- Born
- Died
- Birth nameSidney Arnold Franklin
- Height1.68 m
- Sidney Franklin was involved in amateur filmmaking while still at school. With his brother Chester M. Franklin, he wrote, directed and edited a short film, The Baby (1915), at a cost of $400. Somehow it attracted the interest of D.W. Griffith, who decided to put the brothers to work making children's films for the Triangle Film Corporation. After three years they went their separate ways. Sidney ended up with the more successful career. He established his reputation with La victoire du coeur (1922), and went on to direct some of the great female stars of the silent era, including Norma Talmadge, Mary Pickford and Greta Garbo. He joined MGM in 1926 and remained affiliated with the studio until his departure in 1958.
A protégé of the similarly inclined chief of production at MGM,Irving Thalberg, Franklin was thought of as a "literate" filmmaker. He was at his best bringing classics to the screen, like the Noël Coward adaptation of Vies privées (1931); Une soirée à Vienne (1933), based on a play by Robert E. Sherwood; Rudolph Besier's period melodrama Miss Barrett (1934) or Pearl S. Buck's tale of struggling Chinese farmers, La terre chinoise (1937). All were lavishly produced as A-grade features, with A-grade budgets.
From 1939 Sidney spent most of his time as producer on similarly prestigious films, with a strong inclination towards sentimental melodrama. The biggest box-office hits were La valse dans l'ombre (1940), Prisonniers du passé (1942), Madame Curie (1943),Les Blanches Falaises de Douvres (1944) and Madame Miniver (1942), a picture he thought would lose money but needed to be made. It turned out to be the most popular picture of the year and contributed in no small way to Sidney winning the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award in 1943, for "consistent high quality of production and achievement".- IMDb mini biography by: I.S.Mowis
- SpousesEnid Bennett(June 20, 1963 - May 14, 1969) (her death)Ruth Helms(April 12, 1937 - October 27, 1960) (her death)Ann P. Denitz(November 11, 1916 - 1933) (divorced, 1 child)
- Children
- RelativesChester M. Franklin(Sibling)
- Deep, resonant voice
- Shy
- An MGM executive said of him, "[He] is very frail, but give him a picture and he's about as frail as the Empire State Building".
- Brother of director Chester M. Franklin
- In 1937 it was announced that he would direct Bambi (1942), but production delays (it was eventually filmed five years after this announcement, in 1942) moved him away from the production. He eventually got a credit for artistic collaborator.
- Directed five different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Norma Shearer, Merle Oberon and Luise Rainer. Rainer won for her performance in La terre chinoise (1937).
- After Irving Thalberg's death, MGM gave him producing rather than directing assignments.
- [about Norma Talmadge's popularity with audiences] You could take 1000 feet of Norma Talmadge in a chair, and her fans would flock to see it.
- [1970, on the bulldozing of the sets on the back lot of bankrupt MGM, including the huge gateway from La terre chinoise (1937)] Now this could make you cry.
- I never felt I was a great director. I never felt I was quite good enough. I was not unique enough--I was too straightforward. I never felt brilliant like [Ernst Lubitsch]. I was always wishing I could do things more cleverly, more subtly.
- [William C. de Mille] did a great deal for me. He gave me a sense of peace. My panic disappeared with his confident attitude.
- I went to school on The Guardsman (1931). What I learned from this experience--by being with the Lunts for several weeks--I couldn't have picked up in a lifetime.
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