Francis Thompson (film director)

E. Francis Thompson (January 3, 1908 – December 26, 2003) was an influential American film director, producer, and writer.[1]

Francis Thompson, American filmmaker, 1908-2003

Thompson was born Ebenezer Francis Thompson on January 3, 1908,[2] in Titusville, Pennsylvania,[3] and commenced his career as a painter and art teacher before he directed his first film Evolution of a Skyscraper.[4]

He is best known for the films, N.Y., N.Y. (1957) and To Be Alive! (1964), and is credited with making the first IMAX film, To Fly (1976).[5]

He won the 1965 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) for To Be Alive! (1964), which he co-directed with Alexander Hammid.[6] He was a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, with a 50-year career in filmmaking, retiring in 1987.[3]

Thompson died on December 26, 2003 in New York at the age of 95.[1][3]

References
  1. Healy, Patrick (December 29, 2003). "Francis Thompson, 95, Whose Films Inspired Imax". The New York Times.
  2. "US Social Security recordsm". Ancestry.com.
  3. "Francis Thompson, 95; Filmmaker Won Oscar for Documentary". Los Angeles Times. December 31, 2003. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
  4. "Francis Thompson Biography". people.wcsu.edu.
  5. "Light Cone - Francis THOMPSON". lightcone.org.
  6. "1965 (38th Academy Award)". Academy Awards® Database - AMPAS. Retrieved January 17, 2021.
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