Fred Zinneman was born in Vienna to a Jewish family, his father was a doctor. He wanted to become a musician, but entered the University of Vienna, where he studied law. He began his film career as a cameraman, and in 1930 he became one of the directors of the film “Sunday People”, on which future Hollywood directors Billy Wilder and Robert Siodmack also worked.
Having arrived in the United States, Zinnemann became an assistant and translator to another émigré from Austria - writer and director Berthold Fiertel. Thanks to Firtel, Zinneman met actress Greta Garbo, directors Sergei Eisestein, Friedrich Murnau, Robert Flaherty. Zinneman called his work with documentary filmmaker Flaherty on the unfinished project “the most important event of my professional life.”[1]
Zinneman played in the extras in the film “On the Western Front without change” (1930; based on the novel by Remarque), and the first feature film was shot in 1935 in Mexico. It was a documentary about fishermen called The Wave, commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture. In 1936, Zinneman was granted U.S. citizenship and married René Bartlet, whose marriage would last until his death. Four years later, they had a son Tim, in the future a film producer.
After returning from Mexico, Zinneman directed eighteen shorts for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. For one of them, These Mothers Could Live (1938), he won an Oscar. In 1942, he directed the full-length detectives Eyes in the Night and The Gloves Killer. His first known film was the war drama The Seventh Cross, shot during World War II, starring Spencer Tracy. In the post-war years, Zinneman discovered two actors who would become stars: Search (1948) became a feature-length film debut for Montgomery Clift, and Men (1950) for Marlon Brando. In 1951, the director shot the last short film in his life, Benji, for which he was again awarded the Oscar.
In 1952, one of Zinneman’s most famous films was released – the western “Exactly at Noon”. Screenplayed by the disgraced Carl Foreman and telling about a sheriff who was left alone with the bandits because the townspeople were afraid to help him, it was perceived as an allegory of the American society of the McCarthy era.[2] Conservative Howard Hawks and John Wayne criticized the film, their western “Rio Bravo” was a kind of response to the picture of Zinneman. Released in 1953, the drama “From Now and Forever” based on the novel by James Jones was awarded eight Oscars, including prizes for best director and best film.
Despite the recognition and active employment, the director was dissatisfied with the atmosphere of the witch hunt that reigned in the United States, and in 1963 he left for the UK. Here he made several films, the most famous of which was the biography of Thomas More “Man for All Time” (1966), which won many awards. The story of the Catholic Sea, which came into conflict with King Henry VIII, received the approval of the Vatican[1], and in 1994 took first place in the list of best conservative films[3], despite the liberal reputation of the director.
Fred Zinneman's last film was released in 1982, after which he retired from film. In 1992, he published his autobiography, Fred Zinneman on Cinema. Fred Zinneman died in 1997 at the age of 89 of a heart attack.