LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Frank Capra, the director of classic films like “It’s A Wonderful Life” and “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington,” is getting a postage stamp in 2012, the U.S. Postal Service announced Wednesday.

The Capra stamp will be part of the Postal Service’s Great Director Series.

John Ford of Westerns fame has been previously announced.

The background of the Capra stamp reportedly shows a scene from the 1934 screwball comedy “It Happened One Night” where a madcap heiress played by Claudette Colbert and a off-beat reporter played by Clark Gable compare their ability to hitchhike.

That film won Capra the first of this three Oscars as Best Director.

Capra was born in Italy in 1897 and he died in 1991 in La Quinta, California at the age of 94.

Entertainment Weekly once dubbed him the 9th greatest director of all time.

Corny, mushy films that inspired and evoked the average Joe as hero became known as “Capraesque.”

The Postal Service said the other two directors in the series will be announced at a later date.

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