Editing Frank Capra (section)

== Personal life ==
[[File:Frank Capra & Alan Greenberg.jpeg|thumb|Capra (right) {{circa}} 1970s–1980s]]
Capra married actress Helen Howell in 1923. They divorced in 1928. He married Lucille Warner in 1932, with whom he had a daughter and three sons, one of whom, Johnny, died at age 3 following a tonsillectomy.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DMkLpTFBEtUC&pg=PA725|title=Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success|last=McBride|first=Joseph|date=June 2, 2011|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1-60473-839-1|language=en}}</ref>

Capra was four times president of the [[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]] and three times president of the [[Directors Guild of America]], which he helped found. Under his presidency, he worked to give directors more artistic control of their films. During his career as a director, he retained an early ambition to teach science, and after his career declined in the 1950s, he made educational television films related to science subjects.<ref name="Wakeman p. 103" />

Physically, Capra was short, stocky, and vigorous, and enjoyed outdoor activities, such as hunting, fishing, and mountain climbing. In his later years, he spent time writing short stories and songs, along with playing guitar.<ref name="Wakeman p. 103" /> He collected fine and rare books during the 1930s and 1940s. Six hundred forty items from his "distinguished library" were sold by Parke-Bernet Galleries at auction in New York in April 1949, realizing $68,000 (${{Inflation|US|68000|1949|r=-2|fmt=c}} today).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Frank Capra : the catastrophe of success|author=McBride, Joseph|date=2011|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1-60473-839-1|location=[Jackson]|oclc=721907547}}</ref>

His son, [[Frank Capra Jr.]], was the president of [[EUE/Screen Gems|EUE Screen Gems Studios]] in [[Wilmington, North Carolina]], until his death on December 19, 2007. His grandsons, brothers Frank Capra III and Jonathan Capra, have both worked as assistant directors; Frank III worked on the 1995 film ''[[The American President]]'', which referred to Frank Capra in the film's dialogue.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-dec-21-me-capra21-story.html|title=Son of film legend, producer, studio boss|first=Dennis|last=McLellan|date=December 21, 2007|newspaper=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>

=== Political views ===

Capra's political views coalesced in some of his movies, which promoted and celebrated the spirit of American individualism. A [[American conservatism|conservative]] [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]], Capra railed against [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] during his tenure as governor of New York and opposed his presidency during the years of the Depression. Capra stood against government intervention during the national economic crisis.<ref name="Wilson 2013, p. 266">Wilson 2013, p. 266.</ref> Nevertheless, the Los Angeles FBI chapter in May 1947 regarded Capra's film ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]'' as glorifying “values or institutions judged to be particularly anti-American or pro-Communist.”<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/weird-story-fbi-and-its-wonderful-life-180967587/| title=The Weird Story of the FBI and 'It's a Wonderful Life'| author=Eschner, Kat|website=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]] | date=December 20, 2017| access-date=September 3, 2024}}</ref>

In his later years, Capra became a self-described pacifist and was very critical of the [[Vietnam War]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1_-o2HI26KIC&pg=PA96|title=Frank Capra: Interviews|last=Capra|first=Frank|date=2004|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1-57806-617-9|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

=== Religious views ===

Capra wrote in his early adulthood that he was a "Christmas Catholic". In his later years, Capra returned to the [[Catholic Church]] and described himself as "a Catholic in spirit; one who firmly believes that the anti-moral, the intellectual bigots, and the Mafias of ill will may destroy religion, but they will never conquer the cross".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/culture/art/the-catholic-vision-of-frank-capra.html|title=The Catholic Vision of Frank Capra|date=February 2002|access-date=June 9, 2020}}</ref>