Ivan Frolov was born in the Dmitrov district of the Moscow province.

Since 1908, he worked in various private film studios in Moscow and St. Petersburg. For a while, he worked at the Lenfilm film studio (1918-1927), and since 1927 at Azerbaijanfilm. He worked as a cameraman in films produced in Russia.

Honored Artist (1960) Ivan Frolov died in Baku in 1971.