John Frankenheimer - Early Life

Early Life

Frankenheimer was born in Queens, New York, the son of Helen Mary (née Sheedy) and Walter Martin Frankenheimer, a stockbroker. Frankenheimer once speculated that he might be related to actress Ally Sheedy. His father was of German Jewish descent and his mother was Irish Catholic, and Frankenheimer was raised Catholic.

Frankenheimer grew up in New York City and became interested in movies at an early age; he recalled going to the cinema every weekend. In 1947, he graduated from La Salle Military Academy in Oakdale, Long Island, New York. In 1951, he graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where he studied English. He also developed an interest in acting as a career while in college but began thinking seriously about directing when he was in the Air Force. This led him to join a film squadron based in Burbank, California, where he shot his first documentary. He also began studying film theory by reading books about other famous directors, such as Sergei Eisenstein along with how-to books about the craft of film making.

In May 2001, amid rumors that he was the biological father of film director Michael Bay, Frankenheimer stated he had a brief relationship with Bay's birth mother. After the rumors surfaced that Bay's natural father was a filmmaker, there was much speculation about Frankenheimer, who continued to deny the story and told the Los Angeles Times that there had once been "tests" to determine paternity (long before DNA testing).