Frank Borzage

He married Lorena ‘Rena’ Rogers in 1916 and divorced her in 1941.

In 1945 he married Edna Skelton, the ex-wife of comedian Red Skelton and divorced her in 1949.

He finally married Juanita Scott, an accountant, in 1953 and was with her till his death.

Frank Borzage was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA on April 23, 1894. His father was Luigi Borzage, an Italian stonemason, and his mother was Maria Ruegg, a Swiss woman. They had fourteen children but only eight survived. Frank was the fourth of the surviving eight comprising of Henry, Mary Emma, Bill, Frank, Daniel, Lew, Dolly and Sue.

At the age of 14 he left school and went to work in a silver mine. Later he worked as a prop man for travelling theater groups and started doing bit parts with them during this time.

Fascinated by films, he started working for Thomas Ince, a pioneer film producer and director, at the age of 18.

Frank Borzage got his first lead role in the melodrama 'The Wrath of the Gods’ in 1914.

He continued acting in lead roles for Ince and started directing films as well. He started with small one reel films like ‘The Pitch O’ Chance’ in 1915 and ‘The Silken Spider’ in 1916.

A large number of his early films were either westerns like ‘Nugget Jim’s Parrdner’ in 1916 or thrillers like ‘The Ghost Flower’ in 1917 starring William Desmond, Bessie Love, Gloria Swanson and Pauline Starke.

In 1920 he made the sentimental drama ‘Humoresque’ in his characteristic style which made him very popular.

He moved from ‘Paramount Pictures’ to ‘First National Pictures’ to ‘MGM and finally landed up in ‘Fox Film Corporation’ in 1925.

Frank Borzage won the ‘Kinema Junpo Award’ for the ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ in 1928 and the ‘Academy Award’ for ‘Best Director’ in 1929 for ‘7th Heaven (1927)’.

In 1932 he won the Oscar for the ‘Best Director’ for a second time for the film ‘Bad Girl (1931)’.

In 1935 he won ‘The Fascist Party Cup’ for the ‘Best Foreign Film’ and was nominated for the ‘Mussolini Cup’ for ‘No Greater Glory (1934)’ at the ‘Venice Film Festival’.

In 1955 and 1957 he received the ‘George Eastman Award’ from the ‘George Eastman House’.

He was honored with a star on the ‘Hollywood Walk of Fame’ in 1960.