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It is hard to imagine a person who has
not heard of Steven Spielberg. He is one of the most renown
(if not THE most renown) American film maker of this
century. His films have captivated and helped develop the
imaginations of contemporary society and remain amongst the
most successful films ever made.
The film maker was born in Cincinnati
on December 18th, 1946. Shortly thereafter, the Spielberg
clan moved out west to Scottsdale Arizona. Steven was the
child of an electrical engineer father, Arnold, and a
concert pianist mother, Leah. Their children all seem to
have picked up the best elements from both their parents -
the artistic and creative talent of their mother, and the
pragmatic craftsmanship of their father. Steven has three
sisters, Anne, Sue and Nancy. Of the three, Anne has also
worked in Hollywood. As a screenwriter, she was nominated
for an Oscar for the movie Big, starring Tom Hanks.
Spielberg had an early fascination
with cinema and began making amateur films at a very young
age. At 13, he won a local contest for his 40 minute film, Escape
to Nowhere. Three years later, he made Firelight
(an early precursor to Close Encounters of the Third Kind)
which got shown at the local theater and even managed to
gross $100. Despite his early success, Steven was unable to
get into a film school, and instead settled for majoring in
English Literature at California State University in Long
Beach.
Upon graduation, Steven set out to
make it in Hollywood, and he was determined to be
successful. Legend has it that while on a tour of the
Universal Studios lot, he disappeared. While exploring the
building, he found an abandoned closet. Cleaning it up, he
set up an office. He would go to work there everyday,
walking past the security officers wearing a business suit
and tie.
What was he up to? Steven was busy at
work on his latest film, Amblin. The short film told
the story of a pair of hitchhikers. With a budget of
$15,000, he scrounged from friends and finally managed to
make a quality film. The short would win several film
festival awards and would also get the attention of the
movie studios - more specifically, Universal Studios. He
signed a seven-year contract to work in their television
division (and one must assume they finally gave him a real
office).
While there, Steven worked on several
television series’, but his best work came in the form of
television movies. Indeed, Duel was deemed so good
that it was shown theatrically over seas.
Spielberg's television success was
soon parlayed into big screen stardom. His first feature was
1974's The Sugarland Express, and even then Spielberg
was showing signs of excellence. The film would win a Cannes
Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay. The following year
came Jaws. This very successful horror film about a
man-eating shark captured the attention of the world and has
become a part of contemporary pop culture. The movie was
nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, and won several
Oscars for technical categories and for its chilling score.
In 1998, the film was named by the American Film Institute
as one of the 100 best American films of the century.
Jaws was not the only film of
his to make that prestigious list. Many of Spielberg's works
have a place on the list, and many of them also occupy a
large place in the heart American pop culture. Such films as
Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Indiana
Jones and Jurassic Park have become legendary.
Spielberg has always been able to tap into the collective
imagination and bring forth the most splendid dreams. At the
same time, he has also shown a capability to tap into
humanity's darkest nightmares.
In 1993, Spielberg made Schindler's
List, a haunting epic that showed the Holocaust in its
ugly truth. The film would finally win Steven a Best Picture
Oscar, and rightly so. It has now become part of the regular
curriculum in many schools and is considered by many to be
the most significant film of this generation.
In 1998, Spielberg came out with Saving
Private Ryan, which captured war in shocking and gory
detail as his soldiers stormed the beaches at Normandy. Yet
again he has shown a propensity to deal with larger, more
serious issues.
Spielberg is a very wealthy man. A
hardworking artist, he is also a shrewd businessman. In
1982, he founded Amblin Entertainment, named after his early
film. The first film to be produced by Amblin was E.T.,
and the company would use E.T.'s logo as its
trademark. The company was a production studio, but it never
distributed its own movies. Instead it relied on other
studios for distribution.
Amblin Entertainment was successful,
but Spielberg wanted more control over his projects and did
not want any other studios interfering with his work. In
1994, he formed a partnership with several other industry
bigwigs, most notably Jeffrey Katzenberg, David Geffen and
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen (see, Bill Gates isn't the
only one doing well!). Together, they created the first new
movie studio in Hollywood in over 75 years - Dreamworks. The
company covers all its bases and produces live action and
animated movies, music, computer games, arcades, television
productions and distribution. Spielberg owns 22% of the pie.
All together, Spielberg is worth approximately 1 billion
dollars, and brings home a yearly salary of $238 million.
Not too shabby - a definite stretch from his closet-office
days.
Business dealings and work aside,
Spielberg has always maintained that for him, family is the
most important thing. In 1979 he married actress Amy Irving
and together they had a son, Max. However, things did not
work out and they divorced in 1989.
Spielberg met actress Kate Capshaw
when she was auditioning for Indiana Jones and the Temple
of Doom. Not only would she be cast, but the two would
begin a relationship and eventually marry in 1991. They both
brought one child from a previous marriage to the
relationship, and altogether they currently have seven
children, two of which were adopted. They are a happy clan,
and Spielberg is known to be a doting dad.
This talented man is the premiere
movie director of the baby boomer generation, and now, as
that generation ages, he is bringing a new maturity to his
work. He only seems to be getting better with age, and when
you consider that his first two films won Cannes Film
Festival Awards and Oscars, Spielberg is truly headed for
legendary status.
Thanks to
moviething.com for this info
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