John Michael Frankenheimer was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films. Among his credits were Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Seven Days in May (1964), The Train (1964), Seconds (1966), Grand Prix (1966), French Connection II (1975), Black Sunday (1977), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996), and Ronin (1998).
John Frankenheimer
Frankenheimer at Columbia Broadcasting Studios (CBS), 1952
Frankenheimer on the set of Grand Prix
Frankenheimer on the set of the television film Andersonville in 1994
Birdman of Alcatraz (film)
Birdman of Alcatraz is a 1962 American biographical drama film directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Burt Lancaster. It is a largely fictionalized version of the life of Robert Stroud, who was sentenced to solitary confinement after having killed a prison guard. A federal prison inmate, he became known as the "Birdman of Alcatraz" because of his studies of birds, which had taken place when he was incarcerated at Leavenworth Prison where he was allowed to keep birds in jail. When moved to Alcatraz, Stroud was never allowed to keep any birds.
Theatrical release poster by Saul Bass
Burt Lancaster pictured with Martha Gaddis and Thomas E Gaddis during filming of Birdman of Alcatraz, February 1961