Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg is a renowned American filmmaker, recognized as one of the most financially successful directors in cinema history and a pioneer in cinematic techniques. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1946, Spielberg developed an early passion for filmmaking, creating adventure films with an eight-millimeter camera during his teenage years in San Jose, California. He gained prominence with the release of "Jaws" in 1975, which catapulted him into the spotlight as a master of special effects-driven adventure films. His notable works include classics like "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial," the "Indiana Jones" series, and poignant historical dramas such as "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan."
Spielberg's influence extends beyond his directorial achievements; he co-founded DreamWorks and has been involved in numerous television projects, earning accolades for his contributions to both film and television. His ability to explore various genres, from science fiction to historical narratives, has shaped modern filmmaking. Throughout his illustrious career, Spielberg has received multiple awards, including Academy Awards for Best Director, and has also engaged in philanthropic efforts, notably founding the USC Shoah Foundation, which preserves Holocaust testimony. Spielberg's legacy is characterized by his innovative storytelling and the cultural impact of his films, making him a significant figure in the entertainment industry.
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Steven Spielberg
American filmmaker
- Born: December 18, 1946
- Place of Birth: Cincinnati, Ohio
Considered both a pioneer of cinematic technique and the most financially successful director of all time, Spielberg has written, directed, and produced blockbuster hits in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and historical drama.
Early Life
Steven Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Arnold Spielberg, an electrical engineer, and Leah Spielberg, a restaurateur. The family moved often when Spielberg was young, but they finally settled in San Jose, California, where the teenager began his film-making endeavors. He used an eight-millimeter camera to make adventure films that emulated his favorite films from that time. By 1964, Spielberg had made his first full-length film, Firelight.
Because Spielberg’s grades were not strong enough to get him into the prestigious film schools, he attended California State College, Long Beach (now California State University, Long Beach) and continued making short films. He also sneaked onto film sets to keep up with his passion and to study the art. By the time of his graduation with a BA in film and electronic arts in 1970, Spielberg had earned awards at both the Venice and Atlanta film festivals and gained the attention of Universal Pictures executives. The film that got him noticed was Amblin’ (1968), a piece he made with $10,000 he borrowed from a friend and one that would serve as the namesake of Spielberg’s first production company, Amblin Entertainment, which he founded in 1984.
During his seven-year contract with Universal, Spielberg directed television series as well as made-for-television movies one of which, Duel (1971) was so successful it went to the big screen. While his debut major motion picture effort received lukewarm acclaim, his second film, Jaws (1975), launched him to cult status. Several of his subsequent works established him as a master of special effects-driven adventure films. He also became a universally respected director of culturally significant works and a filmmaker of several of the American Film Institute’s top one hundred films of all time.
Life’s Work
As an impressive newcomer to Universal Pictures, and as a soon-to-be-dubbed “movie brat” (along with Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, John Milius, Brian De Palma, and Martin Scorsese), Spielberg first worked as a director of television series such as Columbo, Marcus Welby, M.D., The Name of the Game, Night Gallery, and Owen Marshall. In 1971, he was making his first television movie, Duel, featuring Dennis Weaver being stalked by a semitruck with a phantom driver. The film met with such favor that it was released as a feature film and became a worldwide success. Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies (1973), for which Spielberg had a story credit, and The Sugarland Express (1974), which was his directorial debut, did not fare so well with critics or at box offices.
However, with his second film, Jaws, Spielberg again delivered a film that became an instant cult hit and determined an audience loyalty that would follow him the rest of his career. He produced the worldwide hits Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and the Indiana Jones renegade archeologist trilogy, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).
Also in the 1980s, Spielberg pushed his films from adventure, fantasy, and sci-fi exploration to other genres. In 1985, Spielberg married actor Amy Irving, and he stretched his oeuvre to include literary adaptations such as Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, which chronicles an abusive childhood and marriage. The next blockbuster to his credit was Back to the Future (1985), for which he was executive producer. He also added to his now-burgeoning repertoire the historical epic Empire of the Sun (1987) and made Always (1989), a remake of the 1943 romantic picture A Guy Named Joe. Always was a tear-jerking drama about a firefighting pilot who dies answering a call but who returns to life to try to contact his fiancée and best friend.
After a 1989 divorce from Irving, Spielberg married Kate Capshaw in 1991. He then made the moderately received film Hook (1991), which, while it was quirky and fantastic, stamped a trail for the mainstream appeal of pirate films. Spielberg’s innovation and groundbreaking filmic élan returned with a work that elicited a renewed fanaticism for another period in world history: Jurassic Park (1993) not only resuscitated the dinosaur craze but explored the technological territories of cloning, horror-style. In 1994, Spielberg formed a film partnership with David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg and created the Hollywood studio DreamWorks.
A historical epic by Spielberg, Schindler’s List (1993), exhibits the horrors of the Holocaust and the honor of the humanitarian savior and German industrialist Oskar Schindler. Other films during this period include Amistad (1997), which explored slavery and colonialism, and Saving Private Ryan (1998), the film that examined the private and personal nuances of men behind enemy lines in World War II. Fans and followers of Spielberg’s work were given more hit films: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Minority Report (2002), Catch Me If You Can (2002), The Terminal (2004), War of the Worlds (2005), Munich (2005), and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).
In the late 2000s and 2010s, Spielberg was the executive producer for a variety of films, including the Transformers series of films, The Lovely Bones (2009), True Grit (2010), and Jurassic World (2015). He directed the blockbuster films War Horse (2011) and Lincoln (2012), which were both nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Spielberg was also nominated for a 2013 Golden Globe for Best Director for Lincoln. Following Lincoln, he directed Bridge of Spies, his first film in three years, which was released in October 2015. Spielberg has also been the executive producer for a variety of television shows, including the Fox reality competition show On the Lot (2007); the Showtime series United States of Tara (2009–11); the HBO miniseries The Pacific (2010); the Fox seriesTerra Nova (2011); TNT's Falling Skies (2011–2015 ); the ABC paranormal series The River (2012); the NBC dramaSmash (2012–13); the CBS science-fiction drama Under the Dome (2013–15); the ABC science-fiction drama The Whispers; and the CBS drama Extant (2013–2015 ). The Pacific won the 2010 Primetime Emmy for outstanding miniseries.
Subsequent directorial work from Spielberg includes The Post (2017), Ready Player One (2018), and West Side Story (2021). West Side Story, an adaptation of the 1957 musical (which previously received a film adaptation in 1961), earned Spielberg a nomination for Best Picture and Best Director at the 2022 Academy Awards. Spielberg then directed The Fabelmans (2022), a semi-autobiographical drama with foundations in Spielberg's own experiences as a young filmmaker. The Fabelmans received acclaim from critics and earned Spielberg Golden Globes for Best Director and Best Motion Picture – Drama.
In 2023, Spielberg focused on producing for both television and film, including the fifth and final installment of the Indiana Jones saga, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. The film and its star, Harrison Ford, took home Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA, awards for best fantasy film and actor. Other projects included the films Maestro and The Color Purple, a musical take on the 1985 classic, as well as Transformers: Rise of the Beast. Television projects included multiple episodes of Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai and Life on Our Planet. In 2024, Spielberg continued to serve as executive producer for television projects such as Halo and Jurassic Park: Chaos Theory, as well as the theater releases Twisters and the animated Transformers One. A number of directorial projects remained in preprodution in 2024, including a planned television miniseries about Napolean. A new project billed as "an event project" and reported to deal with UFOs was planned for a 2026 release.
A résumé of such talent and integrity has not only delighted and moved millions but also gleaned a litany of accolades and awards including Best Director and Best Picture Academy Awards for Schindler’s List, a Best Director Academy Award for Saving Private Ryan, the Irving Thalberg Award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1987, and the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award in 1995. From a student prize for his short film Escape to Nowhere (1961) to honorary inductions into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2005 and as a Kennedy Center honoree in 2006, Spielberg's illustrious career includes myriad nominations and over 150 national and international awards, giving testament to Spielberg’s filmic influence, ingenuity, and acclaim.
Significance
Spielberg is one of the most influential film industry innovators of all time. His work as a pioneer of cinematic technique is reflected also in popular culture phenomena such as the pending-doom music from Jaws and the oft-repeated tag line “E.T. phone home.” His legacy includes a bounty of special effects from Indiana Jones running from a rushing boulder to the little girl’s red coat in a black-and-white world of Nazi Germany.
To add to his supreme talent and success as an entertainment maven, Spielberg returned to college to earn his degree in filmmaking, and his charitable efforts include founding the USC Shoah Foundation: Institute for Visual History and Education, an institution that has amassed a collection of video testimonies from approximately fifty-two thousand Holocaust survivors and liberators. Spielberg also established supportive projects for amateur filmmakers.
Bibliography
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