- Born
- Died
- Birth nameFrancois Bornet
- Songwriter, composer, author, director and singer who came to the USA in 1939. He studied music with Kozakewitch and Coe Glade and was a singer on radio and recordings in Belgium, and by 1941 he had his own radio show in the US. Serving in the US Army in WW II, he wrote scores for the Army shows "Bottlenecks 1941" and "As You Were". He directed film shorts for Tex McCrary and Jinx Falkenburg in 1947, and wrote, produced and directed film shorts including "One Morning". Also, he wrote the score for "In The Rivers of Streets". Joining ASCAP in 1961, his song compositions include "Two Little Birds in Love" and "I'm Wasting My Time".- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
- Fred "Freddy" Bornet was born in Scheveningen, Holland, on February 25, 1915. Fluent in French, English and German, he migrated to the United States in 1939 as a 24 year old primarily to escape Hitler who by that time had already loomed as a threat to the Jews of Europe. Fred was well on his way as a musical talent before the outbreak of WWII. At that time he was a song and dance man and composer in New York City. This segment of his life was interrupted by the entry of the US into WWII. However, he continued to be engaged in musicals that received good press reviews in the early part of his US Army life. While stationed at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey along with writers from MGM and Paramount Fred wrote an extremely successful musical "Bottlenecks, 1941." The musical was subsequently broadcast on NBC TV.
During the greater part of this period Fred served in the U.S. Army as a combat cameraman until wounded at Cassino as he took part in the invasion of Southern France with the Seventh Army. Segments of film that he had shot were incorporated into The True Glory, a war film that received an Academy Award. During this period he received a Purple Heart for his injury at Cassino, a Bronze Star in the Italian Campaign as the Army headed toward France, and a Croix de Guerre from the French Expeditionary Corps of General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny. He left the Army as a staff sergeant.
In 1945 Fred studied theatrical direction with Lee Strassberg then began to direct his energies into photography and direction, highlighted by a musical series for Columbia Pictures, Sing and be Happy (1947). This period followed his work as a director-cinematographer highlighted by his work with Somerset Maugham in the celebrated author's TV series. His career continued and eventually found a home in television commercials for top New York City ad agencies. As he connected with major US corporations and institutions he was engaged by producers for documentaries, a number of which became international prizewinners. Some of his films are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. As an avocation, Fred worked as a sculptor and a notable surrealistic and abstract painter but with a sense of humor and wit uncommon in this genre.
After the release of Steven Spielberg's Academy Award winning film, Saving Private Ryan (1998) at the tail end of the Clinton Administration at which time WWII was being revisited by the popular culture in the US Fred was flown to Washington DC along with some of the remaining WWII Combat Cameramen to receive public recognition for the harrowing and amazing contribution such men do in wartime. Fred also presented some of his WWII memoirs on National Public Radio in 2005. On 29 August 2006, Fred had a coughing attack and was taken to a hospital near his residence on Park Avenue, Manhattan, NYC, where he passed away.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Raul daSilva
- SpouseLisa Rhana(1952 - 1985) (her death)
- Uncle by marriage of writer-screenwriter, Jessy Lasky Jr.
- His wife, Lisa Rhana, was a pastel artists specializing in ballet stars such as Margot Fontaine, Rudolph Nureyev and others at that level. Celebrated among artists in the New York City of her era, she served as a cover artist for The New Yorker, Time Magazine and other periodicals. Some of her work is at the Whitney Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of the City of New York. The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts holds roughly a dozen of her pieces.
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