Borzage, Frank

Frank Borzage ( né Borzaga; April 23, 1894 – June 19, 1962) was an American film director and actor. He was the first person to win the Academy Award for Best Director for his film 7th Heaven (1927) at the 1st Academy Awards. Born to Italian and Swiss immigrant parents in Salt Lake City, Borzage began his career as a teenager performing with traveling theater groups throughout the western United States He found employment in Hollywood in 1912, where he began directing and acting in short films before transitioning to feature films. Borzage's other directorial feature credits include Street Angel (1928), Bad Girl (1931), A Farewell to Arms (1932), Man's Castle (1933), History Is Made at Night (1937), The Mortal Storm (1940), and Moonrise (1948). His final credited directorial work is the historical drama The Big Fisherman (1959), before his death from cancer in 1962.