SAN FRANCISCO -- Hollywood director John Frankenheimer, whose films included the 1960s hits "The Birdman of Alcatraz" and "The Manchurian Candidate," died on Saturday in Los Angeles. He was 72.

Frankenheimer died following a stroke at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he had undergone spinal surgery, his daughter Kristi Frankenheimer said.

Frankenheimer, a native of Malba, New York, also was an award-winning television director known for social dramas.

He won four consecutive Emmy Awards in the 1990s for the television movies "Against the Wall," "The Burning Season," "Andersonville," and "George Wallace," which also received a Golden Globe Award.

Frankenheimer got his start making training films for the U.S. Air Force. In 1953 he arrived in New York City and talked his way into an assistant director's job at CBS.