and to entertain them as well.

The three most important things about a film are the script, the script, the script.

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