Biography

Frank Tashlin

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Frank Tashlin was born on February 19, 1913 in Weehawken, New Jersey, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957), The Girl Can't Help It (1956) and Rock-a-Bye Baby (1958). He was married to Gloria Jean Brown, Mary Costa and Dorothy Marguerite Hill. He died on May 5, 1972 in Burbank, Los Angeles, California, USA.

His cartoons featured quick editing, wild and outrageous gags, and extremely odd angles

While directing Bing Crosby in Say One for Me (1959), Bing mentioned to Tashlin how much he hated how he was caricatured in the Warner Bros. cartoon Swooner Crooner (1944). Tashlin laughed, and told Bing that not only did he direct that cartoon, he also animated the caricature in it!
One of the few directors to successfully make the transition from animation to live-action. One critic noted that he directed his cartoons like live-action films and his live-action films like cartoons.
Interviewed in Peter Bogdanovich's "Who the Devil Made It: Conversations With Robert Aldrich, George Cukor, Allan Dwan, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Chuck Jones, Fritz Lang, Joseph H. Lewis, Sidney Lumet, Leo McCarey, Otto Preminger, Don Siegel, Josef von Sternberg, Frank Tashlin, Edgar G. Ulmer, Raoul Walsh." NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.
He was 6' 2" and weighed nearly 300 pounds.
Introduced cinematic techniques to the animated cartoon, such as odd camera angles, montage and quickly paced editing (some shots lasting only five frames long).

[on Jerry Lewis]: Jerry is my best friend - I know if ever I were in any need, all I'd have to do is make a phone call. Sometimes, on a professional basis, he's exasperating, but anyone who's talented is.
[on Orson Welles, 1962]: I think Welles is great. There are no better pictures than "Citizen Kane" and "The Magnificent Ambersons". A few years ago, when I was working over at RKO, I saw the footage he had shot for that South American picture he never finished, "It's All True". A lot of it was in color. I don't know, I must've sat there maybe ten hours, and I just can't describe it to you. It was like nothing I've ever seen. Fantastic.
[on Tony Randall, 1965]: Randall takes direction beautifully. He filters it through his own mechanism. Some comedians imitate their directors. When you're working with Tony, you feel like a ballet master. His technique is as clean as a chess game. His control is beautiful to watch - an acting lesson for anyone interested in the art of acting.
[on Robert Morley, 1965]: The dialogue he has come up with! He hasn't said one word as written - thank God! Because this man can sneeze better dialogue than was written.

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