Fred Zinnemann and Meryl Streep. He directed 19 actors to Oscar nominations, including Frank Sinatra, Montgomery Clift, Audrey Hepburn, Glynis Johns, Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw, Wendy Hiller, Jason Robards, Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Fonda, Gary Cooper and Maximilian Schell. Zinnemann was born in Rzeszów, the son of Anna (Feiwel) and Oskar Zinnemann, a doctor. His parents were Austrian-Jews. He had one younger brother. While growing up in Austria, he wanted to become a musician, but went on to graduate with a law degree from the University of Vienna in 1927. While studying law, he became drawn to films and convinced his parents to
Fred Zinnemann let him study film production in Paris. After studying for a year at the Ecole Technique de Photographie et Cinématographie in Paris, he became a cameraman and found work on a number of films in Berlin, before immigrating to Hollywood. Both of his parents were killed during the Holocaust. Zinnemann worked in Germany with several other beginners (Billy Wilder and Robert Siodmak also worked with him on the 1929 feature "People on Sunday") after he studied filmmaking in France. His penchant for realism and authenticity is evident in his first feature "The Wave" (1935), shot on location in Mexico with