Spielberg, Steven (1947– )

Film director Steven Spielberg working on the set of the hugely successful Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977. Many of Spielberg's early films reflect his delight in the heroic adventure movies that he had loved as a child, a delight shared by his audiences.

US film director, writer, and producer. One of the most commercially successful film-makers in the history of US cinema, Spielberg began his career in television, most famously directing Duel (1971). His credits include the box-office successes Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), ET The Extraterrestrial (1982), Jurassic Park (1992), the multi-award-winning Schindler's List (1993), and Saving Private Ryan (1998). In 1994 he formed a partnership with David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg to create a new Hollywood studio called DreamWorks SKG, although he remains an independent contractor.

Spielberg, alongside Francis Coppola, Martin Scorsese, and George Lucas, was one of the new generation of ‘movie brats’ who emerged in the late 1960s. He made his feature film debut with The Sugarland Express (1974). His second feature film Jaws grossed $260 million and established his reputation as a pioneer of cinematic technique, heralding a new era of blockbuster films with fantastic themes. Spielberg set up Amblin Entertainment, an independent production company, in 1984. Responding to criticism that he could not make a serious film, he directed The Color Purple (1985), a drama based on the novel by US Pulitzer prize-winning author Alice Walker. Schindler's List won him his first Academy Awards, for Best Director and Best Picture; Saving Private Ryan won him a second award for Best Director. Spielberg was awarded 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.

Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Fascinated with the cinema, he made amateur films as a child but was rejected by the top film schools and graduated from California State College, Long Beach with a BA in English Literature. His short film Amblin', made in 1969 with a budget of US$10,000 borrowed from a friend, was screened at the Atlanta Film Festival and earned him a contract as television director for Universal Pictures. His most notable production, Duel, in which a motorist was menaced by a giant truck, became a cult classic.

In the 1980s, he directed the sequels to Raiders of the Lost Ark – Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Empire of the Sun (1987) and Hook (1991) were less successful, but in 1993 Spielberg enjoyed tremendous commercial and artistic success with Jurassic Park and Schindler's List. Other films include Amistad (1997), A.I. (2001), Minority Report (2002), and Catch Me If You Can (2002).

Amblin Entertainment, named after his first film, was responsible for Gremlins (1984), Back to the Future (1985), and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), as well as television spin-offs of Spielberg's popular adventure films (such as The Young Indiana Jones, 1992–94). With DreamWorks SKG, Spielberg wanted a proprietary stake in the business, with more freedom to offer profits to ‘talent’ and to cut down on bureaucracy.