Carl Franklin

CARL FRANKLIN

Date of Birth: April 11, 1949

Born in Richmond, California, Franklin studied history and dramatic arts at UC Berkeley. After spending the next few years as a television actor, landing steady work on the small screen with numerous guest shots, roles in TV movies, miniseries and busted pilots and stints as a regular on several unsuccessful series, he returned to school and received his master's degree in directing at the American Film Institute.

Impressed with his thesis film, Punk (1986), which was a portrait of a black boy from a broken home coping with both; societal norms and his own emerging sexuality, he was hired by Roger Corman's Concorde Films to direct a number of films in a short period of time.

It took several years, but in 1992, Franklin made his directorial breakthrough with the highly acclaimed crime drama One False Move. This tough noir-ish thriller efficiently told the story of the manhunt of three small-time criminals on the lam after a botched drug deal. The film also earned him the prestigious New Generation Award by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association in 1992, the MTV Movie Award for Best New Filmmaker and the IFP Spirit Award for Best Director in 1993.

Following the acclaimed television film Laurel Avenue, Franklin wrote and directed Denzel Washington and Don Cheadle in the period mystery Devil in a Blue Dress (1995). Despite earning rave reviews from the critics, the film failed to interest viewers. Undaunted, Franklin helmed the feature adaptation of Anna Quindlen's autobiographical novel One True Thing (1998). Starring Meryl Streep, Renée Zellweger and William Hurt, the film again had difficulty at the box office, but earned Streep Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for her strong performance as a mother dying of cancer.

He returned to television again for a few years directing the series Partners, but by the start of the 21st century, he got down to work on the wide screen with High Crimes (2002).

Filmography (director):

High Crimes (2002)
One True Thing (1998)
Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)
One False Move (1991)
Full Fathom Five (1990)
Eye of the Eagle 2: Inside the Enemy (1989)
Nowhere to Run (1989)
Punk (1986)

Filmography (actor):

In the Heat of Passion (1992)
Last Stand at Lang Mei (1990)
Full Fathom Five (1990)
Eye of the Eagle 2: Inside the Enemy (1989)
Five on the Black Hand Side (1973)