Dr. John G. Frayne began his career in 1918 as a member of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, where he helped develop wireless telephone communications between airplanes and the ground. Later he received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Minnesota while working at the Bell Laboratories.

In 1929 Frayne joined Electrical Research Products, Inc. During his 30 years with the firm his achievements spanned the technology of sound motion pictures from the light valve (which he helped develop) and noise reduction, to 70mm magnetic film recording and reproduction systems. Among his technical achievements were the development of sound recording techniques and their reproduction for optical sound recording systems, which led to stereo-optical formats used by films in the 1970s and '80s; co-invention of the sphere densitometer, which won a Scientific or Technical Academy Award for Westrex in 1941; the co-invention of the stereo disc cutter now standard in the recording industry, and the co-invention of the inter-modulation techniques of distortion measurements, which won him an Academy Award in 1953.

In 1949, he co-authored "Elements of Sound Recording," with Halley Wolfe, which became the definitive work in its field.

Frayne received a Scientific or Technical award in 1952 "for a method of measuring distortion in sound reproduction." In 1980 he was presented with the Academy's Medal of Commendation.

In addition to his Academy Awards, Frayne was honored by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) with the Progress Award Medal (1946) and the SMPTE's Samuel L. Warner Memorial Award (1959). He received the Audio Engineering Society Gold Medal in 1960.