Many people don’t know this, but one of American Cinema’s greatest directors never even graduated from college until 2002. This is the same man who’s won two Oscars, two Golden Globes, three Emmys, and been nominated for many more. Of course, one’s talent as a filmmaker is hardly measured by his ability to finish film school, but it’s an interested notion nonetheless. Born in 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Steven has almost always been interested in film. At the age of 12, he had saved up enough money to fund his first amateur movie, and at 16, finished his first full-length feature entitled “Firelight.” Yet, despite his strong ambition, he was rejected from USC film school and instead attended California State University. As mentioned before, Spielberg never finished his studies, probably because he was offered a seven-year contract with Universal at the age of 20 – one of the youngest directors in the business.
Spielberg burst onto the scene with “Jaws” in 1975 and then “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” his first Oscar-nominated picture and clear example of his talent as a sci-fi director. His next major project involved working with a fellow rising star in the film industry, George Lucas. The duo teamed up for “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and the film was such a success that it produced two superior sequels. Spielberg returned to his sci-fi roots in the early ‘80s with “E.T.,” and finished out the decade with a handful of great films that failed to be box office successes. The ‘90s, however, proved to be the director’s most dominating decade, releasing the blockbuster hit “Jurassic Park,” and both of this Oscar-winning movies (“Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan”) in a six-year time span. The 1990’s also brought about Spielberg’s partnership with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen to form the powerhouse studio DreamWorks SKG, in which Steven acted as producer on a number of some of the biggest films of the last ten years, including “American Beauty,” “Gladiator” and “Shrek.”
Directors Hall of Fame
We inducted Spielberg into our inaugeral Directors Hall of Fame class in 2007:
Born December 18, 1946, Steven Spielberg‘s rise from nobody to international blockbuster guru, or “How the Shark Didn’t Work and I Made Billions,” is one of great success stories of our time. Easily the most successful and influential filmmaker working today, Spielberg isn’t just a director, he’s a household name; a man who has transcended his films and reached an almost God-like status; a man whose films have inspired countless numbers from all walks of life across multiple generations.
Steven Behind the Camera
Steven Spielberg’s directorial resume reads a lot like a Best of Film History list, with such classics as “Jaws,” “E.T.,” “Jurassic Park,” “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan” sitting pretty at the top. Spielberg has also scored critical praise with more recent submissions like “Catch Me if You Can,” “War of the Worlds” and “Munich,” but is most popular project has to be the Indiana Jones trilogy.
Steven Phone Home
On film:
“The most expensive habit in the world is celluloid, not heroin, and I need a fix every few years.”
On spending money:
“Why pay a dollar for a bookmark? Why not use the dollar for a bookmark?”