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Steven Spielberg Biography American film director and producer

Steven Spielberg(born December 18, 1946,Cincinnati,Ohio, U.S.) is an American motion-picture director and producer whosediversefilms—which ranged fromscience-fictionfare, including such classics asClose Encounters of the Third Kind(1977) andE.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial(1982), to historical dramas, notablySchindler’s List(1993) andSaving Private Ryan(1998)—enjoyed both unprecedented popularity and critical success.

Early life and work

Spielberg developed an interest in filmmaking as a child, and during his teens hisEscape to Nowhere(1962), a 40-minute warmovie, won first prize at afilm festival. He next directedFirelight(1964), a feature-length science-fiction yarn, which was followed by an accomplished short about hitchhikers calledAmblin’(1968). An executive atUniversal Studiossaw the latter film and tendered a contract to Spielberg, who began working in the studio’s television division afterattendingCalifornia State College, Long Beach (nowCalifornia State University, from which he would eventually receive a B.A. in 2002). He directed episodes of various TV series, notablyColumbo,Marcus Welby, M.D., andOwen Marshall: Counselor at Law. In 1971 he made his first television movie,Duel, a taut, almostclaustrophobicexercise in psychosis that was more intense than typical TV fare (it was released theatrically in Europe). Although Spielberg permitted star Dennis Weaver—who played a motorist chased by a homicidal truck driver—to register a one-note impression of sweaty terror throughout the movie, his handling of the action sequences was staged and executed with bravado. The success ofDuelenabled Spielberg to make theatrically released motion pictures, beginning withThe Sugarland Express(1974), a chase picture with deft accents of comedy but aninexorablemovement toward tragedy; it was anchored byGoldie Hawn’s performance.

Commercial success

Spielberg’s next movie,Jaws(1975), established him as a leading director, and it was one of the highest-grossing films ever. It featuredRoy Scheider as the police chief of a resort town who battles a man-eatingwhite shark. Joining him areRichard Dreyfussas a marine biologist andRobert Shawas a shark hunter. The highly praised thriller received anAcademy Awardnomination for best picture, and its ominous soundtrack byJohn Williamswon anOscar. The film all but created thegenreof summer blockbuster—big action-packed movie released to an audience grateful to be in an air-conditioned theatre—and it established many of the touchstones of Spielberg’s work: an ordinary but sympathetic main character isenlightenedthrough a confrontation with some extraordinary being or force that gradually reveals itself as the narrative unfolds.

Spielberg then directed the mystical science-fiction taleClose Encounters of the Third Kind(1977), which he also wrote. Dreyfuss was cast as the lead, and he submitted one of the best performances of his career, as a telephone lineman who encounters anunidentified flying objectand subsequently becomes obsessed with UFOs. For the film, Spielberg received his first Academy Awardnominationfor best director. Vilmos Zsigmond’s cinematography earned the film’s only Oscar, though thespecial effectswere also praised. Spielberg became just the second director in history to score back-to-back $100 million grosses.

After the disappointing1941(1979)—which was received as an unfunny comedy, despite the presence ofJohn Belushiand Dan Aykroyd—Spielberg directedRaiders of the Lost Ark(1981), a loving, expert (if slightly redundant) tribute to old adventureserials. The film and its sequels, which starredHarrison Fordas handsome archaeologistIndiana Jones, used rich colour cinematography, brisk editing, memorable musical soundtracks, and inventive special effects to create a cinematic experience that was typically light yet highly suspenseful. Spielberg received his second Academy Award nomination for best director; the film was also a best picture nominee.

Spielberg’s next film was even more successful.E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial(1982) was a moving exploration of an alien encounter that cleverlyeschewedthe epic scale ofClose Encountersfor the microcosm of its effect on a singleCaliforniafamily. Henry Thomas gave a strong performance as the boy who discovers and befriends the stranded alien, and Dee Wallace portrayed his sympathetic mom. The film also featuredDrew Barrymorein one of her first roles. As with most Spielberg films to that point, the special effects were a large part of the movie’s appeal—in this case, the wonderfullyarticulated E.T.—but it was Spielberg’s mastery of human (and alien) emotion that made the movie a blockbuster. Both Spielberg and the film were nominated for Academy Awards, as were Melissa Mathison’s screenplay, Allen Daviau’s cinematography, and Williams’s score; only the latter won.

AfterdirectingIndiana Jones and the Temple of Doom(1984), Spielberg adaptedAlice Walker’sPulitzer Prize-winning novelThe Color Purple(1985). The film explores an African American woman’s almost unbearably harsh, yet ultimately fulfilling, life.Colorwas roundly criticized for downplaying the novel’s lesbian element, for perpetuatingstereotypesabout black men, and for sentimentalizing life in the Deep South. Nevertheless, it found an audience that appreciated the cast—which includedWhoopi Goldberg, Margaret Avery, andOprah Winfrey, all of whom were nominated for Academy Awards—as well as the script (by Menno Meyjes) and the score (by coproducerQuincy Jones), both of which were also Academy Award-nominated. The film received a nomination for best picture, but Spielberg failed to earn an Oscar nod, a slight that created a small scandal at the time. More important, however, Spielberg had made one of the few commercially successful films about the experience ofAfrican Americans, paving the way for similar projects to be green-lighted.

Spielberg chose another critically acclaimed book as the basis of his next film.Empire of the Sun(1987), scripted byTom Stoppard, was a carefully detailed re-creation of theWorld War IIprison-campmilieuofJ.G. Ballard’s autobiographical novel of the same name. But whereThe Color Purplewas able to convey emotional truth,Empire of the Sunalmost let the story about its young protagonist (Christian Bale) drown under a wave of pyrotechnics. It was a box-office failure. Spielberg closed out the 1980s withIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade(1989) andAlways(1989), anadaptationof the 1943 filmA Guy Named Joe. AlthoughIndiana Joneswas a hit,Alwaysfailed to find an audience.

Spielberg’s tendency toward broad storytelling may have hampered his attempts at more complex filmmaking, andThe Color PurpleandEmpire of the Sun, in the view of many critics, lacked emotional depth or insight. Yet the aggressive commercialism and optimism of Spielberg’s films became the prevailing style in Hollywood in the late 20th century. Hispervasiveinfluence was recognized in 1986 by theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Scienceswhen it honoured him with theIrving G. ThalbergAward, given for excellence in producing.

The 1990s

Spielberg’s openingfilmof the 1990s wasHook(1991), a retelling ofJ.M. Barrie’sPeter Pan. Despite a cast that included major starsRobin WilliamsandJulia Roberts, the movie was a critical and commercial failure. Spielberg, however, returned to form in dramatic fashion with not one but two enormously popular 1993 releases. The first,Jurassic Park, was anadaptationofMichael Crichton’s best-selling novel (1990) aboutdinosaursre-created and running amok on a remote isle. Its scenes of peril are less deftly blended with character-focused downtime activity than inJaws, but technology is employed to great effect, and there are enough potent shocks to indicate that Spielberg was still a master ofAlfred Hitchcock-worthy suspense.

Spielberg’s second film from 1993,Schindler’s List, tells the true story of a group of Polish Jews whoavoidedNaziextermination campswith the aid of German industrialistOskar SchindlerduringWorld War II. The drama—which featured notable performances byLiam Neeson,Ben Kingsley, andRalph Fiennes—quieted many of Spielberg’s critics. It was shot with unflinching detail in black and white, and it won Spielberg his firstAcademy Award for best director. In addition, the film garnered six other Oscars, including best picture.

In 1994 Spielberg joined with multimedia mogulsJeffrey KatzenbergandDavid Geffento found a new studio,DreamWorks, which was particularly successful as a creator of such popularanimated filmsasAntz(1998), theShrekseries (2001, 2004, 2007, and 2010), andPuss in Boots(2011). In 2006 the partners sold the company toViacomfor $1.6 billion.

On the directorial front, Spielberg’sThe Lost World: Jurassic Park(1997) failed toattainthe majesty ofJurassic Park, but it had many compelling moments. Based on a 1995best sellerby Crichton, who reportedly wrote the book at the behest of Spielberg himself, the film repeats theJurassic Parkformula with a largely new cast—Julianne Moore,Vince Vaughn, Pete Postlethwaite, and Arliss Howard—and returnee Jeff Goldblum, who again plays a scientist who knows this manipulation of nature for profit is both crass and morally indefensible. There are numerous thrills, and the dinosaurspecial effectsequal those of the earlier film.

Amistad(1997) found Spielberg in social historian mode. The film centres on theslave revoltthat took place aboard the Spanish slave shipAmistadin 1839 and thesubsequenttrial in theUnited Statesfor which the slaves were tried for insurrection on thehigh seasonly to be ruled by the court to have been kidnap victims.Matthew McConaugheywas effective as a defense lawyer, andAnthony Hopkinsearned anAcademy Awardnomination for his showy role as former U.S. presidentJohn Quincy Adams, who is importuned to defend the slaves before theSupreme Court. As Cinque, the leader of the Africans, Djimon Hounsou gave a memorable performance. The film was well received critically, but it did only modest business at the box-office.

In 1998 Spielberg returned toWorld War IIwithSaving Private Ryan. Thedramastands as one of the high points of his career, both praised and criticized for presenting some of the most realistic battle scenes staged in a Hollywood war movie. Of particular note is the 27-minute-long opening that depicts the invasion by U.S. troops atOmaha BeachonD-Day. After thatharrowingsequence, the film settles into a more conventional narrative as a group of soldiers search for a paratrooper named Ryan in order to extract him from combat before he is killed, just as his three brothers recently were.Tom Hanksportrayed Captain John Miller, who leads the mission, and the strong cast also includesMatt Damonin the title role, along with Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Adam Goldberg, Giovanni Ribisi,Ted Danson, andVin Diesel.Saving Private Ryanwas nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including best picture, and Spielberg won his second Academy Award as best director. The film was the biggest commercial success of any release in the United States that year.

The 2000s

A.I. Artificial Intelligence(2001), based on ashort storyby British authorBrian Aldiss, was a projectconceivedin the 1970s byStanley Kubrick, who some 20 years later, with the movie still in its planning stages, began to think Spielberg was a more likely director. After Kubrick died in 1999, Spielberg was approached by the Kubrick estate, and he agreed to helm the project. He cast Haley Joel Osment as David, a young humanoid robot who has been programmed to express love, and Jude Law appeared as a robotic male prostitute named Gigolo Joe. Their fates soon become intertwined and remain so even thousands of years into the future. Spielberg’s facility forscience fictionhelped make the film provocative and often moving, but its inconsistent tone might be traced to Spielberg’s and Kubrick’s dueling sensibilities.

For the futuristicMinority Report(2002), Spielberg turned to another science-fiction short story, this time byPhilip K. Dick. But what he aspired to went far beyond the scope of Dick’s yarn.Tom Cruiseplayed John Anderton, the head of the Pre-Crime division of the Washington, D.C., police department, which relies on three mutated beings, known as Pre-Cogs, who can predict which citizens are about to commit violent crimes. Anderton is haunted by the absence of his young son, who disappeared years ago and is likely dead. Consumed by guilt, and now divorced, he numbs himself by taking an illegal drug to which he has become addicted. Anderton faces further difficulties with the arrival of acynicalinspector (Colin Farrell) who has concerns about theintegrityof the Pre-Crime department. Their strained relationship takes a deadly turn when Cruise is “seen” by the Pre-Cogs in the act of committing a murder, grounds for immediate arrest. To save himself, Cruise kidnaps the head Pre-Cog (Samantha Morton) and goes on the run, hoping to solve the mystery of why he wasenvisionedas a killer.Minority Reportfunctions as both a hard-boiled police procedural and a paranoid vision of the future, and it stands as one of the best of theadaptationsfrom Dick’soeuvre, though only a fraction of it derives from the original short story. The film was both a box-office and a critical success, though complaints about the somewhat pat ending were not uncommon.

The radically differentCatch Me If You Canwas also released in 2002, and it was even more widely admired. The biopic was based on the memoir of con man extraordinaire Frank Abagnale, Jr., who as a teenager in the 1960s bilked both people and organizations out of millions of dollars, posing variously as a doctor, a lawyer, and even aPan Amairline pilot. He also was a genius at the craft of forgery, a skill that eventually brought theFBIonto his trail. Hanks was highly entertaining as theindefatigablefederal agent Carl Hanratty, who pursues Abagnale for years and eventually bonds with his target. But the film belongs toLeonardo DiCaprio, who, as theprecociousAbagnale, acharismaticand likable criminal, gave one of his most appealing performances.Christopher Walkenplayed Frank’s disgraced father, andAmy Adamsplayed a doctor’s aide whom Frank romances. A critical and commercial hit, the film was adapted into a well-received Broadway musical in 2011.

In 2004 Spielberg directed the lighthearted comedyThe Terminal. Hanks again starred, this time as Viktor Navorski, a visitor from a fictional country in central Europe who lands at a New York airport only to find that civil war in his home country has invalidated his passport, keeping him from entering theUnited States. Since he now cannot return to his war-torn homeland, he is trapped at the airport. Stanley Tucci portrayed a pitiless customs supervisor who does everything he can to force Navorski to leave, while a moresympatheticeye was cast byCatherine Zeta-Jonesas a flight attendant. The film plays like a fable, right up to the happy ending, although it was based on a real-life incident that found a man stranded in theCharles de GaulleAirport in France for 17 years. Financially,The Terminalwas probably Spielberg’s least-successful film of the decade, and it received mixed reviews.

War of the Worlds(2005) marked Spielberg’s return to blockbuster territory in the realm of science fiction. Cruise lent his star power to this version of theH.G. Wellsclassic, which had already been adapted into a highly regarded film in 1953. Despite a number of effective set pieces, including the opening scene—in which giant alien tripods emerge from underneath the streets of modern-dayNewark,New Jersey, to wreakhavocon the populace after having been interred underground for thousands of years (a touch unique to Spielberg’s version)—the film’s approach to the story rarely generated excitement in its audiences, who may have been primed for more action than watching Cruise hiding in a farmhouse with a nutty survivor (Tim Robbins). The film was a box-office success, though some critical dissent was registered.

Munich(2005) was a far more serious and controversial piece of work. Eric Bana starred as Avner, an agent of Israel’sMossadwho is asked by Prime MinisterGolda Meirto head a team of assassins whose mission is to hunt down and execute the Palestinianterroristsresponsible forkilling 11 Israelisat the1972 Olympics in Munich. Avner resigns from the Mossad (to ensure total deniability) and assembles a team of experts in explosives, document forgery, and other skills who set about searching for their targets.Daniel Craig, Ciarán Hinds, Hanns Zischler, andGeoffrey Rush(as Avner’s handler) are just a few members of the international cast. The film’s strength is also its weakness: itsmeticulousattention to detail and verisimilitude, which demand respect but can exhaust viewers.Munichwas named one of the year’s best films by a number of critics, despite the heated debates—too pro-Israel for some, too anti-Israel for others—that surrounded its release. The film was nominated for anAcademy Awardas best picture, and Spielberg received another best director nomination.