Undoubtedly one of the most influential film personalities in the history of film, Steven Spielberg is perhaps Hollywood's best known director. Spielberg has countless big-grossing, critically acclaimed credits to his name, as producer, director and writer. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1946. He went to California State University Long Beach, but dropped out to pursue his entertainment career. He gained notoriety as an uncredited assistant editor on the classic western "Wagon Train" (1957). Among his early directing efforts were Battle Squad (1961), which combined World War II footage with footage of an airplane on the ground that he makes you believe is moving. He also directed Escape to Nowhere (1961), which featured children as World War Two soldiers, including his sister Anne Spielberg, and The Last Gun (1959), a western. All of these were short films. The next couple of years, Spielberg directed a couple of movies that would portend his future career in movies.
Amblin' also became the name of his production company, which turned out such classics as E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Spielberg had a unique and classic early directing project,
Duel (1971) (TV), with Dennis Weaver. In the early 1970s, Spielberg was working on TV, directing among others such series as Rod Serling's "Night Gallery" (1970). Spielberg's first major directorial effort was
The Sugarland Express (1974), with
Goldie Hawn, a film that marked him as a rising star. It was his next effort, however, that made him an international superstar among directors:
Jaws (1975). This classic shark attack tale started the tradition of the summer blockbuster or, at least, he was credited with starting the tradition. His next film was the classic
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), a unique and original UFO story that remains a classic.
Spielberg hit gold yet one more time with
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), with
Harrison Ford taking the part of Indiana Jones. Spielberg produced and directed two films in 1982. The first was
Poltergeist (1982), but the highest-grossing movie of all time up to that point was the alien story
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Spielberg also helped pioneer the practice of product placement. The concept, while not uncommon, was still relatively low-key when Spielberg raised the practice to almost an art form with his famous (or infamous) placement of Reece's Pieces in "E.T." Spielberg was also one of the pioneers of the big-grossing special-effects movies, like "E.T." and "Close Encounters", where a very strong emphasis on special effects was placed for the first time on such a huge scale. In 1984, Spielberg followed up "Raiders" with
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), which was a commercial success but did not receive the critical acclaim of its predecessor. As a producer, Spielberg took on many projects in the 1980s, such as
The Goonies (1985), and was the brains behind the little monsters in
Gremlins (1984). He also produced the cartoon
An American Tail (1986), a quaint little animated classic. His biggest effort as producer in 1985, however, was the blockbuster
Back to the Future (1985), which made
Michael J. Fox an instant superstar. As director, Spielberg took on the book
The Color Purple (1985), with
Whoopi Goldberg and
Oprah Winfrey, with great success.
The late 1980s found Spielberg's projects at the center of pop-culture yet again. In 1988, he produced the landmark animation/live-action film
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). The next year proved to be another big one for Spielberg, as he produced and directed
Always (1989) as well as
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), and
Back to the Future Part II (1989). Spielberg also produced other cartoons such as
The Land Before Time (1988),
We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993),
Casper (1995) (the live action version) as well as the live-action version of
The Flintstones (1994), where he was credited as "Steven Spielrock". Spielberg also produced many Roger Rabbit short cartoons, and many Pinky and the Brain, Animaniacs and Tiny Toons specials. Spielberg was very active in the early 1990s, as he directed
Hook (1991) and produced such films as the cute fantasy
Joe Versus the Volcano (1990) and
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991). He also produced the unusual comedy thriller
Arachnophobia (1990),
Back to the Future Part III (1990) and
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990). While these movies were big successes in their own right, they did not quite bring in the kind of box office or critical acclaim as previous efforts. In 1993, Spielberg directed
Jurassic Park (1993), which for a short time held the record as the highest grossing movie of all time, but did not have the universal appeal of his previous efforts. Big box-office spectacles were not his only concern, though. He produced and directed
Schindler's List (1993), a stirring film about the Holocaust. He won best director at the Oscars, and also got Best Picture. In the mid-90s, he helped found the production company DreamWorks, which was responsible for many box-office successes.
As a producer, he was very active in the late 90s, he produced what many believe was one of the best films of his career:
Saving Private Ryan (1998), a film about World War Two that is spectacular in almost every respect. In 2001, he produced a mini-series about World War Two that definitely *was* a financial and critical success:
"Band of Brothers" (2001), a tale of an infantry company from its parachuting into France during the invasion to the Battle of the Bulge. Also in that year, Spielberg was back in the director's chair for
Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001).
