Director John Frankenheimer dies

John Frankenheimer, director of such Hollywood classics as "The Manchurian Candidate" and "Birdman of Alcatraz," has died. He was 72.

Frankenheimer died of a stroke due to complications following spinal surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, said his business manager, Patti Person.

Frankenheimer was nominated for 14 Emmy Awards in a career that spanned nearly five decades. His work ranged from social dramas to political thrillers, and included a highly regarded run of feature films in the 1960s, and a string of 152 live television dramas in the '50s.

"John Frankenheimer chose a camera as his form of expression. For those of us who love movies, thank God he did," former Paramount and MGM head Frank Mancuso Sr. said in a statement.

Frankenheimer made his name with "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962), a dark conspiracy thriller about a Korean War brainwashing victim. The same year he made the stirring social drama "Birdman of Alcatraz," starring Burt Lancaster as a prisoner who becomes an expert on birds.

Two years later came another classic film of political suspense, "Seven Days in May," which starred Lancaster as a renegade general planning a coup.

Frankenheimer "made the template" for political thrillers, Mancuso's son, the producer Frank Mancuso Jr., once said.

Other films included "All Fall Down," "Seconds," "Black Sunday" and "The Train." His most recent, "Path to War," premiered on the cable channel HBO in May.

"John's passion for filmmaking, and his appetite for life, were without equal," Directors Guild of America President Martha Coolidge said in a statement. "He was one of those rarest of people who, simply put, can never be replaced."

Frankenheimer is expected to be inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in November.