Steven Spielberg is one of the richest and most influential filmmakers in Hollywood. The director of many complex and multifaceted films, he is considered a person who understands the pulse of America as it really is. And of course, the biography of Steven Spielberg is of particular interest among fans of the work of the famous director.
early years
Steven Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on December 18, 1946. He was the eldest and only son of four children. His father, Arnold, was an electrical engineer who worked in the new computer field of those times. His mother Leah was a concert pianist.
Stephen's mother and his three sisters were crazy about his brother and son, giving a lot of attention and pampering him. But the school did not treat him just as condescendingly. He was not very enthusiastic about learning, getting average grades at best.
Spielbergs often moved due to the work of his father. They lived in New Jersey, Phoenix, Arizona, and finally moved to what would later become known as Silicon Valley, not far from San Jose, California.
Steven Spielberg's biography is briefly outlined, but it conveys the whole path of his development and formation as a director.
Young director
The first film Spielberg saw at the cinema was The Greatest Show of the World - a spectacular 1952 circus epic directed by Cecil B. De Mill (1881-1959).
As a child, Spielberg began using his family's home movie camera. He recorded hiking and other family events, but soon this became not enough for him. He started making narrative films and tried to take pictures from different angles and with primitive special effects. By the time he was 12, Stephen had actually made a scripted film using the cast. He became more and more ambitious in relation to filming and since then has not stopped making films.
At the age of 13, Stephen won a prize for his movie Escape to Nowhere, a 40-minute film based on the Battle of East Africa.
When Spielberg was 16 years old, he made a full-length science fiction film, which he called "Firelight". This film lasted more than two hours and had a complex plot about a meeting with aliens. His father rented a local movie theater to show the film. In one night, he earned $ 500, returning part of the money spent on the shooting.
student life
Spielberg’s poor grades in high school did not allow him to enter the University of Southern California (UCLA), but he was accepted to California State College in Long Beach and received a bachelor's degree in English in 1970. Since there was no official movie program in the state of California, he often went to the movies and saw all the films that were shown there. He also persuaded to skip it, passing by the guards at Universal Studios, and watched how large projects are created.
Spielberg continued to make films and prepared a short film, Emblyn, which he later presented at the Atlanta Film Festival in 1969. He received an award at the Venice Film Festival and a seven-year contract at Universal. The studio executives were so impressed by the simple story of a boy and a girl who hitchhiked from the Mojave Desert to the ocean, that they released it along with Love Story, the main hit of 1970. Today, Spielberg uses the name Emblyn for his own production company.
First successes
Spielberg began his career as a professional, filming several episodes of television programs at Universal Studios. At this time, Steven Spielberg, whose biography interests all his fans, took part in the creation of such series as “Dr. Marcus Welby” and “Colombo”.
The first film professionally directed by the director was the specially designed television film Duel (1971). It was a mortal battle of minds between an ordinary person who drives a car and a crazy 18-wheeled truck driver. Duel was considered one of the largest films ever made for American television. It was released in cinemas in Europe and Japan as a feature film. It took sixteen days to manufacture and only 350,000 dollars. Going abroad brought more than $ 5 million, the film received many awards.
After that, Spielberg began to receive many scripts for filming, but he was not impressed with them. Stephen left the mainstream studio for a year to develop his own project.
In my own way
Spielberg came up with Sugarland Express, a drama about a woman who convinces her husband to escape from prison to kidnap their child from foster parents. An impressive car chase happens after a couple steals a police cruiser. The film received positive reviews from critics, but it was waiting for a commercial failure. Nevertheless, all this led to a breakthrough in the career and biography of Steven Spielberg film - “Jaws” (1975).
Despite the fact that this picture brought 100% over its budget of $ 3.5 million, Spielberg became Hollywood's favorite director at the time when Jaws raised more than $ 60 million in the first month. The film was as popular with critics as it was with the public. Now Spielberg could do whatever he wanted.
Science fiction and more
Close Encounters of the Third Degree (1977) was perhaps the most personal film in the director’s career. He entered the list of the best films of Steven Spielberg. The picture tells about the heroic efforts of middle-class Americans who want to establish contact with aliens from another planet.
The trilogy “Indiana Jones” (1981-1989), “Alien” (1982) and “Purple Field Flowers” (1985) are examples of works in the biography of Stephen Spielberg at their best and worst. Pictures of Indiana Jones mixed love affection for old TV shows with contemporary sensuality. However, the high levels of blood and violence in the second season of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) led to the creation of a new rating code PG-13, which warns parents of the presence of violence, obscene language and nudity.
"Alien" (1982) literally captured the audience, and popular quotes from it scattered around the world. Another film directed by Steven Spielberg - "Flowers of the Purple Fields" (1985) - received an ambiguous reaction. Spielberg has been accused of patronizing African Americans and ennoblement of rural southern poverty. But there were those who praised the film, because he received many awards and nominations.
Spielberg was a favorite among his fellow filmmakers such as George Lucas and John Landis. He supported the latter when he was implicated in the deaths of three actors from The Twilight Zone, a film that Spielberg also worked on. In 1991, Stephen made a high-budget film about Peter Pan, "Captain Hook." These films of Steven Spielberg are on the list of the best films of the director.
As Spielberg continued to lead and create, he became more and more powerful. He was able to make any film he wanted, and seemed completely uninterested in appealing to the public or critics.
Continued success
One of Steven Spielberg’s best films of 1993, Jurassic Park, boasts the longest and most intense ad campaign before being released in film history. It was about a modern amusement park, in which genetic engineering dinosaurs were used as the main attraction. The film was a box office success. Spielberg released a sequel entitled Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World in 1997. Then there was a continuation in the form of three more parts of the film, released in 2001, 2015 and 2018.
Perhaps Spielberg's most poignant and emotionally exciting film was the critically acclaimed Schindler's List (1993), which was shot in black and white. It was a fictional story of real-life cases in which a German businessman Oscar Schindler (1908-1974) saved thousands of Jews working in his factory during World War II (1939-45). The film won an Oscar as the best film of 1993, and Spielberg received the award as the best director.
Filmography Steven Spielberg
How many films did Stephen take? All the films of Steven Spielberg (the list of films is very impressive), in which he acted as a director:
- Emblyn (1968).
- The Duel (1971).
- "Sugarland Express" (1974).
- Jaws (1975).
- Close Encounters of the Third Degree (1977).
- "1947" (1979).
- Seekers of the Lost Ark (1981).
- "Alien" (1982).
- The Twilight Zone (1983).
- "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" (1984).
- "Flowers of the purple fields" (1985).
- Empire of the Sun (1987).
- "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (1989).
- "Captain Hook" (1991).
- "Jurassic Park" (1993).
- Schindler's List (1993).
- Jurassic Park: The Lost World (1997).
- "Saving Private Ryan" (1998).
- "Catch Me If You Can" (2002).
- The Terminal (2004).
- "Memoirs of a Geisha" (2005).
- War of the Worlds (2005).
- "Flags of Our Fathers" (2006).
- "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (2008).
- "The Adventures of Tintin" (2008).
- Lincoln (2011).
- "Spices and passions" (2012).
- The Spy Bridge (2015).
- “Big and kind giant” (2016).
- The Secret Dossier (2017).
- First Player Get Ready (2018).
Own studio
In 1981, he founded the American film and television company Amblin Entertainment.
Amblin has released many Spielberg movies along with films by other directors, most of whom are Stephen's friends.
In 1994, he founded DreamWorks SKG, along with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, a live action and animated film studio located on the territory of Universal Studious.
Spielberg managed to try himself not only as a director. He was also noted as a producer and writer. Steven Spielberg's books are scripts for his films.
Awards and Achievements
Spielberg received many awards both in the United States and abroad, not only for his films, but also for his work in support of human rights and social justice. He continues to be one of the most influential directors and producers in the world. Among his awards are such as:
- Irving G. Thalberg Memorial from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1986.
- For his work on Schindler's List in 1994, this director received two Academy Awards, one for best photography and one for best director.
- In 1994, the University of Southern California awarded Spielberg an honorary degree.
- In 1999, he received the best directorial award for the war film "Saving Private Ryan."
- In 2004, Spielberg received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Directors Guild of America.
- Veteran director Spielberg was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2005.
- In 2015, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from US President Barack Obama.
Personal life and heritage
The director was married to Amy Irving from 1985 to 1989. In marriage they had a son, Max Samuel.
His current wife is Kate Capshaw, whom he met during the filming of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. They married in 1991 and have 5 children in common, 3 biological and 2 adopted. In the top photo - Steven Spielberg with his family.