The movie that started it all: Firestarter, starring a young Drew Barrymore.

How do you live up to the promise of the man who was responsible for It's a Wonderful Life?

It's a question that his son, Frank Capra Jr., likely struggled with. The senior Capra was a Hollywood legend whose name was synonymous with the syrupy, lispy line "Teacher says every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings!" But he wasn't any one-hit wonder: He also directed classics including Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and Pocketful of Miracles (1961).

Much to live up to, indeed.

Nowadays the image of second-generation Hollywood royalty is that of overly advantaged, young, questionably talented B-listers. People who were in the right places at the right times.

Frank Capra Jr., who died December 19, made his name by finding the wrong place at the right time.

In 1982, he had acquired the rights to the Stephen King novel Firestarter. Having forged a production deal with Dino de Laurentiis – best known in the U.S. for such clunkers as Lipstick (1976) and King Kong (1976) – he set out to find a Southern mansion for a shooting location. His search brought him to coastal North Carolina, where a historic plantation fit the bill.

The find caught Hollywood's attention. Here was a beautiful antebellum plantation house in the middle of nowhere – the closest city is Wilmington, which hadn't made history since the Civil War – coveted by two fairly recognizable names. Even more impressive: the resulting film, albeit mediocre, starred a bevy of celebs: George C. Scott, Martin Sheen, Louise Fletcher, Heather Locklear and an adorably pouty 9-year-old named Drew Barrymore.

If these factors didn't register with the fat cats, one undeniable truth probably did: North Carolina offered cheap locations in film-friendly environs, and the state was more than willing to embrace Hollywood to boost a flagging tobacco economy.

Hollywood East was born.

Directors flooded in from California and New York. First, it was more Stephen King fare (Cat's Eye (1985), Maximum Overdrive (1986)). Then, curiously, David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1985). Soon, mainstream film arrived with Weekend at Bernie's (1989) and Sleeping with the Enemy (1991).

The locations were truly a director's dream: undefiled coastline; lush foliage year-round, thanks to a wild variety of scrubby, scrappy conifers; temperate weather; quaint cobblestone streets, courtesy of downtown Wilmington; and a broad, lazy river that can play menacing or languid, director's choice.

Curiously, though, no stereotype has emerged regarding films made in North Carolina. Evil Dead II (1987) took advantage of the darker, gothic potential for the landscape, as did The Crow (1994), which was immortalized by star Brandon Lee's death on set. Conversely, Sandra Bullock came to town for 28 Days (2000) and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002). Long before Nicholas Sparks brought his saccharine books to the big screen in his home state, Adrian Lyne's Lolita (1997) transformed the terrain into a moody backdrop to an illicit affair.

More recently, Deborah Kampmeier's wildly controversial Hounddog (2007) gave the backwoods South a chilling air evocative of Deliverance (which, alas, was shot mostly in South Carolina and Georgia).

Capra and di Laurentiis were clearly on to something back in the 1980s. By the time Capra was named president of EUE/Screen Gems Studios in the late 1990s, his name was practically synonymous with film in North Carolina, and he was deeply entrenched in the community. He served on a variety of boards and established a film studies program at UNC-Wilmington, where he was a distinguished visiting professor. The city that was his new home showered him with honors. "He had a big passion for keeping jobs here and not letting them go somewhere else," his son Jonathan told the Wilmington Star-News.

North Carolina's Hollywood presence has ebbed and flowed over the years: TV's 'Dawson's Creek' populated Wilmington with giggling teenage girls for six years, while Cold Mountain, set in N.C., was filmed in Romania. Jobs come and go. But a new set of state film incentives passed months before Capra's December death offers a measure of insulation. The 15 percent tax rebate doesn't measure up to rebates offered in some states. It's the Capra name – paired with the wealth of skilled labor and no-nonsense studio operation – that is keeping coastal North Carolina appealing to its big-city suitors.

Wilmington honors Capra one last time Feb. 12 in a public memorial service at its historic Thalian Hall. It's a fitting tribute to a man who brought thousands of jobs to North Carolina, and who brought the beauty, mystery and dripping summer heat of coastal North Carolina to the big screen.

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