Reply #149: Producer Frank Capra Jr., son of legendary director.

[CBHagman]

Mr. Capra worked with his father on A Pocket Full of Miracles and also directed television shows such as Gunsmoke. In recent years he helped establish North Carolina as a filmmaking location.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/obituaries/710405,CST-NWS-xcapr23.article

Mr. Capra was one of three children of Frank Capra and Lucille Rayburn Warner Capra, who tried to protect her children from the Hollywood life. Still, he could tell stories about dinners with Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, and said he was best friends with Gary Cooper's daughter Maria.

Mr. Capra said his father had no idea he was making a classic when filming ''It's a Wonderful Life,'' which starred Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore.

''I don't think any filmmaker knows that,'' he said. ''He loved the idea of the story. He fell in love with that idea of the story about a man who could see the world the way it would have been had he never been born.''

Mr. Capra said his father described the movie as ''the picture I was born to make,'' and held no resentment that he didn't earn any money from its repetitive showings on television during the Christmas season.


His obituary from Variety:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117978076.html?categoryid=25&cs=1