Frank Darabont

Frank Árpád Darabont (born Ferenc Árpád Darabont, January 28, 1959) is a French-born American filmmaker. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. In his early career, he was primarily a screenwriter for such horror films as A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), The Blob (1988) and The Fly II (1989). As a director, he is known for his film adaptations of Stephen King novellas and novels, such as The Shawshank Redemption (1994), The Green Mile (1999), and The Mist (2007). Darabont also developed and executive-produced the first season and first half of the second season of the AMC horror series The Walking Dead (2010–2011). Early life Darabont was born in a refugee camp in 1959 in Montbéliard, France. His parents had fled Hungary for France after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, bringing his five brothers and four sisters, and three cousins. When Darabont was still an infant, his family immigrated to the United States, settling in Chicago before moving to Los Angeles when Darabont was five. Darabont was inspired in his youth to pursue a career in film after seeing the George Lucas film THX 1138. Darabont graduated from Hollywood High School in 1977 and did not attend college.