Frank Thompson is a filmmaker, comedy writer and film historian, the author of 45 books.
His newest book is "The Compleat Beau Geste" (2023), a lavishly illustrated, in-depth history of all the adaptations of P. C. Wren's 1924 novel -- film, stage, television, radio, comic books, and much more. It features nearly 1,200 pictures, many of them extremely rare. The book is printed in full color throughout.
Thompson's other books includes "Nothing Sacred: The Cinema of William Wellman" (2018), co-written with John Andrew Gallagher, "Asheville Movies Volume I: The Silent Era" (2017), "I Was That Masked Man (1996) co-written with Clayton Moore, the Lone Ranger, and "Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas: The Film, The Art, The Vision" (1993).
For more than twenty years he worked as a producer and writer on many TV series.
He wrote hundreds of introductory scripts for American Movie Classics hosts Cher, Alec Baldwin, Jodie Foster, Winona Ryder, Billy Bob Thornton, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Stefanie Powers, Morgan Fairchild, Phyllis Diller, Brendan Fraser, Shirley Jones, Ali MacGraw, Kirsten Dunst, Lesley-Anne Down, Patrick Wayne, Lesley Ann Warren, Sean Young and many others.
Thompson's documentaries and TV specials include "The Lost Remake of Beau Geste," "AMC's The Great Christmas Movies," "Frank Capra: A Personal Remembrance," and "The Making of 'It's a Wonderful Life'."
Thompson has contributed to several film encyclopedia and has written hundreds of articles for magazines and newspapers: American Cinematographer, American Film, Film Comment, The Big Frame, The Hollywood Reporter, Disney Channel Magazine, Sight and Sound, Tower Pulse! Texas Monthly, WNC Magazine, Asheville Citizen-Times, Atlanta Journal & Constitution, Boston Globe, Durham News & Observer, Miami Herald, Mountain XPress, Philadelphia Inquirer, Salisbury Post, San Francisco Chronicle, San Antonio Express News.
He served as Guest Curator for the museum exhibit "Hollywood Comes to South Carolina: A Century of Filmmaking in the Palmetto State" which ran from January through October, 2008 at the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia SC. This was a follow-up to his exhibit "Texas Movies" which ran in 2005 at the Bob Bullock State History Museum in Austin, Texas.
In 2004 he had a cameo appearance in "The Alamo" and also wrote two books that tied in with the film: "The Alamo: A Novel" (2004, Hyperion) and "The Alamo: The Illustrated Story of the Epic Film" (2004, Newmarket).
Thompson has written and/or produced several videos and has contributed audio commentary to more than a dozen classic films, notably "Beau Geste" (1939), "Objective Burma" (1945), "The Last Command" (1955), "Wild Boys of the Road" (1933), "The Time of Their Lives" (1946), "McLintock!" (1963), "Hondo" (1953) "White Zombie" (1932) and "Track of the Cat" (1954).
He appears onscreen in many documentaries, most recently on the Blu-Ray release of the Paramount restoration of the 1927 Academy Award-winner "Wings" (2013).
Frank Thompson lives in Asheville, North Carolina with his wife Claire McCulloch and their rakishly handsome dog Bruno.
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