Oscar-winning Oklahoma filmmaker Gray Frederickson dies

Academy Award-winning Oklahoma City filmmaker Gray Frederickson — who moved from Hollywood back to his hometown to help establish Oklahoma's burgeoning film industry — died Sunday after battling cancer. He was 85.

"To win the Oscar for Best Picture is one of the greatest accomplishments in modern culture, and as such, Gray is one of the most accomplished people to have ever come from our city. His film career would have been enough to make him a legend, but then for him to return to OKC and build our industry — it was an incredible gift," Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt said in a statement to The Oklahoman.

"Oklahoma City will be forever proud of Gray Frederickson and forever grateful to him."

Frederickson's projects ranged from Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather" trilogy, "Apocalypse Now" and the Oklahoma-made "The Outsiders" to documentaries like the Emmy-winning "Dream No Little Dream: The Life and Legacy of Robert S. Kerr" and his recent project "Sherwood Forest." Frederickson mentored thousands of aspiring actors, filmmakers and crew members over his six decades in the movie business.

"He is The Godfather of Oklahoma film, and his loss is felt deeply in our community," Rachel Cannon, co-founder and co-CEO of Oklahoma City's Prairie Surf Media, said in a statement to The Oklahoman. "Gray gave connectivity to an industry that felt off limits to most of us growing up in Oklahoma. He made it accessible."

Future Academy Award winner started his film career in Italy

Born and raised in Oklahoma City, the closest Frederickson got to a movie career as a youth was working as an usher at the Lakeside Theater in the 1950s. An alumnus of Casady School and the University of Oklahoma, Frederickson also attended the University of Lausanne in Switzerland.

From there, he moved to Rome, where he launched his film career as producer of 1963's "Nakita." That led to more opportunities, such as joining Italian director Sergio Leone's "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" as production manager. Frederickson forged a lasting friendship with that film's star, Clint Eastwood.

Frederickson moved his burgeoning career to Hollywood, and he made a key connection with fellow producer Albert S. Ruddy on the 1970 Robert Redford vehicle “Little Fauss and Big Halsy.”

Two years later, he and Ruddy worked with studio legend Robert Evans to produce Coppola's “The Godfather."

"Gray Frederickson began his career by producing a film when he didn’t know a thing about making movies. He just figured things out along the way. He was fearless. That gave birth to a career producing some of America’s great films," said Sean Lynch, a professor in the Oklahoma City Community College digital cinema production program that Frederickson founded, in a statement to The Oklahoman.

Producer forged a lasting bond with Francis Ford Coppola

Along with winning three Academy Awards, "The Godfather" launched a 50-year relationship between Coppola and Frederickson. The Oklahoma City native won the best picture Oscar in 1975 for "The Godfather: Part II" — the first sequel in Oscars history to win the top award — and garnered a best picture nomination in 1980 for his work on "Apocalypse Now." 

"I got on a winning horse. I was with Francis Coppola, who's no slouch. I was lucky enough to be carried along with him," Frederickson told The Oklahoman in a 2021 interview. "I got lucky with him, but he says he got lucky with me. So, maybe that's good."

Frederickson even returned to his home state with Coppola in 1982 to film in Tulsa the coming-of-age drama "The Outsiders," based on the beloved 1967 book by Tulsa author S.E. Hinton and featuring future movie stars C. Thomas Howell, Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Diane Lane, Ralph Macchio, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez and Matt Dillon. 

"It's lasted. The (line) 'Stay gold, Ponyboy' has lasted. It's lasted as long as 'The Godfathers' and as long as 'Apocalypse Now.' I have some movies that have really lasted over the years — because they're great stories," Frederickson told The Oklahoman last year.

Oscar winner moved back to Oklahoma and started a film program

Although show biz occasionally brought Frederickson back to his home state — he was executive producer on Weird Al Yankovic's 1989 cult-classic "UHF," which filmed in Tulsa — shortly after writing the original story for the 1994 Drew Barrymore film "Bad Girls," Frederickson moved back to Oklahoma with his wife, Karen, and their two children, Kelsey and Tyler.

Upon returning to OKC in 1999, he mentored the future founders of Prairie Surf Media, Cannon and Matt Payne, who surprised Frederickson last year by naming the first soundstage at Prairie Surf Studios, their downtown Oklahoma City headquarters that was formerly the Cox Convention Center, "The Gray Frederickson Stage."

"There wasn't a film industry when Matt and I were in college; we left because we had to. Gray was coming back to build it, because he wanted to bring his family here, but there wasn't much to speak of when we left," said Cannon, an actor whose credits include the TV series "Mad Men," "Fresh off the Boat" and "Two and a Half Men" along with the upcoming Oklahoma-made movie "Reagan." 

"Everything we have done at Prairie Surf Media is only possible because the foundation Gray built here over the last 20 years."

In 2000, Frederickson joined OCCC as artist-in-residence, helping to launch the college's digital cinema production program, designed to give students the practical know-how to make and work on movies. OCCC digital cinema production coordinator Greg Mellott called Frederickson "the Johnny Appleseed of the film industry in Oklahoma."

Earlier this year, the OCCC program was named to MovieMaker magazine's 2022 list of the 40 Best Film Schools in the U.S. and Canada.

"I cannot say enough about all he did for the college and for his many acts of kindness shown throughout his illustrious career. We will miss him tremendously and carry his incredible legacy forward," OCCC President Mautra Staley Jones said of Frederickson in an email to The Oklahoman.

Best Picture winner helped establish Oklahoma's first film incentive

While the state Legislature approved and Gov. Kevin Stitt signed last year Oklahoma's largest film rebate program to date, Dino Lalli recalled that Frederickson played a lead role in getting the state's first incentive passed.

"As director of the Oklahoma Film + Music Office during that time, it was an honor and privilege to work with him," said Lalli, now a local journalist and film critic. “A significant part of the film industry’s burgeoning and consistent success in Oklahoma today is due in large part to Gray."

The state's film workforce is built on the program Frederickson and his cohorts created at OCCC, Payne told The Oklahoman in 2021.

"Almost every single person that I've engaged with that works in Oklahoma film, they refer to Gray as a mentor and a friend … and that says a lot about a guy," said Payne, who has worked as a screenwriter on shows like "Vegas" and "The Defenders."

OKC filmmaker Lance McDaniel, CEO of McDaniel Entertainment, said Frederickson set a standard for kindness and professionalism on the state's movie sets.

"Gray Frederickson was my first boss in the film industry ... and he has just been a trailblazer at every step of the way. And it was always led by 'How can I do something for others?'" McDaniel said.

Prolific producer continued to make movies well into his 80s

Although he had already worked on about 50 films, Frederickson continued to work as a filmmaker — especially in his home state — well into his 80s. Last year, he was producing a documentary called "Sherwood Forest," a film telling an overlooked World War II episode about a group of Oklahoma and Texas roughnecks shipped to England in 1943 to alleviate the war-torn nation's oil shortages. 

"Always looking for a great story, that's what a producer does. ... That's what it's about: telling stories to people like they did years ago around the campfire. Now we do it with a camera. Pretty cool," Frederickson told The Oklahoman.

In 2012, Frederickson was named an Oklahoma Film & TV ICON by the deadCenter Film Festival, and he was added to the Muskogee-based Oklahoma Movie Hall of Fame in 2018. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 2019, with Coppola traveling to Oklahoma to help present his friend with the state's highest individual honor.

Frederickson told The Oklahoman in a 2019 interview that he considered induction into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame an even greater honor than winning his Academy Award.

“Oscar is an award for Best Picture. Oklahoma Hall of Fame is an award for me, so that’s why this is the best,” he said.

“It’s special because of Oklahoma. I’m Oklahoma. I mean, it’s like another appendage for me. It’s part of me; it’s who I am. And to be accepted by Oklahoma is really the pinnacle of everything for me.”

A memorial service is set for 1 p.m. Dec. 2 at Westminster Presbyterian Church. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in his memory to Autism Oklahoma.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oscar-winning Oklahoma filmmaker Gray Frederickson dies