Steven Spielberg
Full name: Steven Spielberg
Date of Birth: December 18, 1946
Place of Birth: Cincinnati (Ohio, USA)
Occupation: director, screenwriter, producer
Marital status: married, eight children (two from previous marriages)
American director, producer, screenwriter, Spielberg was the fourth child and only son in a poor Jewish family: his father was an electrician and his mother was a pianist. The boy grew up quiet, withdrawn, and his main entertainment was his father's amateur movie camera: twelve-year-old Steven did not part with it from morning to evening, and a few months later made the first short film with actors - his relatives.
Soon he won the youth amateur film competition with a 40-minute film about World War II "Escape to Nowhere", and then his classmates - led by Stephen, of course - made a two-hour movie called "Sky Lights", which tells the story of alien abductions of humans to be housed in a space zoo. In both stories, it's not hard to recognize the themes of the director's future blockbusters.
Steven lit up with the idea of shooting a professional movie: after the divorce of his parents, his family moves to California, where Spielberg is going to enter the film school at the University of Southern California. He enters twice, and both times unsuccessfully: his school grades are too low. Then Steven begins studying at a technical college, in parallel shooting a 20-minute movie "Emblin" (which can be translated as "Walking"), which becomes his springboard into big movies. In 1969, the short film was seen at Universal Studios, after which Spielberg landed a job directing television with the opportunity to direct episodes of a TV series. And in 1971, he directed his first feature film, "Duel". The picture, created for television, won the Grand Prix at the newly created festival of fantastic films "Avoriaz", after which it was transferred to the big screen. Actors in this movie were two cars: a car and a gasoline truck, which is always chasing a smaller colleague.
In 1975, "Jaws" became the first blockbuster in history, collecting 260 million dollars. In the total recalculation of profits adjusted for inflation, the picture is the sixth highest-grossing horror film in American cinema history. Since then, almost every one of his films has become the movie event of the year.
In 1977, the director of a serious science fiction film "Close Encounters of the Third Degree" about an attempt to establish direct contact with extraterrestrial civilization. Four years later, the picture "Seekers of the Lost Ark" Spielberg begins the famous series about the teacher of archaeology Indiana Jones and his fantastic travels. These three "comic books" strengthened the director's reputation as a creator of spectacular and, most importantly, box-office movies.
In 1982, the film "ET: Alien" was released on movie screens, which became one of the best sci-fi films in the history of world cinema.
In 1989, Steven Spielberg divorced his first wife Amy Irving, and a year later married actress Kate Capshaw, who starred in his 1984 film "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom".
Spielberg also produces movies, and opens to the world gifted directors and other film personalities: Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale, Joe Dante, Chris Columbus, Barry Levinson, Kevin Reynolds, Don Blatt, J. Landis, Tobe Hooper, J. Miller.
In 1984, Spielberg founded Amblin Entertainment, a studio named after the very short film that got him a job at Universal.
In the early 90s, Spielberg began to actively conquer the field of television broadcasting, acting as a producer of many TV series and TV movies. He produced such popular series as SeaQuest and ER, as well as a large number of humorous animated series.
After a while, Spielberg tried to turn to serious cinema, but found that films devoid of external entertainment and adventurousness do not bring so much profit, and returned to spectacular pictures.
With the movie "Peter Pan" (1991) began a new surge in popularity Steven Spielberg, which was consolidated by the success of "Jurassic Park" - just box office receipts which brought about a billion dollars.
In 1993, Steven Spielberg first received an Oscar - for directing and for the best film of the year. This movie was the war drama "Schindler's List" about the tragic fate of Jews during World War II.
By early 1998, Spielberg had become the richest figure in the entertainment industry himself. His joint venture with two other tycoons - former producer of the studio "Walt Disney" Jeffrey Katzenberg and music producer David Geffen film studio "Dreamworks SKG" produced full-length animated films ( "The Prince of Egypt", "Escape from the Hen House," "Shrek") and Oscar-winning films ("American Beauty," "Hannibal," "Clash with the Abyss", "Mouse Hunt", "Saving Private Ryan", "Gladiator", "Mind Games", etc.).д.).
By the way, unlike the cartoons of the Disney company, all DreamWorks cartoons were voiced by Hollywood stars, and writing music for cartoons was done by famous musicians.
In 1999, the director was named the best director of the twentieth century, and in 2001 Queen Elizabeth knighted Spielberg "for his invaluable contribution to the British film industry".
In 2000, Spielberg began work on the sci-fi film "Special Opinion" starring Tom Cruise, but after the death of the author of the idea of the movie, his friend and teacher, the famous director Stanley Kubrick, postponed work on this picture. Instead, Spielberg began shooting conceived by Kubrick before his death, a fantastic movie "Artificial Intelligence", refusing for the sake of this tape from the proposal to remove the series of "Harry Potter". The picture about a five-year-old boy android, dreaming of becoming a man, failed at the box office. Released a year later, the movie "dissenting opinion" was also not too successful in the financial sense.
In 2002, Spielberg returns to the mass audience: the movie "Catch Me If You Can" with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks in the lead roles was extremely successful. Screen version of "War of the Worlds" with Tom Cruise in 2005 was the event film of the year.
Today, the mass cinema author Steven Spielberg remains impeccable and even before the release on the screen is recognized as a classic: May 22, 2008 came out the film "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", the fourth in the series, very positively evaluated by critics and collected at the global box office 690 million dollars.
Filmography
Fantasy films:
1963 - Sky Lights
1969 - Night Gallery
1971 - Duel
1972 - Some Evil (TV movie)
1977 - Close Encounters of the Third Degree
1979 - 1941
1980 - Close Encounters of the Third Degree: Special Edition
1981 - Seekers of the Lost Ark
1982 - E.T.: Alien
1982 - Poltergeist
1983 - The Twilight Zone
1984 - Gremlins - Producer
1984 - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
1985 - Back to the Future - Executive Producer
1985 - Goofballs - executive producer, screenwriter
1986 - Marvelous Stories: Book 2 - Producer
1986 - Marvelous Stories: Book 3 - Producer
1986 - Marvelous Stories: Book 4 - Producer
1986 - Marvelous Stories: Book 5 - Producer
1987 - Harry and the Hendersons - Producer
1987 - Inner Space - Executive Producer
1988 - Earth Before the Beginning of Time - Executive Producer (cartoon)
1988 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit? - Executive producer.
1989 - Back to the Future, Part 2 - Executive Producer
1989 - Honey, I Shrunk Our Children - Producer.
1989 - Always - Director, producer
1989 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
1990 - Arachnophobia - Executive producer.
1990 - Back to the Future, Part 3 - Executive Producer
1990 - Gremlins 2: The New Brood - Executive Producer
1991 - Hook
1993 - Jurassic Park
1993 - We're Back: A Dinosaur Story - Executive Producer (cartoon)
1994 - The Flintstones - Executive Producer
1995 - Casper
1997 - Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World - director, producer
2001 - Artificial Intelligence
2001 - Jurassic Park 3 - Producer
2002 - A Separate Opinion
2005 - War of the Worlds
Non-fiction movies:
1960 - Escape to Nowhere
1969 - Emblin
1971 - Columbo: Murder by the Book
1973 - Savage
1974 - Sugarland Express
1975 - Jaws
1978 - I Ask for Your Hand - Executive Producer
1980 - The Blues Brothers - Actor
1980 - Used Cars - Executive Producer
1981 - Divergent Continents - Executive Producer
1982 - Ward 666 - actor
1985 - The Color Purple - director, producer
1985 - Young Sherlock Holmes - Producer
1986 - An American Tail - executive producer (half animated movie)
1986 - The Money Pit - Executive Producer
1987 - Empire of the Sun - director, producer
1989 - Daddy - Executive Producer
1989 - Tammy's Trouble - Executive Producer
1990 - Joe vs. the Volcano - Executive Producer
1990 - Listen: The Life of Quincy - Performer
1990 - Coastal Rabbit Roller - executive producer
1990 - Indiana Jones Trilogy
1991 - An American Tail: Favel Goes West - executive producer (half animated movie)
1991 - The Adventures of Tiny Toon: How I Spent My Vacation (cartoon)
1992 - The Magical World of Chuck Jones - actor
1993 - Schindler's List - director, producer
1993 - Blurring the Trail - Executive Producer
1994 - I'm a Madman - Executive Producer
1995 - Bolto - executive producer (cartoon)
1996 - Steven Spielberg's Director's Chair
1997 - Amistad
1998 - Saving Private Ryan
2002 - Catch Me If You Can
2004 - Terminal
2005 - Memoirs of a Geisha - Producer
2005 - The Legend of Zorro - Producer
2007 - Transformers - Producer
2008 - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Awards and honors:
1973 - Grand Prix at the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival for the movie "Duel"
1982 - Oscar nomination for Best Director for E.T.: The Alienist.
1982 - nominated for the New York Film Critics Award for Best Director for E.T.: The Alienist
1982 - Nominated for the New York Film Critics Award for Best Film for E.T.: Alien.
1985 - American Directors Guild Award for outstanding direction for The Color Purple.
1987 - Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.
1993 - American Directors Guild Award for Outstanding Director for "Schindler's List"
1993 - Academy Award in the category "Film" for "Schindler's List".
1993 - Academy Award in the category "Director" for "Schindler's List".
1994 - Honorary César Award
1998 - American Directors Guild Award for Outstanding Director for "Saving Private Ryan".
2000 - Director's Guild of America Award for lifetime contribution to the motion picture industry.
2001 - Knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his invaluable contribution to the British film industry.
2005 - Inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in the Film, Television and Media category.
