Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg, KBE (/ˈspiːlbɜːrɡ/; born December 18, 1946) is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director in history.[1] He is the recipient of many accolades, including three Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, nine Golden Globe Awards, and four Directors Guild of America Awards, as well as the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1995, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2006, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2009 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. Seven of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".[2][3]
"Spielberg" redirects here. For other uses, see Spielberg (disambiguation).
Steven Spielberg
- Film director
- film producer
- screenwriter
1969–present
- Arnold Spielberg (father)
- Leah Adler (mother)
- Anne Spielberg (sister)
- Jessica Capshaw (stepdaughter)
Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and grew up in Phoenix, Arizona.[4] He moved to California and studied film in college. After directing several episodes for television, including Night Gallery and Columbo, he directed the television film Duel (1971), which later received an international theatrical release. He made his theatrical film debut with The Sugarland Express (1974) and became a household name with the 1975 summer blockbuster Jaws. He directed more box office successes with Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and the original Indiana Jones trilogy (1981–89). He subsequently explored drama in The Color Purple (1985) and Empire of the Sun (1987).
In 1993, Spielberg directed back-to-back blockbuster hits with the science fiction thriller Jurassic Park, the highest-grossing film ever at the time, and the Holocaust drama Schindler's List, which has often been listed as one of the greatest films ever made. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for the latter and the 1998 World War II epic Saving Private Ryan. Spielberg has since directed the science fiction films A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Minority Report (2002), and War of the Worlds (2005); the adventure films The Adventures of Tintin (2011) and Ready Player One (2018); the historical dramas Amistad (1997), Munich (2005), War Horse (2011), Lincoln (2012), Bridge of Spies (2015) and The Post (2017); the musical West Side Story (2021); and the semi-autobiographical drama The Fabelmans (2022).
Spielberg co-founded Amblin Entertainment and DreamWorks, and he has served as a producer for many successful films and television series, among them Poltergeist (1982), Gremlins (1984), Back to the Future (1985), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Band of Brothers (1999). He has had a long collaboration with the composer John Williams, with whom he has worked for all but five of his feature films.[5][6] Several of Spielberg's works are considered among the greatest films in history, and some are among the highest-grossing films ever.[7] In 2013, Time listed him as one of the 100 most influential people,[8] and in 2023, Spielberg was the recipient of the first ever Time 100 Impact Award in the U.S.[9] Reviewing Close Encounters, Pauline Kael called the young Spielberg "a magician in the age of movies."[10]
Early life and background
Spielberg was born on December 18, 1946, in Cincinnati, Ohio.[11][12] His mother, Leah (née Posner, later Adler; 1920–2017),[13] was a restaurateur and concert pianist, and his father, Arnold Spielberg (1917–2020),[14] was an electrical engineer involved in the development of computers. His immediate family were situationally[15] Reform Jewish/Orthodox Jewish.[16][17] Spielberg's paternal grandparents were Jews from Ukraine;[18][19] his grandmother Rebecca, maiden name Chechik, was from Sudylkiv, and his grandfather Shmuel Spielberg was from Kamianets-Podilskyi.[20][21] Schmuel escaped to Cincinnati in 1906 to avoid being drafted into the Russian army, and he brought his fiancée Rebecca there in 1908.[22] Spielberg has three younger sisters: Anne, Sue, and Nancy.[23] In 1952, his family moved to Haddon Township, New Jersey after his father was hired by RCA.[24] Spielberg attended Hebrew school from 1953 to 1957, in classes taught by Rabbi Albert L. Lewis.[25]
In early 1957, the family moved to Phoenix, Arizona.[26][27] Spielberg had a bar mitzvah ceremony when he was thirteen.[28] His family was involved in the synagogue and had many Jewish friends.[29] Of the Holocaust, he said that his parents "talked about it all the time, and so it was always on my mind."[29] His father had lost between sixteen and twenty relatives in the Holocaust.[21] Spielberg found it difficult accepting his heritage; he said: "It isn't something I enjoy admitting ... but when I was seven, eight, nine years old, God forgive me, I was embarrassed because we were Orthodox Jews. I was embarrassed by the outward perception of my parents' Jewish practices. I was never really ashamed to be Jewish, but I was uneasy at times."[30][31] Spielberg also suffered from anti-Semitism: "In high school, I got smacked and kicked around. Two bloody noses. It was horrible."[32][33][21] He grew away from Judaism during adolescence, after his family had moved to various neighborhoods and found themselves to be the only Jews.[34][35]
Spielberg's interest in film started at a young age. At age 12, he made his first home movie: a train wreck involving his toy Lionel trains.[36] In 1958, he became a Boy Scout and fulfilled a requirement for the photography merit badge by making a nine-minute 8 mm film, The Last Gunfight.[37][38] He eventually attained the rank of Eagle Scout.[39] Spielberg used his father's movie camera to make amateur features, and began taking the camera along on every Scout trip.[40] At age 13, Spielberg made a 40-minute war film, Escape to Nowhere, with a cast of classmates. The film won first prize in a statewide competition.[41][42] Throughout his early teens, and after entering high school, Spielberg made about fifteen to twenty 8 mm adventure films.[43][44]
In Phoenix, Spielberg watched films at the local theater every Saturday.[45] Some of the films he cited as early influences include Ishirō Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya's Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956),[46][47] Akira Kurosawa's films,[48][49] Captains Courageous (1937), Pinocchio (1940), and David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia (1962), which he called "the film that set me on my journey".[50] He attended Arcadia High School in 1961 for three years.[51] He wrote and directed his first independent film in 1963, a 140-minute science fiction adventure, Firelight, which later inspired Close Encounters of The Third Kind. The film, funded mainly by his father, had a budget of under $600, and was shown in a local theater for one evening.[52][53] In the summer of 1964, he worked as an unpaid assistant at Universal Studios' editorial department.[54][55] His family later moved to Saratoga, California, where he attended Saratoga High School, graduating in 1965.[56] A year later, his parents divorced. Spielberg moved to Los Angeles to stay with his father,[57] while his three sisters and mother remained in Saratoga. He was not interested in academics, aspiring only to be a filmmaker.[58] He applied to the University of Southern California's film school but was turned down because of his mediocre grades.[59] He then applied and enrolled at California State University, Long Beach, where he became a brother of Theta Chi Fraternity.[60][61]
After taking a tour bus to Universal Studios, a chance conversation with an executive led to Spielberg getting a three-day pass to the premises, allowing him to come back the next day. On the fourth day he walked up to the studio gates without a pass, and the security guard waved him in: "I basically spent the next two months at Universal Studios. And that was how I became an unofficial apprentice that summer."[62]
In 1968, Universal gave Spielberg the opportunity to write and direct a short film for theatrical release, the 26-minute 35 mm Amblin'. Studio vice president Sidney Sheinberg was impressed by the film, and offered Spielberg a seven-year directing contract.[63] A year later, he dropped out of college to begin directing television productions for Universal.[64] It made him the youngest director to be signed to a long-term plan with a major Hollywood studio.[65] Spielberg returned to Long Beach in 2002, where he presented his own film Schindler's List to complete his Bachelor of Arts in Film and Electronic Media.[66]
Career
1969–1974: Early film and television work
Spielberg's professional debut was directing segments for the 1969 pilot episode of Night Gallery, scripted by Rod Serling and featuring Joan Crawford.[67] Initially, there was skepticism from Crawford and studio executives regarding Spielberg's inexperience. Despite Spielberg's efforts to implement advanced camerawork techniques, studio executives demanded a more straightforward approach. His initial contributions received mixed responses, leading Spielberg to briefly step back from studio work.[68]
Joan Crawford, reflecting on her collaboration with Spielberg, recognized his potential, noting his unique intuitive inspiration compared to more seasoned directors. She expressed her appreciation for Spielberg's talent in a note to him and also communicated her approval to Rod Serling, emphasizing Spielberg's promising future in the industry. Crawford's endorsement highlighted Spielberg's early recognition in Hollywood despite initial hesitations regarding his experience.[69]
In the early 1970s, Spielberg unsuccessfully tried to raise financing for his own low-budget films. He turned to writing screenplays with other writers, and then directing television episodes. These included the series Marcus Welby, M.D., The Name of the Game ("L.A. 2017"), Columbo, Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law and The Psychiatrist.[70] Although unsatisfied with this work,[71] Spielberg used the opportunity to experiment with his techniques and learn about filmmaking. He earned good reviews and impressed producers; he was earning a steady income and relocated to Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles.[70]
Based on the strength of his work, Universal signed Spielberg to do four television films.[72] The first was Duel (1971), adapted from Richard Matheson's short story of the same name, about a salesman (Dennis Weaver) being chased down a highway by a psychotic tanker truck driver. Impressed with the film, executives decided to promote it on television. Reviews were positive, and Universal asked Spielberg to shoot more scenes so that Duel could be released to international markets.[73] "Deservedly so" writes David Thomson, "for it stands up as one of the medium's most compelling spirals of suspense."[74] More TV films followed: Something Evil (1972) and Savage (1973).
In 1974, Spielberg made his theatrical debut, The Sugarland Express, based on a true story about a married couple on the run, desperate to regain custody of their baby from foster parents.[75] The film starred Goldie Hawn and William Atherton and marked the first of many collaborations with the composer John Williams.[76] Although the film was awarded Best Screenplay at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival, it was not a commercial success, [76][77] which Spielberg blamed on Universal's inconsistent marketing.[78] The film opened in four hundred theaters in the U.S. to positive reviews; Pauline Kael wrote "Spielberg uses his gifts in a very free-and-easy, American way—for humor, and for a physical response to action. He could be that rarity among directors, a born entertainer—perhaps a new generation's Howard Hawks."[79] The Hollywood Reporter wrote that "a major new director is on the horizon."[80]
1975-1980: Breakthrough
Producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown took a chance with Spielberg, and gave him the opportunity to direct Jaws (1975), a horror-thriller based on the Peter Benchley novel of the same name. In it, a great white shark attacks beachgoers at a summer resort town, prompting police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) to hunt it down with the help of a marine biologist (Richard Dreyfuss) and a veteran shark hunter (Robert Shaw). Jaws was the first movie shot on open ocean,[81] so shooting proved difficult, and the mechanical shark malfunctioned. The filming schedule overran by a hundred days, and Universal threatened to cancel production.[82] Against expectations, Jaws was a success; it set the domestic box office record, making Spielberg a household name.[83] It won Academy Awards for Best Film Editing, Best Original Dramatic Score, and Best Sound. Spielberg said the malfunctioning of the mechanical shark resulted in a better movie, as he had to find ways to suggest the shark without showing it. After seeing the unconventional camera techniques of Jaws, Alfred Hitchcock praised "young Spielberg" for thinking outside the visual dynamics of the theater: "He's the first one of us who doesn't see the proscenium arch".[84]
After the success of Jaws, Spielberg declined an offer to make Jaws 2.[85] He and Richard Dreyfuss re-convened to work on a film about UFOs, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). During filming, Spielberg used 65 mm film for the best picture quality, and a new live-action recording system so that the recordings could be duplicated later.[86][87] He cast one of his favorite directors, François Truffaut, as the scientist Claude Lacombe. One of the rare films both written and directed by Spielberg, Close Encounters was very popular with film-goers,[88] and he received his first Best Director nomination from the Academy Awards. It earned six more nominations, winning Best Cinematography and Best Sound Effects Editing.[89] Stanley Kauffmann wrote: "I saw Close Encounters at its first public showing in New York, and most of the audience stayed on and on to watch the credits crawl lengthily at the end. For one thing, under the credits the giant spaceship was returning to the stars. For another, they just didn’t want to leave this picture. For still another, they seemed to understand the importance of those many names to what they had just seen." Kauffmann placed it first on his list of the best American films from 1968 to 1977.[90]
Spielberg's first film as an executive producer was the directorial debut of Robert Zemeckis, I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978). His next directorial work was 1941 (1979), an action-comedy written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale about Californians preparing for a Japanese invasion after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Spielberg was self-conscious about doing comedy as he had no prior experience in the genre.[91] Universal and Columbia agreed to co-finance the film. 1941 grossed over $92.4 million worldwide upon release,[92] but most critics, and the studio heads, disliked it.[91] Charles Champlin described 1941 as "the most conspicuous waste since the last major oil spill, which it somewhat resembles."[93] Stanley Kubrick supposedly said that the film was "great, but not funny."[94]
1981–1990: Stardom
Spielberg produced Used Cars (Zemeckis, 1980), which was a critical but not a commercial success. He directed Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), with a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman. They considered it an homage to the serials of the 1930s and 1940s.[95] It starred Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood and Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones. Filmed in La Rochelle, Hawaii, Tunisia and Elstree Studios, England, the shoot was difficult but Spielberg said it helped him hone his business acumen.[96] The film was a box office success[97] and won Academy Awards for Best Art Direction (Norman Reynolds, Leslie Dilley, and Michael D. Ford); Best Film Editing (Michael Kahn); Best Sound (Bill Varney, Steve Maslow, Gregg Landaker, and Roy Charman); Best Sound Editing (Ben Burtt and Richard L. Anderson); and Best Visual Effects (Richard Edlund, Kit West, Bruce Nicholson, and Joe Johnston).[98] Roger Ebert wrote that "Raiders of the Lost Ark is an out-of-body experience, a movie of glorious imagination and breakneck speed that grabs you in the first shot, hurtles you through a series of incredible adventures, and deposits you back in reality two hours later -- breathless, dizzy, wrung-out, and with a silly grin on your face... For locations, it ticks off the jungles of South America, the hinterlands of Tibet, the deserts of Egypt, a hidden submarine base, an isolated island, a forgotten tomb -- no, make that two forgotten tombs -- and an American archaeology classroom. For villains, it has sadistic Nazis, slimy gravediggers, drunken Sherpas, and scheming Frenchmen. For threats, it climaxes with the wrath of God, and leads up to that spectacular development by easy stages, with tarantulas, runaway boulders, hidden spears, falling rock slabs, burning airplanes, runaway trucks, sealed tombs, and snakes. Lots of snakes."[99] Raiders was the first film in the Indiana Jones franchise.
In 1982, Spielberg returned to science fiction with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. It tells the story of Elliot (Henry Thomas), a young boy who befriends an alien who was accidentally left behind by his companions and is attempting to return home. Spielberg eschewed storyboards so that his direction would be more spontaneous, and shot roughly in sequence so that the actors' performances would be authentic as they bonded with and said goodbye to E.T. E.T. premiered at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival to an ecstatic reaction; producer Kathleen Kennedy recalled, "You couldn't hear the end of the movie because people were on their feet stomping and yelling [...] It was one of the most amazing experiences."[100] A special screening was organized for Ronald and Nancy Reagan, who were emotional by the end.[100] E.T. grossed $700 million worldwide.[100] It won four Academy Awards: Best Original Score (John Williams), Best Sound (Robert Knudson, Robert Glass, Don Digirolamo, and Gene Cantamessa), Best Sound Editing (Charles L. Campbell and Ben Burtt), and Best Visual Effects (Carlo Rambaldi, Dennis Muren, and Kenneth F. Smith).[101] It was nominated for Best Picture but lost to Gandhi; its director, Richard Attenborough, said, "I was certain that not only would E.T. win, but that it should win. It was inventive, powerful, wonderful. I make more mundane movies."[102] Pauline Kael wrote of E.T.: "His voice is ancient and otherworldly but friendly, humorous. And this scaly, wrinkled little man with huge, wide-apart, soulful eyes and a jack-in-the-box neck has been so fully created that he's a friend to us, too; when he speaks of his longing to go home the audience becomes as mournful as Elliot. Spielberg has earned the tears that some people in the audience—and not just children—shed. The tears are tokens of gratitude for the spell the picture has put on the audience. Genuinely entrancing movies are almost as rare as extraterrestrial visitors."[103] Spielberg co-wrote and produced Poltergeist (1982)[97] and directed the "Kick The Can" segment in Twilight Zone: The Movie.[104]
Filmmaking style and techniques
Influences
Spielberg has cited Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life (1946) as an influence on "family, community and suburbia".[321] He enjoyed the work of Alfred Hitchcock,[45][322] David Lean,[323] John Ford, Stanley Kubrick and John Frankenheimer.[324][325] In college, he was inspired by foreign films directed by Ingmar Bergman, Jacques Tati and François Truffaut. Truffaut was one of his favorite directors.[326] Spencer Tracy has also influenced the characters of Spielberg's films,[327] as did The Twilight Zone series.[67]
Method and themes
Spielberg often uses storyboards to visualize the sequences, with the exceptions being in E.T. and The Color Purple.[328][329] After the experience of filming Jaws, Spielberg learned to leave special effect scenes until last, and exclude the media from filming locations.[330] Spielberg prefers to shoot quickly, with large amounts of coverage (from single-shot to multi-shot setups), so that he will have many options in the editing room.[331] From the beginning of his career, Spielberg's shooting style consisted of extreme high and low camera angles, long takes, and handheld cameras.[332] He favors wide-angle lens for creating depth,[333] and by the time he was making Minority Report, he was more confident with elaborate camera movements.[334]
In an interview with The Tech in 2015, Spielberg described how he chooses the film projects he would work on:
Personal life
Spielberg met actress Amy Irving in 1976 when she auditioned for Close Encounters of the Third Kind. After meeting her, Spielberg told his co-producer Julia Phillips, "I met a real heartbreaker last night."[357] Although she was too young for the role, she and Spielberg began dating and she eventually moved into what she described as his "bachelor funky" house.[358] They broke up in 1979.[107] In 1984, they renewed their romance and married in November 1985. Their son, Max, had been born on June 13 of that year.[359] In 1989, the couple divorced; they agreed to live near each other to share custody of their son.[136] Their divorce settlement is one of the most expensive in history.[360][107]
Spielberg met actress Kate Capshaw when he cast her in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. They married on October 12, 1991; Capshaw converted to Judaism before their marriage.[361][362] Spielberg said he rediscovered "the honor of being a Jew" when they married.[363] He said, "Kate is Protestant and she insisted on converting to Judaism. She spent a year studying, did the "mikveh", the whole thing. She chose to do a full conversion before we were married in 1991, and she married me after becoming a Jew. I think that, more than anything else, brought me back to Judaism."[363] He credits her for the family's level of observance;[364] "This shiksa goddess has made me a better Jew than my own parents", he said.[365] He and his family live in Pacific Palisades, California,[366] and East Hampton, New York.[367]
He has five children with Capshaw: Sasha Rebecca Spielberg (born May 14, 1990), Sawyer Avery Spielberg (born March 10, 1992),[368] and Destry Allyn Spielberg (born December 1, 1996), and two adopted children: Theo Spielberg (born August 21, 1988), and Mikaela George (born February 28, 1996).[105] He also has a stepdaughter, Jessica Capshaw (born August 9, 1976).
In 1997, a man named Jonathan Norman stalked and attempted to enter Spielberg's home; Norman was jailed for 25 years.[369][370] In 2001, Spielberg was stalked by conspiracy theorist and former social worker Diana Napolis. She accused him, and actress Jennifer Love Hewitt, of installing a mind-control device in her brain, and being part of a satanic cult.[371] Napolis was committed to a mental institution, and pled guilty to stalking. She was released on probation with a condition that she have no contact with either Spielberg or Hewitt.[372][373]
Spielberg was diagnosed with dyslexia at age 60.[374]
In 2013, Spielberg purchased the 282-foot (86 m) mega-yacht The Seven Seas for US$182 million. He has put it up for sale and has made it available for charter. At US$1.2 million per month, it is one of the most expensive charters on the market. He has ordered a new 300-foot (91 m) yacht at a reported US$250 million.[375][376]
In 2022, at age 75, Spielberg was diagnosed with COVID-19 but recovered.[377]
In December 2022, Spielberg was a guest on Desert Island Discs for BBC Radio 4, choosing for his luxury item an H-8 Bolex Camera.[378]