This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| Fred Bornet is a New Yorker, equally at home with a paint brush, a camera, or a sculpture tool. He has painted whimsical, surreal objects and sculpted a series of satirical clay figures, reflecting his professional motion picture world, called: "The Paleolithic Film Society". This group of sculptures is based on those described in "The Incredible Discovery of Professor T. T. Potts," where Professor Potts reports finding this group of stone age film personnel in the hills of Santa Monica.
Bornet's true passion, though, dating back to his early years in Belgium, is cats. He has written and illustrated several books, among them: "Cats are Poets", "Cats are Clowns", "How to Raise a Unicat", and, most recently, the ultimate ballet book, "Pas de Cat". He is currently engaged in painting interpretations of famous masterpieces from Leonardo to Chagall, each endowed with an improbable, yet delightful, feline twist.
He has, since 1948, photographed and/or directed television commercials for all leading advertising agencies and production film houses in New York City, Chicago, Hollywood, Dallas, Cleveland, Toronto, including: J.W.Thompson, McCann, Erickson, Young Rubicam, BBD O, Doyle Dane Bernbach, Ted Bates and Leo Burnett Co.
From 1941-1945, he served in the U.S. Army as a combat cameraman until he was wounded at Casino. He took part in the invasion of Southern France with the Seventh Army. Some segments of his motion picture material were shot in action in Wurzburg, Germany, and were incorporated into "The True Glory," an Academy Award-winning war movie, 1945. He studied theatrical direction with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in 1947.
Special accomplishments:
Directed and photographed musical series for Columbia Pictures: Sing and Be Happy, 1948.
Wrote, produced, and directed Pre-Castro film for Sterling Films: Just One Puff of Havana, 1951
Produced several TV films with Somerset Maugham in France, 1951
Directed and photographed Air Force films in Arizona, 1952
Directed and photographed commercial film Uncommon Clay, 1954
Directed and photographed feature film The Hold-up, 1954 - 1958
Worked exclusively with FILMWAYS on television projects, 1959
Wrote, produced, directed, photographed One Morning, winner of Venice and Edinburgh Film Festival Awards, 1961
Wrote, produced, directed, photographed, and scored In the Rivers of Streets, shot in Paris and New York; winner of Edinburgh Film Festival award, 1963
One Man Show, Crespi Gallery, 1964
Directed, photographed, wrote Dream the City, winner of Edinburgh Film Festival award, 1965
Wrote, produced, directed, photographed, edited, partially scored Screams, Atlanta Film Festival award winner, 1966 -
Wrote, produced, directed, photographed, edited, partially scored numerous Films, commercials, screenplays
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