Frank Cvitanovich (14 August 1927 – 12 August 1995) was a Canadian documentary film maker, who made much of his best work for British television.

Early years

Cvitanovich was born in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, the son of a

Croat The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are also a recognized minority in a number of neighboring countries, namely Austria, the Czech Republic, Ge ...

immigrant. His father founded his own salmon fishing fleet and his son worked for him as an apprentice, before trying his hand as a poker player, theatre hand, film runner and professional

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

er. A severe knee injury ended his gridiron career in California, but Cvitanovich convinced the makers of

Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician, rodeo performer, and baseball owner who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning s ...

's television series ''

The Singing Cowboy Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician, rodeo performer, and baseball owner who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning s ...

'' that he could direct. He made a further 31 episodes in Hollywood, before moving to London in the mid-1950s and setting up his own film company. In 1970 Cvitanovich was the co-director of ''

Festival Express ''Festival Express'' is a 2003 documentary film about the 1970 train tour of the same name across Canada taken by some of North America's most popular rock bands, including the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band, Buddy Guy, Flying Burrito B ...

''. A documentary account of a five-day Canadian rock tour, that took several influential bands across Canada by train, it was finally released with contemporary interview footage in 2003.

Thames Television

Cvitanovich's greatest work was for

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a Broadcast license, franchise holder for a region of the British ITV (TV network), ITV television network serving Greater London, London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until th ...

during the 1970s, under the enlightened reign of Director of Programmes

Jeremy Isaacs Sir Jeremy Israel Isaacs (born 28 September 1932) is a Scottish television producer and executive, opera manager, and a recipient of many British Academy Television Awards and International Emmy Awards. He won the British Film Institute Fellow ...

. With his then partner,

Midge Mackenzie Margaret Rose "Midge" MacKenzie, (6 March 1938 - 28 January 2004) was a London-born writer and filmmaker who first become known for producing Robert Joffrey's multimedia ballet ''Astarte'' with the Joffrey Ballet, and ''Women Talking'', a documenta ...

, his first film for Thames was ''Bunny'' (1972), a moving account of the treatment given to the couple's own brain-damaged son in a Philadelphia clinic. The film won an International

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

. Cvitanovich loved sport - especially the Dallas Cowboys - and his very first documentary was a study of a baseball player in decline. For Thames he made films about motorcycle champion

Barry Sheene Barry Steven Frank Sheene (11 September 1950 – 10 March 2003) was a British professional motorcycle racer. He competed in Grand Prix motorcycle racing Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the premier class of motorcycle road racing even ...

, the footballing ''Charlton Brothers'' and ''Saturday’s Heroes'' (1976) about life behind the scenes at

Tottenham Hotspur F.C. Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

Other subjects included a day in the life of an East End park, and ''The Kilnsey Show'' about a Yorkshire wall-building competition. Yorkshire was also the setting for ''Bonny, Beauty, Daisy, Violet, Grace and Geoffrey Morton'' (1974), which won a BAFTA and several other awards. In 1981 Cvitanovich won a

Jacob's Award The Jacob's Awards were instituted in December 1962 as the first Irish television awards. Later, they were expanded to include radio. The awards were named after their sponsor, W. & R. Jacob & Co. Ltd., a biscuit manufacturer, and recipients ...

for ''Murphy's Stroke'', his TV film based on the

Gay Future Gay Future was the racehorse at the centre of an attempted fraud by an Irish betting syndicate in Great Britain in 1974 involving two chestnut horses.

betting coup.''The Irish Times'', "Kee wins award for TV history of Ireland", 11 April 1981

Private life

Cvitanovich was married five times. Apart from Midge Mackenzie, his wives included the TV presenter and journalist Janet Street-Porter. "He had an irrational fear of tomatoes" (Janet Street-Porter) and the former editor and interior designer Valerie Wade.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cvitanovich, Frank 1927 births 1995 deaths Canadian documentary filmmakers Canadian people of Croatian descent Jacob's Award winners People from Vancouver