Fred Zinnemann

The castaway in Desert Island Discs is a man who has directed some of the most popular and memorable films in the history of cinema - High Noon, From Here to Eternity, Oklahoma! and A Man for All Seasons. He is Fred Zinnemann, and he will be talking to Sue Lawley about his boyhood at the beginning of the century in imperial Vienna, his thwarted ambitions to be a musician, and the years he spent working in Hollywood where he directed, and on several occasions discovered, some of the best-known names in the film world, including Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift and Frank Sinatra.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Magnificat by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Luxury: Very large self renewing bottle of scotch