Spielberg, Steven 1947–

(Stephen Spielberg, Steve Spielberg, Steven Spielrock)

PERSONAL

Full name, Steven Allan Spielberg; born December 18, 1947, in Cincinnati, OH; son of Arnold Spielberg (a computer engineer) and Leah Adler (a concert pianist and restaurateur; maiden name, Posner); brother of Anne Spielberg (a writer and producer); married Amy Irving (an actress), November 27, 1985 (divorced, 1989); married Kate Capshaw (an actress), October 12,1991; children: (first marriage) Max Samuel; (second marriage) Jessica, Theo, Sasha, Sawyer, Mikaela George, Destry Allyn. Education: California State University, Long Beach, B.A., film and electronic arts, 2002. Politics: Democrat.

Addresses: Office— DreamWorks SKG, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, CA 91608; Amblin Entertainment, 100 Universal City Plaza, Building 477, Universal City, CA 91608. Agent— Creative Artists Agency, 2000 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles, CA 90067.

Career: Director, producer, cinematographer, screen-writer, editor, actor, and creative consultant. Made numerous films in childhood and as a college student. Amblin Entertainment (production company named after his short film Amblin'), Universal City, CA, founder, 1986; Back to the Future … The Ride, Universal Studios theme park, creative consultant, 1991; Dream-Works SKG, founder (with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen), 1994; Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, founder, 1994, also chairman; Game Works(adult arcade), creator and investor, 1997; Men in Black Alien Attack (also known as Men in Black: The Ride),creative consultant, 2000; Lego & Steven Spielberg Movie Maker Set, 2000; Knowledge Adventure, Inc.(software development company), creative consultant and investor; Dive! (restaurant), investor (with Katzenberg). Artists Rights Foundation, founding member and vice president; Righteous Persons Foundation, founder; American Film Institute, member of the board of trustees; University of Southern California, member of the board of trustees; Children's Action Network, founder (with others); Starbright Pediatric Network (also known as Starbright Foundation), chair. Was an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America.

Member: Directors Guild of America, Screenwriters Guild of America, British Academy of Film and Television Arts (fellow), Zeta Epsilon chapter of the Theta Chi fraternity.

Awards, Honors: Golden Globe Award nomination, 1975, for Jaws; Academy Award nomination, best director, and Golden Globe Award nominations, best director and best screenplay, all 1977, for Close Encounters of the Third Kind; Academy Award nomination, best director, 1981, for Raiders of the Lost Ark; Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards (with Kathleen Kennedy), best film and best director, National Society of Film Critics Award, best director, Academy Award nominations (with Kennedy), best picture and best director, and Golden Globe Award nomination, best director, 1982, Producers Guild of America Hall of Fame—Motion Picture (with Kennedy), 2000, all for E.T. the Extra–Terrestrial; director of the year and producer of the year awards, both from National Alliance of Theatre Owners, 1982; Hasty Pudding Man of the Year Award, Hasty Pudding Theatricals, Harvard University, 1983; Directors Guild of America Award, outstanding directorial achievement in feature film, Golden Globe Award, best film directing, Image Award, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and Academy Award nomination (with Kennedy, Peter Guber, Jon Peters, Quincy Jones, and Frank Marshall), best picture, all 1985, for The Color Purple; Emmy Award nomination, outstanding director of a drama series, 1986, for "The Mission," Amazing Stories; honorary doctorate in creative arts, Brandeis University, 1986; National Board of Review Awards, best picture and best director, both 1987, for Empire of the Sun; Irving G. Thalberg Award, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 1987, for consistent high quality in filmmaking; Eastman Kodak Second Century Award, 1987; guest of honor at the Moving Pictures Ball, American Cinematheque, 1989; Daytime Emmy awards, outstanding animated program, 1991, for Tiny Toon Adventures: The Looney Beginning, and 1993, for Tiny Toon Adventures; Golden Lion Award, Venice International Film Festival, 1993, for career achievement; George Foster Peabody Broadcasting Award, Henry W. Grady School of Journalism, University of Georgia, 1993, Daytime Emmy Award, outstanding animated children's program, 1997, both for Animaniacs; honorary doctorate, University of Southern California, 1994; Board of Governors Award, American Society of Cinematographers, 1994; Academy Awards, best picture (with Branko Lustig and Gerald R. Molen), and best director, Golden Globe Awards, best picture (with others) and best director, Film Awards, best film (with others) and best director, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award (with others), best picture, National Board of Review Award (with others), best picture, New York Film Critics Circle Award (with others), best picture, and Directors Guild of American Award, outstanding directorial achievement in feature film, all c. 1994, and Bundesverdienstkreuz mit Stern (a German civil award), for portrayal of German history, 1998, all for Schindler's List; Emmy Award nomination, outstanding animated program, 1995, for Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toons Night Ghoulery; Lifetime Achievement Award, American Film Institute, 1995; John Huston Award for Artists Rights, Artists Rights Foundation, 1995, for his efforts to end film alteration; Honorary Cesar, 1995; Emmy Award (with others), outstanding animated program, 1996, for Steven Spielberg Presents A Pinky & the Brain Christmas Special; Daytime Emmy Award, outstanding special class/animated program, 1997, for Steven Spielberg Presents "Freakazoid!"; Kodak Vision Award for Theatrical Motion Pictures (with others), Producers Guild of America, 1997, for Amistad; named the most powerful person in entertainment, Entertainment Weekly, 1997; Producers Guild of America Milestone Award, 1998; Cross of Merit, Germany, 1998; Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, all best director, Directors Guild of America Award, outstanding directorial achievement, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, Toronto Film Critics Association Awards, Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards, and Online Film Critics Society Awards, all best picture and best director, New York Film Critics Circle Award and Chicago Film Critics Award, both best picture, Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Theatrical Motion Pictures, Producers Guild of America, and Academy Award nomination, best picture, all c. 1998, and Distinguished Public Service Award, U.S. Navy, 1999, Critics Choice Award, best director, 2003, all for Saving Private Ryan; Daytime Emmy Award, outstanding special class/animated program, 1999, for Pinky and the Brain; chosen as the best director of the twentieth century, Entertainment Weekly online poll, 1999; Daytime Emmy Award, outstanding children's animated program, 2000, for Steven Spielberg Presents "Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain"; Lifetime Achievement Award, Directors Guild of America, 2000; Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, 2000; Vanguard Award, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), 2000; Awarded Knight of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), 2001; Billy Wilder Award, National Board of Review, 2001; Future Film Festival Digital Award, Venice Film Festival, 2001, Saturn Award, best writing, Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, Saturn Award nomination, best director, Empire Award nomination, best director, Golden Globe Award nomination, best director—motion picture, Readers' Choice Award, best foreign language film, Mainichi Film Concours, Online Film Critics Award nomination, best screenplay—adapted, 2002, all for Artificial Intelligence: AI; Doctor of Humane Letters, Yale University, 2002; Christopher Award (with others), television and cable, Emmy Award (with others), outstanding mini-series, Television Producer of the Year Award in Long-form (with Tom Hanks and Tony To), Producers Guild of America, 2002, all for Band of Brothers; Emmy Award nomination (with others), outstanding non– fiction special (information), 2002, for We Stand Alone Together; Screen International Award nomination, European Film Awards, Hollywood Movie of the Year, Hollywood Film Festival, 2002, Cesar Award nomination, best foreign film, Empire Award, best director, Online Film Critics Award nomination, best director, Saturn Award, best director, Silver Ribbon Award nomination, Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists, 2003, all for Minority Report; Critics Choice Award, best director, 2003, for Catch Me If You Can; Emmy Award (with others), outstanding miniseries, 2003, for Taken; Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, 2003; Akira Kurosawa Award, Tokyo International Film Festival, 2004; Special David Award di Donatello Award, 2004; Kennedy Center Honors, 2006; Contribution to Cinematic Imagery Award, Art Directors Guild, 2006; Lifetime Achievement Award, Chicago International Film Festival, 2006; Founders Award, International Emmy Awards, 2006; Emmy Award nomination(with others), outstanding miniseries, Television Producer of the Year Award in Long form nomination(with others), Producers Guild of America, Bronze Wrangler (with others), outstanding television feature film, Western Heritage Awards, 2006, all for Into the West; Empire Award nomination, best director, 2006, for War of the Worlds; Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Award, best director, 2005, Academy Award nominations (with Kathleen Kennedy and Barry Mendel), best motion picture of the year and best achievement in directing, Critics Choice Award nomination, Broadcast Film Critics Association, best director, Chicago Film Critics Association Award nomination, best director, Directors Guild of America Award nomination, outstanding directorial achievement in motion pictures, Golden Globe Award nomination, best director—motion picture, Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award, best director, Online Film Critics Award nomination, best director, 2006, all for Munich; Saturn Award nomination, best direction, 2006, for War of the Worlds; Academy Award nomination (with Clint Eastwood and Robert Lorenz), best motion picture of the year, 2007, for Letters from Iwo Jima; Cecil B. DeMille Award, Golden Globe Awards, 2008; Lifetime Achievement Award, Visual Effects Society, 2008; made an officer of the French Legion of Honor, 2008; Cariddi D'Oro from the Taormina Film Festival and Grand Prize from the Festival du Cinema Fantastique, both for the theatrically released version of Duel; prizes from the Atlanta Film Festival and the Venice International Film Festival, for Amblin'; David Lean Award, British Academy of Film and Television Arts; won a film contest as a teenager for Escape to Nowhere; the 1991 film Abdulladzhan, iliposvyaschayesty a Stivenu Spilbergu (also known as Abdulladzhan, or Dedicated to Steven Spielberg) was dedicated to him; also named a fellow of the Starbright Foundation.

CREDITS

Film Work:

Director and editor, The Last Gun, 1959.

Director and editor, Battle Squad, 1961.

Director and editor, Fighter Squad, 1961.

Director, cinematographer, and editor, Escape to Nowhere, 1962.

Director, cinematographer, editor, and creator of visual effects, Firelight, 1965.

(Unfinished) Director, Slipstream, 1967.

Production assistant, Faces, Continental Distributing, 1968.

Director and (uncredited) editor, Amblin' (short), 1969.

Director, The Sugarland Express, Universal, 1974.

Director and (uncredited) musician: clarinet in orchestra, Jaws, Universal, 1975.

(Uncredited) Supervising editor, Taxi Driver, 1976.

Director and creator of special visual effects concept, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (also known as CE3K and Watch the Skies), Columbia, 1977.

Executive producer, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Universal, 1978.

Director, 1941, Universal, 1979.

(With John Milius) Executive producer, Used Cars, Columbia, 1980.

Director, Raiders of the Lost Ark (also known as Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark), Paramount, 1981.

(With Bernie Brillstein and Jack Rosenthal) Executive producer, Continental Divide, Universal, 1981.

Director, Duel (expanded theatrical version of the television movie), Universal, 1982.

Director and (with Kathleen Kennedy) producer, E.T. the Extra–Terrestrial (also known as A Boy's Life and E.T.), Universal, 1982.

Director, (uncredited) editor, and (with Fran Marshall) producer, Poltergeist, Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer/ United Artists, 1982.

Director, "Kick the Can," executive producer, and (with John Landis) producer, Twilight Zone—The Movie, Warner Bros., 1983.

Director, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Paramount, 1984.

(With Kennedy and Marshall) Executive producer, Gremlins, Warner Bros., 1984.

(With Kennedy and Marshall) Executive producer, Back to the Future, Universal, 1985.

Director and producer, The Color Purple, Warner Bros., 1985.

Executive producer (with Kennedy and Marshall), (uncredited) editor, and (uncredited) second unit director, The Goonies, Warner Bros., 1985.

(With Kennedy and Marshall) Executive producer, Young Sherlock Holmes (also known as Pyramid of Fear), Paramount, 1985.

Assistant to the director and (uncredited) executive producer, Fandango, Warner Bros., 1985.

Assistant to the director, Return to Oz (also known as The Adventures of the Devil from the Sky and Oz),Buena Vista, 1985.

(With Kennedy, David Kirschner, and Marshall) Executive producer, An American Tail (animated),Universal, 1986.

(With David Glier and Kennedy) Executive producer, The Money Pit, Universal, 1986.

Assistance, The Puppetoon Movie, Expanded Entertainment, 1986.

Assistance, The Fantasy Film World of George Pal, 1986.

Assistance, Heaven, Island Pictures, 1987.

(With Kennedy and Marshall) Executive producer, *batteries not included, Universal, 1987.

(With Peter Guber and Jon Peters) Executive producer, Innerspace, Warner Bros., 1987.

Director and producer, Empire of the Sun, Warner Bros., 1987.

(Uncredited) Executive producer, Harry and the Henderson (also known as Bigfoot and Bigfoot and the Hendersons), 1987.

(Uncredited) Executive producer, Three O'Clock High, 1987.

(With George Lucas) Executive producer, The Land Before Time (animated; also known as The Land Before Time Began), Universal, 1988.

(With Kennedy) Executive producer, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Buena Vista, 1988.

Assistance, U2 Rattle and Hum, Paramount, 1988.

(With Kennedy and Marshall) Executive producer, Back to the Future II, Universal, 1989.

(With Kennedy and Marshall) Executive producer, Dad, Universal, 1989.

Director and producer, Always, Universal, 1989.

Director, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Paramount, 1989.

Executive producer, Tummy Trouble (animated short), Buena Vista, 1989.

Executive producer, Rollercoaster Rabbit (animated short), Buena Vista, 1990.

Director, "Par for the Course," The Visionary, 1990.

Executive producer (with Marshall) and (uncredited) second unit director, Arachnophobia, Buena Vista, 1990.

(With Kennedy and Marshall) Executive producer, Back to the Future III, Universal, 1990.

(With Kennedy and Marshall) Executive producer, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Warner Bros., 1990.

(With Kennedy and Marshall) Executive producer and producer, Joe Versus the Volcano, Warner Bros., 1990.

(International version) Executive producer, Yume (also known as Akira Kurosawa's "Dreams," Dreams, I Saw a Dream Like This, Such Dreams I Have Dreamed, and Konna yume wo mita), 1990.

Director, Hook, TriStar, 1991.

(With Robert Watts) Producer, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (animated), Universal, 1991.

(Uncredited) Executive producer, A Brief History of Time, 1991.

(Uncredited) Executive producer, Cape Fear, 1991.

Executive producer, Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation (animated), 1992.

Director, Jurassic Park (also known as JP), Universal, 1993.

Director and producer, Schindler's List (also known as Schindler's Ark), Universal, 1993.

(With Kennedy and Frank Marshall) Executive producer, Trail Mix–Up (animated short), Buena Vista, 1993.

(With Kennedy and Marshall) Executive producer, We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (animated), Universal, 1993.

Executive producer, I'm Mad (animated short), Warner Bros., 1994.

(As Steven Spielrock) Executive producer, The Flintstones, Universal, 1994.

Executive producer, Yakko's World: An Animaniacs Singalong (animated), 1994.

(With Kennedy and Bonnie Radford) Executive producer, Balto (animated; also known as Snowballs), Universal, 1995.

(With Gerald R. Molen and Jeffrey A. Montgomery) Executive producer, Casper (animated; also known as Casper, the Friendly Ghost), Universal, 1995.

Executive producer, The Best of Roger Rabbit (also known as Disney and Steven Spielberg Present "The Best of Roger Rabbit"), 1996.

(With Molen, Laurie MacDonald, and Walter Parkes) Executive producer, Twister, Warner Bros., 1996.

Executive producer, Men in Black (also known as MiB), Sony Pictures Entertainment, 1997.

Director, Amistad, DreamWorks SKG, 1997.

Director, The Lost World: Jurassic Park (also known as Jurassic Park 2, Lost World, and The Lost World), DreamWorks SKG, 1997.

Executive producer, The Lost Children of Berlin, 1997.

Director and producer, Saving Private Ryan, Dream-Works SKG, 1998.

(With Joan Bradshaw) Executive producer, Deep Impact, Paramount, 1998.

Executive producer, The Last Days (documentary),October Films, 1998.

Executive producer and (uncredited) second unit director, The Haunting (also known as La maldicion), DreamWorks SKG, 1999.

Director and editor, The Unfinished Journey, 1999.

(Uncredited) Executive producer, Wakko's Wish (also known as Steven Spielberg Presents "Animaniacs: Wakko's Wish"), 1999.

Executive producer, A Holocaust szemei (also known as Eyes of the Holocaust), Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, 2000.

(Uncredited) Executive producer, Evolution, Dream-Works SKG, 2001.

Executive producer, Jurassic Park III (also known as JP3), Universal, 2001.

(Uncredited) Executive producer, Shrek (animated), DreamWorks SKG, 2001.

Director and producer, A.I. Artificial Intelligence (also known as Artificial Intelligence: AI), Warner Bros., 2001.

Director and producer, Catch Me If You Can, Dream-Works, 2002.

Director, Minority Report, DreamWorks, 2002.

Executive producer, Men in Black 2 (also known as MIB2 and MIIB), Sony Pictures Entertainment, 2002.

Executive producer, Price for Peace (documentary), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2002.

Director and producer, The Terminal, DreamWorks, 2004.

Advisor, A Remarkable Promise (short), 2004.

Executive producer, Voices from the List (documentary), Universal Studios Home Video, 2004.

Director, War of the Worlds, Paramount, 2005.

Cinematographer, Scoring "War of the Worlds" (short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2005.

Assistant director: action sequences, Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith (also known as Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith, and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith), Twentieth Century–Fox, 2005.

Executive producer, The Legend of Zorro (also known as Z), Columbia, 2005.

Producer, Memoirs of a Geisha, Columbia, 2005.

Producer, Munich, DreamWorks, 2005.

Executive producer, Monster House (animated; also known as Neighbourhood Crimes & Peepers), Columbia, 2006.

Executive producer, Spell Your Name (documentary), 2006.

Producer, Flags of Our Fathers, Paramount, 2006.

Producer, Letters from Iwo Jima, Paramount, 2006.

Executive producer, Transformers, Paramount, 2007.

Producer, Bee Movie (animated), Paramount, 2007.

Director, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Paramount, 2008.

Executive producer, Eagle Eye, DreamWorks, 2008.

Film Appearances:

The Last Gun, 1959.

Himself, Directed by John Ford, 1971.

(Uncredited) Voice of Amity Point Lifestation worker, Jaws, Universal, 1975.

Cook County clerk, The Blues Brothers, Universal, 1980.

Himself, The Making of "Raiders of the Lost Ark," 1981.

Himself, Chambre 666, 1982.

Himself in archival footage, Coming Soon, 1982.

Man in electric wheelchair, Gremlins, Warner Bros., 1984.

(Uncredited) Tourist at airport, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Paramount, 1984.

Himself, Citizen Steve, 1987.

Presenter of the 1989 reconstructed and restored version (original version released in 1962, Lawrence of Arabia, 1989.

Himself, Listen Up (also known as Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones), Warner Bros., 1990.

Himself, Making Close Encounters, 1990.

Host, Shattered Lullabies, 1992.

Himself, The Magical World of Chuck Jones, Warner Bros., 1992.

Himself, A Century of Cinema, 1994.

Himself, The Making of "Jurassic Park," 1995.

Himself, The Making of Steven Spielberg's "Jaws," 1995.

Backlot tour guide, Your Studio and You, 1995.

Himself, The Making of "E.T. the Extra–Terrestrial" (also known as "E.T.: The Extra–Terrestrial"-A Look Back), 1996.

Himself, The Making of "1941," 1996.

(Uncredited) Popcorn–eating man, The Lost World: Jurassic Park (also known as Jurassic Park 2, Lost World, and The Lost World), DreamWorks SKG, 1997.

Himself, The Making of "Lost World," 1997.

Himself, Return to Normandy (also known as The Making of" Saving Private Ryan"), 1998.

Himself (as the director and producer), Into the Breach: Saving Private Ryan," 1998.

Himself, The Making of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," 1998.

Himself, AFI's 100 Years … 100 Movies: The Antiheroes, 1998.

Himself, Forever Hollywood (documentary), Esplanade Productions, 1999.

Himself, The Making of "Amistad," 1999.

Himself, "Lawrence of Arabia": A Conversation with Steven Spielberg, 2000.

Himself, "American Beauty": Look Closer …, 2000.

Himself, Beyond "Jurassic Park," 2001.

Himself, Beginning: Making "Episode I" (also known as The Beginning: Making "Star Wars Episode I"), 2001.

Himself, The Making of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," 2001.

Himself, Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures, Warner Bros., 2001.

(Uncredited) Guest at David Aames' party, Vanilla Sky, 2001.

Steven Spielberg, Austinpussy director, Austin Powers in Gold member, New Line Cinema, 2002.

"AI"/FX (short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2002.

Himself, Inside "Taken" (documentary short), 2002.

The Music of "AI" (short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2002.

Live at the Shrine! John Williams and the World Premiere of "E.T." The Extra Terrestrial": The 20th Anniversary, 2002.

Dressing "AI" (documentary short), Dream Works Home Entertainment, 2002.

The Sound of "AI" (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2002.

Himself, The "E.T." Reunion (documentary short), 2002.

Himself, The Robots of "AI" (documentary short),DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2002.

"AI": From Drawings to Sets (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2002.

Himself, Special Visual Effects and Animation: ILM (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2002.

Himself, Creating "AI" (documentary short), Dream-Works, 2002.

Himself, Steven Spielberg: Our Responsibility to Artificial Intelligence (short), 2002.

Himself, "AI": A Portrait of Gigolo Joe (short), Dream-Works Home Entertainment, 2002.

Himself, "AI": A Portrait of David (short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2002.

Himself, Lighting "AI" (short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2002.

Himself, Prelude to a Dream (documentary short), Paramount Home Video, 2002.

Himself, "E.T. the Extra–Terrestrial": 20th Anniversary Celebration (documentary), Universal Studios Home Video, 2002.

Himself, Deconstructing Precrime and Precogs (short),DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2002.

Himself, "Minority Report": The Story, the Debate (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2002.

Himself, Final Report (short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2002.

Himself, Deconstructing Vehicles of the Future (short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2002.

Himself, Deconstructing Precog Visions (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2002.

Himself, ILM and "Minority Report" (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2002.

Himself, The World of "Minority Report": An Introduction (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2002.

Himself, "Minority Report": The Players (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2002.

Himself, Brian De Palma, l'incorruptible (also known as Brian DePalma: The Untouchables and The Life of Brian), 2002.

Himself, Robert Capa: In Love and War (documentary), 2003.

Himself, Behind the Ears: The True Story of Roger Rabbit (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2003.

Himself, Scoring "Catch Me If You Can" (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2003.

Himself, "Catch Me If You Can": Behind the Camera (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2003.

Himself, Frank Abagnale: Between Reality and Fiction (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2003.

Himself, "Catch Me If You Can": The Casting of the Film (documentary short; also known as Cast Me If You Can), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2003.

Himself, "Catch Me If You Can": In Closing (short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2003.

Himself, The FBI Perspective (short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2003.

Himself, A Collaboration of Spirits: Casting and Acting "The Color Purple" (documentary short), 2003.

Himself, "The Color Purple ": The Musical (documentary short), 2003.

Himself, Conversations with the Ancestors: "The Color Purple" from Book to Screen (documentary short), 2003.

Himself, Cultivating a Classic: The Making of "The Color Purple" (documentary short), 2003.

Himself, The Music of "Indiana Jones" (documentary short), Paramount Home Video, 2003.

Himself, The Stunts of "Indiana Jones" (documentary short), Paramount Home Video, 2003.

Himself, The Sound of "Indiana Jones" (documentary short), Paramount Home Video, 2003.

Himself, The Light and Magic of "Indiana Jones" (documentary short), Paramount Home Video, 2003.

Himself, "Indiana Jones": Making the Trilogy (documentary), Paramount Home Video, 2003.

Himself, Double Dare (documentary), Balcony Releasing, 2004.

Himself, Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust (documentary), Shadow Distribution, 2004.

Himself, The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing (documentary), Warner Home Video, 2004

Himself, Artifact from the Future: The Making of" THX 1138" (documentary short), Warner Home Video, 2004.

Himself, Voices from the List (documentary), Universal Studios Home Video, 2004.

Himself, Survivors of the Shoah: Visual History Foundation (documentary short), Universal Studios Home Video, 2004.

Himself, "Saving Private Ryan": Re–Creating Omaha Beach (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2004.

Himself, "Saving Private Ryan": Looking Into the Past (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2004.

Himself, "Saving Private Ryan": Boot Camp (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2004.

Himself, "Saving Private Ryan": An Introduction (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2004.

Himself, "Saving Private Ryan": Parting Thoughts (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2004.

Himself, "Saving Private Ryan": Miller and His Platoon (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2004.

Himself, Making "Saving Private Ryan" (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2004.

Himself, Steven Spielberg and the Small Screen (documentary short), Universal Studios Home Video, 2004.

Himself, "Duel": A Conversation with Director Steven Spielberg (documentary short), Universal Studios Home Video, 2004.

Himself, A Legacy of Filmmakers: The Early Years of American Zoetrope (documentary), Warner Home Video, 2004.

Himself, The Force Is With Them: The Legacy of "Star Wars" (documentary short), Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2004.

Himself, Landing: Airport Stories (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2004.

Himself, Take Off: Making "The Terminal" (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2004.

Himself, Waiting for the Flight: Building" The Terminal" (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2004.

Himself, Booking the Flight: The Script, the Story (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2004.

Himself, In Flight Service: The Music of" The Terminal" (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2004.

Himself, Boarding: The People of" The Terminal" (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2004.

Himself, Designing the Enemy: Tripods and Aliens (short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2004.

Himself, We Are Not Alone (short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2005.

Himself, "War of the Worlds": Production Diaries, West Coast—War (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2005.

Himself, "War of the Worlds": Production Diaries, West Coast—Destruction (documentary short), Dream-Works Home Entertainment, 2005.

Himself, "War of the Worlds": Characters—The Family Unit (short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2005.

Himself, Steven Spielberg and the Original" War of the Worlds" (short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2005.

Himself, "War of the Worlds": Previsualization (short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2005.

Himself, Scoring "War of the Worlds" (short), Dream-Works Home Entertainment, 2005.

Himself, "War of the Worlds": Revisiting the Invasion (short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2005.

Himself, "War of the Worlds": Production Diaries, East Coast—Beginning (documentary short), Dream-Works Home Entertainment, 2005.

Himself, The H. G. Wells Legacy (short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2005.

Himself, "War of the Worlds": Production Diaries, East Coast—Exile (documentary short), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2005.

Himself, Coming Attractions: The History of the Movie Trailer (documentary), 2006.

Himself, Searching for Orson (documentary), 2006.

Himself, The Shark Is Still Working (documentary),2006.

Himself, "Munich": The Experience (documentary short), Universal Studios Home Video, 2006.

Himself, "Munich": The Mission—The Team (documentary short), Universal Studios Home Video, 2006.

Himself, "Munich": Editing, Sound and Music (short), Universal Studios Home Video, 2006.

Himself, "Munich": The International Cast (short), Universal Studios Home Video, 2006.

Himself, "Munich": Portrait of the Era (short), Universal Studios Home Video, 2006.

Himself, "Munich": Memories of the Event (short), Universal Studios Home Video, 2006.

Himself, "Munich": The On–Set Experience (short), Universal Studios Home Video, 2006.

Himself, AFI's 100 Years … 100 Greatest Movies: 10th Anniversary Edition (documentary), CBS Entertainment Productions, 2007.

Himself, Our World (documentary), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2007.

Himself, Their War (documentary), DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2007.

Himself, Standing on the Shoulders of Kubrick: The Legacy of"2001" (documentary short), Warner Home Video, 2007.

Himself, The Visions of Stanley Kubrick (documentary short), Warner Home Video, 2007.

Himself, View from the Overlook: Crafting "The Shining" (documentary short), Warner Home Video, 2007.

Himself, Great Bolshy Yarblockos! Making "A Clockwork Orange" (documentary short), Warner Home Video, 2007.

Himself, "Indiana Jones": An Appreciation (short), Paramount Home Entertainment, 2008.

Himself, "Raiders": The Melting Face! (short), Paramount Home Entertainment, 2008.

Himself, Indiana Jones and the Creepy Crawlies (short),Paramount Home Entertainment, 2008.

Himself, The Masterpiece That Almost Wasn't (documentary short), Paramount Home Entertainment, 2008.

Television Work; Series:

Executive producer and creator, Amazing Stories (also known as Steven Spielberg's "Amazing Stories"), NBC, 1985–87.

Executive producer, Tiny Toon Adventures (also known as Steven Spielberg Presents … "Tiny Toon Adventures," Tiny Toons, and Tiny Tunes), syndicated, 1990–92, Fox, 1992.

Executive producer, The Plucky Duck Show, Fox, 1992.

Executive producer, Animaniacs (also known as Steven Spielberg Presents" Animaniacs"), Fox, 1992–95, then the WB, 1995–2000.

Executive producer and creator (with Tim Burton), Family Dog, CBS, 1993.

(With David J. Burke and Patrick Hasburg) Executive producer, seaQuest DSV (also known as seaQuest 2032), NBC, 1993–95.

Executive producer, ER (also known as Emergency Room), NBC, 1994.

Producer, Earth 2, NBC, 1994–95.

Executive producer, Steven Spielberg Presents "Freakazoid!" (animated; also known as Freakazoid!), The WB, 1995.

Executive producer, Steven Spielberg Presents "Pinky and the Brain" (animated; also known as Pinky and the Brain), The WB, 1995–97.

Executive producer and creator, High Incident, ABC, 1996.

Executive producer and creator, Invasion, 1998.

Executive producer, Steven Spielberg Presents "Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain" (animated; also known as Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain), The WB, 1998–99.

Executive producer, Toonsylvania (also known as Steven Spielberg Presents "Toonsylvania"), Fox, 1998–99.

Executive producer, The Cat–and–Bunny– Warneroonie–Super–Looney–Big–Cartoonie Show, 1999.

Executive producer and creator, On the Lot, Fox, 2007.

Television Work; Miniseries:

(Uncredited) Director of introduction and conclusion, Strokes of Genius, PBS, 1984.

Executive producer, Band of Brothers, HBO, 2001.

Executive producer, Taken (also known as Steven Spielberg Presents: "Taken"), Sci–Fi Channel, 2002.

Executive producer, Broken Silence, Cinemax, 2002.

Executive producer, Into the West, TNT, 2005.

Executive producer, The Pacific, HBO, 2009.

Television Work; Movies:

Director, Duel, ABC, 1971.

Director, "Something Evil," CBS Friday Night Movie, CBS, 1972.

Producer, The Habitation of Dragons, 1992.

(With Michael Brandman) Executive producer, The Water Engine, 1992.

Executive producer, Class of' 61, ABC, 1993.

Television Work; Specials:

Executive producer, Warner Bros. Celebration of Tradition, June 2, 1990, 1990.

(With Berkeley Breathed, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, and Paul B. Stickland) Executive producer, A Wish for Wings That Work (animated), 1991.

Executive producer, It's a Wonderful Tiny Toons Christmas Special (animated), Fox, 1992.

Executive producer, Steven Spielberg Presents "Tiny Toon Adventures": How I Spent My Vacation (animated; also known as How I Spent My Vacation and Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation), Fox, 1993.

Executive producer, Steven Spielberg Presents "Tiny Toon Adventures": Spring Break Special (animated), Fox, 1993.

Executive producer, Steven Spielberg Presents A "Pinky & the Brain"Christmas Special (animated; also known as A "Pinky & the Brain Christmas" Special),USA Network, 1995.

Executive producer and producer, Steven Spielberg Presents "Tiny Toons Night Ghoulery" (animated; also known as Tiny Toon Adventures: Night Ghoulery), Fox, 1995.

Executive producer and producer, Survivors of the Holocaust (also known as Survivors of the Shoah),TBS, 1996.

Segment director, "The Unfinished Journey," America's Millennium, CBS, 1999.

Executive producer and editor, Shooting War (also known as Shooting War: World War II Cameraman), ABC, 2000.

Executive producer, We Stand Together Alone (also known as We Stand Alone Together: The Men of Easy Company), HBO, 2001.

Executive producer, Burma Bridge Busters, History Channel, 2003.

Provider of still photographs, Cecil B. DeMille: American Epic, TCM, 2004.

Executive producer, Dan Finnerty & the Dan Band: I Am Woman, Bravo, 2005.

Television Work; Pilots:

Director, "Eyes," Night Gallery (also known as Rod Serling's "Wax Museum"), NBC, 1969.

Director and (uncredited) editor, Savage (also known as Watch Dog and The Savage Files), NBC, 1973.

Executive producer, Tiny Toon Adventures: The Looney Beginning, CBS, 1990.

Executive producer, seaQuest DSV (also known as seaQuest 2032), NBC, 1993.

Executive producer, Semper Fi, NBC, 2001.

Executive producer, The United States of Tara, Show-time, 2008.

Television Director; Episodic:

"L.A. 2017," The Name of the Game, NBC, 1968.

"The Daredevil Gesture," Marcus Welby, M.D. (also known as Robert Young, Family Doctor), ABC, 1969.

"Make Me Laugh," Night Gallery (also known as Rod Serling's "Night Gallery"), NBC, 1970.

"Eulogy for a Wide Receiver," Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law, ABC, 1971.

"Murder by the Book," Columbo, NBC, 1971.

"Par for the Course," The Psychiatrist, NBC, 1971.

"The Private World of Martin Dalton," The Psychiatrist, NBC, 1971.

"Ghost Train," Amazing Stories (also known as Steven Spielberg's "Amazing Stories"), NBC, 1985.

"The Mission," Amazing Stories (also known as Steven Spielberg's "Amazing Stories"), NBC, 1985.

Television Assistant Editor; Episodic:

Worked as the assistant editor of episodes of Wagon Train (also known as Major Adams, Trail Master), NBC and ABC.

Television Appearances; Movies:

"Something Evil," CBS Friday Night Movie, CBS, 1972.

Television Appearances; Specials:

The American Film Institute Salute to John Ford, 1973.

TVTV Looks at the Academy Awards, 1976.

The Making of" Close Encounters of the Third Kind," 1977.

"Star Wars": Music by John Williams, 1980.

Great Movie Stunts: "Raiders of the Lost Ark," 1981.

The Making of "Raiders of the Lost Ark," 1981.

The Making of "Poltergeist," 1982.

Chambre 666 (also known as Room 666), 1982.

(Uncredited) The Making of "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," 1984.

The Making of "Back to the Future," 1985.

A China Odyssey: "Empire of the Sun: A Film by Steven Spielberg" (documentary), CBS, 1987.

Funny, You Don't Look 200: A Constitution Vaudeville, ABC, 1987.

Roger Rabbit and the Secrets of Toontown, 1988.

"Premiere": Inside the Summer Blockbusters, Fox, 1989.

The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson, CBS, 1990.

Martin Scorsese Directs (documentary), PBS, 1990.

Siskel & Ebert: The Future of the Movies with Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Martin Scorsese (also known as Siskel & Ebert: The Future of Movies), syndicated, 1990.

The American Film Institute Salute to David Lean (also known as The 18th Annual American Film Institute Life Achievement Award: A Salute to Sir David Lean), ABC, 1990.

David Lean: A Life in Film, Arts and Entertainment, 1991.

Host, Shattered Lullabies, Lifetime, 1992.

Host, Here's Looking at You, Warner Bros., TNT, 1993.

"George Lucas: Heroes, Myths, and Magic," American Masters, PBS, 1993.

Rolling Stone '93: The Year in Review, Fox, 1993.

Barbara Walters Presents The Ten Most Fascinating People of 1994, ABC, 1994.

Hollywood Stars: A Century of Cinema, The Disney Channel, 1995.

The American Film Institute Salute to Steven Spielberg, NBC, 1995.

(Uncredited) The Siskel and Ebert Interviews, CBS, 1996.

Survivors of the Holocaust (also known as Survivors of the Shoah), TBS, 1996.

The Universal Story, Encore and Starz!, 1996.

The American Film Institute Salute to Clint Eastwood, 1996.

Himself and introducer, Ships of Slaves: The Middle Passage, 1997.

Intimate Portrait: Debbie Allen, Lifetime, 1997.

The Director's Vision: Hollywood's Best Discuss Their Craft, Sundance Channel, 1998.

AFI's 100 Years … 100 Movies, CBS, 1998.

AFI's 100 Years … 100 Movies: In Search of, CBS, 1998.

To Life! America Celebrates Israel's 50th, 1998.

Artists & Entertainers: People of the Century: CBS News/Time 100, CBS, 1998.

Norman Rockwell: Painting America, PBS, 1999.

People Profiles: Steven Spielberg, 1999.

Forever Hollywood, 1999.

"Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade": A Look Inside, 1999.

From "Star Wars" to Star Wars: The Story of Industrial Light & Magic, Fox, 1999.

Biography of the Millennium: 100 People—1000 Years, AYE, 1999.

The BBC and the BAFTA Lifetime Achievement Tribute to Richard Attenborough, 1999.

A Home for the Holidays, CBS, 1999.

The American Film Institute Salute to Harrison Ford, CBS, 2000.

Last Stand—The Struggle for the Ballona Wetlands, PBS, 2000.

Chuck Jones: Extremes and In–Betweens, a Life in Animation, PBS, 2000.

Intimate Portrait: Holly Hunter, Lifetime, 2000.

AFI … 100 Years, 100 Thrills: America's Most Heart– Pounding Movies, CBS, 2001.

Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures, Cinemax, 2001.

(Uncredited) Himself, R2–D2: Beneath the Dome, 2001.

The Android Prophecy, 2002.

XIX Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony, NBC, 2002.

"Jaws": The E! True Hollywood Story, E! Entertainment Television, 2002.

AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Tom Hanks, USA Network, 2002.

Inside Steven Spielberg Presents: "Taken," Sci–Fi Channel, 2002.

George Lucas: Creating an Empire, Arts and Entertainment, 2002.

"E.T. The Extra–Terrestrial" 20th Anniversary Special, NBC, 2002.

The AMC Project: Hollywood and the Holocaust, AMC, 2003.

Host, Great Performances: Walt Disney Concert Hall, KCET, 2003.

ER 200: A Dateline Special, NBC, 2003.

L'aventure Spielberg, 2003.

Why History Matters: A Dialogue with Students, 2003.

The 100 Greatest Scary Moments, Channel 4, 2003.

Cecil B. DeMille: American Epic, TCM, 2004.

Inside "The Terminal," HBO, 2004.

Empire of Dreams: The Story of the "Star Wars" Trilogy, Arts and Entertainment, 2004.

The Ultimate Film, Channel 4, 2004.

Ultimate Super Heroes, Ultimate Super Villains, Ultimate Super Vixens, Bravo, 2004.

The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts, CBS, 2004, 2006.

Watch the Skies!, TCM, 2005.

AFI: Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to George Lucas, USA Network, 2005.

The 100 Greatest War Films, Channel 4, 2005.

AFI Tribute to George Lucas, USA Network, 2005.

Waging the War of the Worlds: From H.G. Wells to Steven Spielberg, Channel 4, 2005.

Watch the Skies!: Science Fiction, the 1950s, and Us (also known as Watch the Skies!), TCM, 2005.

Best Ever Family Films, 2005.

The 100 Greatest Family Films, Channel 4, 2005.

AFI's 100 Years … 100 Cheers: America's Most Inspiring Movies, CBS, 2006.

AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Sean Connery, USA Network, 2006.

Forbes Celebrity 100: Who Made Bank?, E! Entertainment Television, 2006.

50 Films to See Before You Die (also known as Film4's 50 Films to See Before You Die), Channel 4, 2006.

The 29th Annual Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts, CBS, 2006.

Generation Boom, TV Land, 2006.

Directed by John Ford, TCM, 2006.

Boffo! Tinseltown's Bombs and Blockbusters, HBO, 2006.

Cast presenter, AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Sean Connery, USA Network, 2006.

Spielberg on Spielberg, TCM, 2007.

Fog City Mavericks, Starz!, 2007.

AFI's 100 Years … 100 Movies, CBS, 2007.

AFI's 10 Top 10, CBS, 2008.

AFI Lifetime Achievement Award, USA Network, 2008.

Achter de schermen bij "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," 2008.

Also appeared as himself, Intimate Portrait: Laura Dern, Lifetime.

Television Appearances; Awards Presentations:

Presenter, The 52nd Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 1980.

Presenter, The 58th Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 1986.

The 59th Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 1987.

Presenter, The 62nd Annual Academy Awards Presentation, ABC, 1990.

The Movie Awards, CBS, 1991.

Presenter, The 64th Annual Academy Awards Presentation, ABC, 1992.

The 20th Annual People's Choice Awards, 1994.

The 66th Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 1994.

Presenter, The 67th Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 1995.

The American Film Institute Salute to Steven Spielberg (also known as The 23rd Annual American Film Institute Life Achievement Award: A Salute to Steven Spielberg), NBC, 1995.

Presenter, The 68th Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 1996.

A Salute to Clint Eastwood (also known as The 24th Annual American Film Institute Life Achievement Award: A Salute to Clint Eastwood), ABC, 1996.

The 25th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards, NBC, 1998.

The 71st Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 1999.

Honoree, 31st NAACP Image Awards, Fox, 2000.

The 72nd Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 2000.

Presenter, The 57th Annual Golden Globe Awards, NBC, 2000.

(Uncredited) The 74th Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 2002.

The 54th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, NBC, 2002.

Presenter, The 76th Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 2004.

The 2nd Irish Film and Television Awards, IFTN, 2004.

The 11th Annual Critics' Choice Awards, The WB, 2006.

The 78th Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 2006.

The 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards, NBC, 2007.

The 12th Annual Critics' Choice Awards, E! Entertainment Television, 2007.

Presenter, The 79th Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 2007.

Presenter, The 2007 Taurus World Stunt Awards, AMC, 2007.

Television Appearances; Episodic:

"Steven Spielberg," The South Bank Show, 1982.

Northwest Afternoon, 1984.

"David Lean: A Life in Film," The South Bank Show, 1985.

"The Pioneers of the Visual Revolution," NHK Special, 1989.

"The Gate," The Tracey Ullman Show, Fox, 1989.

Voice of himself, "Buster and Babs Go Hawaiian," Tiny Toon Adventures (animated; also known as Steven Spielberg Presents …"Tiny Toon Adventures,"Tiny Toons, and Tiny Tunes), syndicated, 1991.

Voice, Animaniacs (animated; also known as Steven Spielberg Presents "Animaniacs"), Fox, 1993.

"The Real Jurassic Park," Nova, PBS, 1993.

Nyhetsmorgon, 1993, 1998, 2002.

"Movie Dinosaurs/Bread Chemistry/Scott Hamilton/ Wallaby," Newton's Apple, 1994.

American Cinema, PBS, 1995.

Inside the Actors Studio, Bravo, 1995.

"Blacks and Jews," P.O.V., PBS, 1997.

HBO First Look, HBO, multiple episodes, 1997—.

"Zorro: Mark of the Z," Biography, Arts and Entertainment, 1998.

Inside the Directors Studio, Bravo, 1999.

"The Films of Steven Spielberg," The Directors, Encore, 1999.

Inside the Actors Studio, 1999.

The Rosie O'Donnell Show, syndicated, 1999.

The Martin Short Show, 1999.

"Chuck Jones: Extremes and In–Betweens—A Life in Animation," Great Performances, PBS, 2000.

Exclusif, 2002.

(Uncredited) Extra (also known as Extra: The Entertainment Magazine), syndicated, 2002.

"The 25 Most Powerful People in Entertainment," Rank, E! Entertainment Television, 2002.

"Wetten, dass …? aus Boblingen," Wetten, dass …?, 2003.

"Ellen DeGenres/Steven Spielberg," Primetime Glick, Comedy Central, 2003.

"Mel Brooks/Jason Alexander," Primetime Glick, Comedy Central, 2003.

Tinseltown TV, International Channel, 2003.

The Oprah Winfrey Show (also known as Oprah), syndicated, 2004, 2005.

Enough Rope with Andrew Denton, ABC [Australia], 2005.

Smap x Smap, Fuji, 2005.

"Filmmontage: Op het scherp van de snede," Close–Up, 2005.

"Hollywood's Prehistoric Superstars," Animal Icons, Animal Planet, 2005.

Film 2006 (also known as The Film Programme), BBC, 2006.

Sunday Morning Shootout (also known as Hollywood Shootout and Shootout), AMC, 2006.

"Corsets, Cleavage and Country Houses: The Story of British Costume Drama," British Film Forever, BBC, 2007.

"Season Finale," On the Lot, Fox, 2007.

Entertainment Tonight (also known as E.T.), syndicated, 2007, 2008.

Le grand journal de Canal+, 2008.

Fantastico, 2008.

Cinema tres (also known as Informatiu cinema), 2008.

Also appeared in Evening at Pops, PBS; Fame, NBC and syndicated.

Stage Work:

Producer, The Farnsworth Invention, Music Box Theatre, New York City, 2007–2008.

RECORDINGS

Music Videos (as Director):

Director of the music video "Siberian Girl," by Michael Jackson.

Music Videos (Appearances):

Appeared in the music video "Goonies R Good Enough," by Cyndi Lauper.

Video Games (as Performer and Director):

Steven Spielberg: Director's Chair, 1999.

Video Games (as Creator):

The Dig, 1995.

Medal of Honor, DreamWorks SKG/Electronic Arts, 1999.

Medal of Honor: Underground, 2000.

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Electronic Arts, 2000.

Medal of Honor: Frontline, Electronic Arts, 2000.

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault—Spearhead, 2000.

Medal of Honor: Rising Sun, Electronic Arts, 2000.

Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault, 2000.

WRITINGS

Screenplays:

Battle Squad, 1961.

Fighter Squad, 1961.

(As Steve Spielberg) Escape to Nowhere, 1962.

(As Steve Spielberg) Firelight, 1965.

Slipstream, 1967.

Amblin' (short), 1969.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (also known as Watch the Skies), Columbia, 1977.

(With Michael Grais and Mark Victor) Poltergeist, Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer/United Artists, 1982.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (also known as Artificial Intelligence: AI), Warner Bros., 2001.

Film Stories:

Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies, Twentieth Century–Fox, 1973.

(With Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins) The Sugar-land Express, Universal, 1974.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (also known as Watch the Skies), Columbia, 1977, special edition released in 1980.

Poltergeist, Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer/United Artists, 1982.

The Goonies, Warner Bros., 1985.

Jurassic Park III, Universal, 2001.

Film Music:

Firelight, 1965.

Television Episodes:

"Vanessa in the Garden," Amazing Stories (also known as Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories), NBC, 1985.

The United States of Tara, Showtime, 2008.

Television Stories; Episodic:

Amazing Stories (also known as Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories), NBC, 1985–87.

Tiny Toon Adventures (animated; also known as Steven Spielberg Presents: "Tiny Toon Adventures"), 1990.

Animaniacs (animated; also known as Steven Spielberg Presents "Animaniacs"), Fox and The WB, 1993.

Other Writings:

(With Patrick Mann) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (novel based on the film of the same name), Delacorte (New York City), 1977.

(Author of introduction) Letters to E.T., Putnam (New York City), 1983.

(With Roger Ebert, Gene Siskel, Martin Scorsese, and George Lucas) The Future of the Movies: Interviews with Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas, Andrews and McMeel (Kansas City, MO),1991.

Steven Spielberg Presents "Animaniacs" (sound recording), Kid Rhino, 1993.

(With Mariana Cook and others) Mothers and Sons: In Their Own Words (pictorial essay), 1996.

Also provided additional story elements for the videogame The Dig, 1995.

ADAPTATIONS

E.T. the Extra–Terrestrial was adapted for print by William Kotzwinkle, illustrated by David Wiesner, and published as E.T., the Storybook of the Green Planet: A New Storybook, Putnam, 1985.

OTHER SOURCES

Books:

Baxter, John, Steven Spielberg, HarperCollins, 1997.

Brode, Douglas, The Films of Steven Spielberg, Citadel Press (Secaucus, NJ), 2000.

Buckland, Warren, Directed by Steven Spielberg, Continuum, 2006.

Collins, Tom, Steven Spielberg Creator of E.T., Dillon (Minneapolis, MN), 1983.

Conklin, Thomas, Meet Steven Spielberg, Bullseye Biography/Random House, 1994.

Contemporary Authors, Volume 77–80, Gale, 1979.

Contemporary Heroes and Heroines, Book 1, Gale, 1990.

Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 20, Gale, 1982.

Encyclopedia of World Biography, second edition, Gale, 1998.

Ferber, Elizabeth, Steven Spielberg, 1997.

Freer, Ian, The Complete Spielberg, Virgin, 2001.

Gordon, Andrew M., Empire of Dreams: The Science Fiction and Fantasy Films of Steven Spielberg, Rowman & Littlefield, 2007.

Leather, Michael, The Picture Life of Steven Spielberg, F. Watts (New York City), 1984.

International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, Volume 3: Directors, 4th ed., St. James Press, 2000.

Mabery, D. L., Steven Spielberg, Lerner (Minneapolis, MN), 1986.

McBride, Joseph, Steven Spielberg: A Biography, DeCapo Press, 1999.

Mott, Donald R. and Cheryl McAllister Saunders, Steven Spielberg, Twayne (Boston, MA), 1986.

Newsmakers 1997, Issue 4, Gale, 1997.

Sanello, Frank, Spielberg: The Man, the Movies, the Mythology, 1996.

Periodicals:

American Film, June, 1988, pp. 12, 14–16.

Cosmopolitan, July, 1996, pp. 200–06.

Entertainment Weekly, December 31, 1993, pp. 16–18; March 31, 1994, pp. 96–97; December 13, 1996,p. 16; April 25, 1997, p. 77; May 4, 2001, p. 74.

Esquire, December, 1996, pp. 56–62.

Film Comment, March/April, 1994, pp. 51–56.

Forbes, September 24, 1994, pp. 104–05.

Fortune, November 28, 1994, p. 200.

Interview, April, 1994, p. 72.

NEA Today, November, 1994, p. 7.

New Statesman, September 20, 1996, p. 16.

Newsweek, November 21, 1994, p. 98; May 29, 1995,p. 56.

New Yorker, March 21, 1994, pp. 96–108.

New York Times, January 10, 1988, pp. 21, 30; March 15, 1997, p. 28.

Premiere, August, 1996, p. 42.

Reader's Digest, April, 1996, pp. 71–76.

Time, February 6, 1995, p. 79; April 7, 1997, p. 22; May 19, 1997.

Times (London), March 11, 1990, pp. 1, 6.

TV Guide, October 28, 1995, pp. 33–35.

USA Today, September, 2001, p. 67.

Vanity Fair, April, 1995, pp. 96–102.

Variety, December 12, 1994, p. 27; October 30, 1995, pp. 8–9.

SPIELBERG, Steven

Nationality: American. Born: Cincinnati, Ohio, 18 December 1947. Education: California State College at Long Beach, B.A. in English, 1970. Family: Married 1) actress Amy Irving (divorced 1989), one son, one daughter; 2) actress Kate Capshaw, one daughter. Career: Won amateur film contest with 40-minute film Escape to Nowhere, 1960; on strength of film Amblin', became TV director for Universal, late 1960s; TV work included episodes of Marcus Welby, M.D., Columbo, and Night Gallery, and TV films, including Duel, then given theatrical release; directed first feature, The Sugarland Express, 1974; formed own production company, Amblin Productions; produced television series Amazing Stories, late 1980s, and seaQuest DSV and others, 1990s; formed new Hollywood studio DreamWorks SKG, with David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg, 1995. Awards: David Di Donatello Award (Italy) for Best Foreign Director, Kinema Jumpo Award (Japan) for Best Foreign Director, National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Director, and L.A. Film Critics Award for Best Director, for E.T., 1982; Directors Guild Award for Best Director, and British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for Best Director, for The Color Purple, 1985; Irving G. Thalberg Award for body of work, Motion Picture Academy, 1986; D. W. Griffith Award, National Board of Review, for Empire of the Sun, 1987; Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Film, L.A. Film Critics Best Film, New York Film Critics Circle Best Film, D. W. Griffith Award for Best Film, and National Society of Film Critics Best Film and Diretor, for Schindler's List, 1993; Golden Lion for Career Achievement, Venice Film Festival, 1993; Life Achievement Award, American Film Institute, 1995; Distinguished Public Service Award, U.S. Navy, 1999. Agent: Jay Moloney, Creative Artists Agency, 9830 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA 90212, U.S.A. Address: Amblin Entertainment/Dreamworks SKG, 100 Universal City Plaza, Bungalow 477, Universal City, CA 91608–1085, U.S.A.

Films as Director, Scriptwriter, and Producer:

1969

Amblin' (short)

1971

Duel (for TV)

1972

Something Evil (for TV)

1974

The Sugarland Express (+ co-story)

1975

Jaws

1977

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (2nd version released 1980) (+ story)

1979

1941

1981

Raiders of the Lost Ark

1982

E.T.—The Extraterrestrial (co-pr)

1983

episode of The Twilight Zone—The Movie (co-pr)

1984

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

1986

The Color Purple (co-pr)

1987

Empire of the Sun (co-pr)

1989

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

1990

Always (co-pr)

1991

Hook

1993

Jurassic Park (+ co-exec pr); Schindler's List (+ co-exec pr)

1997

The Lost World: Jurassic Park; Amistad (+ pr)

1998

Saving Private Ryan (+ pr)

1999

The Unfinished Journey (short)

2001

A. I. (+ co-sc, pr)

2002

Minority Report (+ pr)

Other Films:

1973

Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies (Erman) (story)

1978

I Wanna to Hold Your Hand (Zemeckis) (pr)

1980

Used Cars (Zemeckis); The Blues Brothers (Landis) (role)

1981

Continental Divide (Apted) (co-exec pr)

1982

Poltergeist (Hooper) (co-pr, co-story, co-sc)

1984

Gremlins (Dante) (co-exec pr)

1985

Back to the Future (Zemeckis) (co-exec pr); Young Sherlock Holmes (Levinson) (co-exec pr); Goonies (Donner) (co-exec pr)

1986

The Money Pit (Benjamin) (co-exec pr); An American Tail (Bluth) (co-exec pr); Innerspace (Dante) (co-exec pr); *batteries not included (Matthew Robbins) (co-exec pr)

1988

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (Zemeckis) (co-exec pr); TheLand before Time (Bluth) (co-exec pr)

1989

Dad (Goldberg) (co-exec pr); Back to the Future, Part II (Zemeckis) (co-exec pr); Joe vs. the Volcano (Shanley) (co-exec pr)

1990

Arachnophobia (Frank Marshall) (co-exec pr); Back to theFuture, Part III (Zemeckis) (co-exec pr); Gremlins 2: TheNew Batch (Dante) (co-exec pr)

1991

Cape Fear (Scorsese) (exec pr); An American Tail: FievelGoes West (Nibbelink) (co-pr)

1993

We're Back: A Dinosaur's Tail (co-exec pr); Trail Mix-up (exec pr)

1994

I'm Mad (exec pr)

1995

To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (Kidron) (co-exec pr); Balto (exec pr); Casper (exec pr)

1996

High Incident (for TV) (exec pr); Twister (exec pr)

1997

Men in Black (exec pr)

1998

Toonslyvania (series for TV) (exec pr); Pinky, Elmyra & theBrain (series for TV) (exec pr); Invasion America (series for TV) (exec pr); Deep Impact (exec pr); The Mask ofZorro (exec pr); The Last Days (exec pr); Paulie (exec pr); Small Soldiers (exec pr); Antz (exec pr); The Prince ofEgypt (exec pr); In Dreams (exec pr)

1999

Forces of Nature (exec pr); The Love Letter (exec pr); TheHaunting (exec pr); Wakko's Wish (for video) (exec pr); American Beauty (exec pr); Freaks and Geeks (series for TV) (exec pr); Galaxy Quest (exec pr)

2000

The Road to El Dorado (exec pr); The Flintstones in VivaRock Vegas (exec pr); Gladiator (exec pr); Road Trip (exec pr); Small Time Crooks (exec pr); Chicken Run (exec pr)

2001

Jurassic Park 3 (exec pr); The Martian Chronicles (pr); AnneFrank: The Whole Story (for TV) (exec pr); Band ofBrothers (for TV) (exec pr);

Publications

By SPIELBERG: books—

The Sugarland Express—Spielberg, Barwood and Robbins, Zsigmond, edited by Rochelle Reed, Washington, D.C., 1974.

The Last Days, New York, 1999.

By SPIELBERG: articles—

Steven Spielberg Seminar, in Dialogue on Film (Washington, D.C.), July 1974.

"From Television to Features," an interview with M. Stettin, in Millimeter (New York), March 1975.

"Close Encounter of the Third Kind: Director Steve Spielberg," with C. Austin, in Filmmakers Newsletter (Ward Hill, Massachusetts), December 1977.

"The Unsung Heroes or Credit Where Credit Is Due," in AmericanCinematographer (Los Angeles), January 1978.

Interview with Mitch Tuchman, in Film Comment (New York), January/February 1978.

"Directing 1941," in American Cinematographer (Los Angeles), December 1979.

"Of Narrow Misses and Close Calls," in American Cinematographer (Los Angeles), November 1981.

Interview with T. McCarthy, in Film Comment (New York), May/June 1982.

"Dialogue on Film: Steven Spielberg," in American Film (Washington, D.C.), June 1988.

"A Revealing Interview with Steven Spielberg," in Film Threat (Beverly Hills), vol. 19, 1989.

"Always," an interview with S. Royal, in American PremiereMagazine (Beverly Hills), no. 6, 1989/90.

"China and the Oscars," written with Kathleen Kennedy, New YorkTimes, 25 March 1991.

"A Close Encounter with Steven Spielberg," an interview with D. Shay, in Cinefex (Riverside, California), February 1993.

"Chase, Crush and Devour," an interview with Stephen Pizzello, in American Cinematographer (Hollywood), June 1997.

On SPIELBERG: books—

Pye, Michael, and Lynda Myles, The Movie Brats: How the FilmGeneration Took over Hollywood, London, 1979.

Kolker, Robert Phillip, A Cinema of Loneliness: Penn, Kubrick,Scorsese, Spielberg, Altman, Oxford, 1980; revised edition, 1988.

Crawley, Tony, The Steven Spielberg Story, London, 1983.

Goldau, Ant Je, and Hans Helmut Prinzler, Spielberg: Film alsSpielzeug, Berlin, 1985.

Mott, Donald R., and Cheryl McAllister Saunders, Steven Spielberg, Boston, 1986.

Smith, Thomas G., Industrial Light and Magic: The Art of SpecialEffects, London, 1986.

Weiss, Ulli, Das Neue Hollywood: Francis Ford Coppola, StevenSpielberg, Martin Scorsese, Munich, 1986.

Godard, Jean-Pierre, Spielberg, Paris, 1987.

Sinyard, Neil, The Films of Steven Spielberg, London, 1987.

Slade, Darren, and Nigel Watson, Supernatural Spielberg, London, 1992.

Taylor, Philip M., Steven Spielberg: The Man, His Movies, and TheirMeaning, New York, 1992; revised, 1994.

Somazzi, Claud, Steven Spielberg: Dreaming the Movies, Santa Cruz, 1994.

Brode, Douglas, The Films of Steven Spielberg, New York, 1995.

Oskar Schindler and His List: The Man, the Book, the Film, theHolocaust, and Its Survivors, Forest Dale, Vermont, 1995.

Ferber, Elizabeth, Steven Spielberg: A Biography, New York, 1996.

Sanello, Frank, Spielberg: The Man, the Movies, the Myth, Dallas, 1996.

McBride, Joseph, Steven Spielberg: A Biography, New York, 1997.

On SPIELBERG: articles—

Eyles, A., "Steven Spielberg," in Focus on Film (London), Winter 1972.

Cumbow, R. C., "The Great American Eating Machine," in MovietoneNews (Seattle), 11 October 1976.

Cook, B., "Close Encounters with Steven Spielberg," in AmericanFilm (Washington, D.C.), November 1977.

Jameson, R. T., "Style vs. 'Style'," in Film Comment (New York), March/April 1980.

Geng, Veronica, "Spielberg's Express," in Film Comment (New York), July/August 1981.

Auty, Chris, "The Complete Spielberg?," in Sight and Sound (London), Autumn 1982.

Turner, G. E., "Steven Spielberg and E.T.—the Extra-Terrestrial," in American Cinématographer (Los Angeles), January 1983.

McGillivray, D., "The Movie Brats: Steven Spielberg," in Films andFilming (London), May 1984.

Smetak, J. R., "Summer at the Movies, Steven Spielberg: Gore, Guts, and PG-13," in Journal of Film and Popular Television (Washington, D.C.), Spring 1986.

Britton, Andrew, "Blissing Out: The Politics of Reaganite Entertainment," in Movie (London), Winter 1986.

Combs, Richard, "Master Steven's Search for the Sun," in Listener (London), February 1988.

"Cinematheque Honors Spielberg," in New York Times, 3 April 1989.

Griffin, Nancy, "Manchild in the Promised Land," in Premiere (New York), June 1989.

Abbott, Diane, "Steven Spielberg," in American CinemEditor (Encino, California), no. 1, 1990.

Cientat, M., "Le phenomene Spielberg ou la nouvelle cinephilie," in Cinemaction (Conde-sur-Noireau), January 1990.

Torry, Robert, "Politics and Parousia in Close Encounters of the Third Kind," in Literature/Film Quarterly (Salisbury, Maryland), no. 3, 1991.

Peacock, John, "When Folk Goes Pop: Consuming the Color Purple," in Literature/Film Quarterly (Salisbury, Maryland), no. 3, 1991.

Greenberg, Harvey Roy, "Raiders of the Lost Text: Remaking as Contested Homage in Always," in Journal of Popular Film andTelevision (Washington, D.C.), Winter 1991.

Gordon, Andrew, "Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun: A Boy's Dream of War," in Literature/Film Quarterly (Salisbury, Maryland), no. 4, 1991.

Schruers, Fred, "Peter Pandemonium," in Premiere (New York), December 1991.

Davis, Ivor, "I Won't Grow Up!" in Los Angeles Magazine, December 1991.

Wood, G., "On Spielberg: A Tale of Two Steves," in Cinefantastique (Forest Park, Illinois), no. 4, 1991.

Green, C., and others, "Steven Spielberg: A Celebration," in Journalof Popular Film (Washington, D.C.), no. 4, 1991.

Andrews, S., "The Man Who Would Be Walt," in New York Times, 26 January 1992.

Sheehan, Henry, "The Panning of Steven Spielberg," in Film Comment (New York), May 1992.

Sheehan, Henry, "Spielberg II," in Film Comment (New York), July/August 1992.

Perlez, J., "Spielberg Grapples with the Horror of the Holocaust," in New York Times, 13 June 1993.

Wollen, Peter, "Theme Park and Variations," in Sight and Sound (London), July 1993.

Secher, Andy, "Directing the Dinosaurs," in Lapidary Journal (San Diego, California), July 1993.

Jameson, L., "Spielberg's Theory of Devolution," in Film Threat (Beverly Hills), August 1993.

Place, Vanessa, "Supernatural Thing," in Film Comment (New York), September/October 1993.

Gellately, Robert, "Between Exploitation, Rescue, and Annihilation: Reviewing Schindler's List," in Central European History (Atlanta, Georgia), no. 4, 1993.

Richardson, John H., "Steven's Choice," in Premiere (New York), January 1994.

Maser, Wayne, "The Long Voyage Home," in Harper's Bazaar (New York), February 1994.

Gourevitch, Philip, "A Dissent on Schindler's List," in Commentary (New York), February 1994.

White, Armond, "Toward a Theory of Spielberg History," in FilmComment (New York), March 1994.

Louvish, Simon, "Witness," in Sight and Sound (London), March 1994.

"Schindler's List: Myth, Movie, and Memory," roundtable discussion in Village Voice (New York), 29 March 1994.

Thomson, David, "Presenting Enamelware," in Film Comment (New York), March 1994.

Schiff, Stephen, "Behind the Camera: Seriously Spielberg," in NewYorker, 21 March 1994.

Nagorski, Andrew, "Schindler's List and the Polish Question," in Foreign Affairs (New York), July 1994.

Epstein, Jason, "Rethinking Schindler's List," in Utne Reader (Minneapolis, Minnesota), July 1994.

Lane, Randall, "I Want Gross," Forbes (New York), 26 September 1994.

O'Shaughnessy, Elise, "The New Establishment," in Vanity Fair (New York), October 1994.

Manchel, Frank, "A Reel Witness: Steven Spielberg's Representation of the Holocaust in Schindler's List," in Journal of ModernHistory (Chicago), March 1995.

Corliss, Richard, "Hey, Let's Put on a Show!" in Time (New York), 27 March 1995.

Masters, Kim, "What's Ovitz Got to Do with It?" in Vanity Fair (New York), April 1995.

Hartman, Geoffrey, "The Cinema Animal: On Spielberg's Schindler'sList," in Salmagundi (Saratoga Springs, New York), Spring 1995.

Griffin, Nancy, "In the Grip of Jaws," in Premiere (New York), October 1995.

Scorsese, Martin, "Notre génération," in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), March 1996.

Piazzo, Philippe, "La peur aux trousses," in Télérama (Paris), 14 August 1996.

Däuber, Daniel, "Forever Young: Peter Pan oder der Kindskopf in Manne," in Zoom (Zürich), April 1997.

Biskind, P., "A 'World' Apart," in Premiere (Boulder), May 1997.

McBride, J., "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," in Boxoffice (Chicago), May 1997.

Bart, P., "Watching Steven Sizzle," in Variety (New York), 18/24 August 1997.

White, Armond, "Against the Hollywood Grain," in Film Comment (New York), March-April 1998.

Doherty, Thomas, "Saving Private Ryan," in Cineaste (New York), vol. 24, no. 1, 1998.

Perhaps any discussion of Steven Spielberg must inevitably begin with the consideration that as the new millennium gets underway after a century of cinema, Spielberg remains the most commercially successful director the world has known—an incredible, if mind-boggling proposition which, in another time, might have immediately made the director's films ineligible for serious critical consideration. Yet the fact that Spielberg's combined films have grossed well over one billion dollars attests to their power in connecting to the mass audience and offers the analyst an immediate conundrum which may take a more distanced generation of critics and filmgoers to answer fully: What does Spielberg know? And why has so much of his work invited such audience approval?

Spielberg has worked in a variety of genres: the television film Duel is a thriller; Jaws is a horror film; 1941 is a crazy comedy; Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a science-fiction film; Raiders of the Lost Ark is an adventure film patterned after film serials of the early 1950s; E.T.—The Extraterrestrial is a fantasy/family film combining elements from The Wizard of Oz, Lassie, and Peter Pan; The Color Purple is a social drama; Empire of the Sun is an expansive wartime epic. And yet virtually all of Spielberg's films are united by the same distinctive vision: a vision imbued with a sense of wonder which celebrates the magic, mystery, and danger that imagination can reveal as an alternative to the humdrum and the everyday. The artistic consistency within Spielberg's work is demonstrated further by his narratives, which are structurally similar. In the typical Spielberg film, an Everyman protagonist has his conception of the world enlarged (often traumatically) as he comes face to face with some extraordinary and generally non-human antagonist who is often hidden from the rest of the world and/or the audience until the narrative's end. In Duel, a California businessman named Mann finds himself pitted against the monstrous truck whose driver's face is never shown; in Jaws, the water-shy sheriff must face an almost mythological shark whose jaws are not clearly shown until the final reel; in Close Encounters, a suburban father responds to the extrasensory messages sent by outer-space creatures who are not revealed until the last sequence of the film; in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones quests for the Lost Ark which, at film's end we discover is Pandora's Box of horrors when summoned up by those who would attempt to profit from it; and, of course, in E.T., a small boy whose life is already steeped in imagination keeps secret his adoption of a playful extra-terrestrial (although one could easily argue that the non-human antagonist here is not really the sensitive E.T., but the masked and terrifying government agents who, quietly working behind the scenes throughout the narrative, finally invade the suburban house and crystallize the protagonist's most horrific fears). Structural analysis even reveals that Poltergeist, the Spielberg-produced, Tobe Hooper-directed film which relates to Spielberg's career in the same way the Howard Hawks-produced, Christian Nyby-directed The Thing related to Hawks's career, is indeed a continuation of the Spielberg canon. In Poltergeist, a typical American family ultimately discovers that the antagonists responsible for the mysterious goings-on in their suburban home are the other-worldly ghosts and skeletons not shown until the end of the film, when the narrative also reveals the villainy of the real estate developer who had so cavalierly disposed of the remains from an inconveniently located cemetery.

Technically proficient and dazzling, Spielberg's films are voracious in their synthesis of the popular culture icons which have formed the director's sensibilities: Hitchcock movies, John Wayne, comic books, Bambi, suburban homes, fast food, the space program, television. His vision is that of the child-artist—the innocent and profound imagination that can summon up primeval dread from the deep, as well as transcendent wonder from the sky. If Spielberg's early films particularly are sometimes attacked for a certain lack of interest in social issues or "adult concerns," they may be defended on the grounds that his films—unlike so many of the "special effects" action films of the 1970s and 1980s—derive from a sensibility which is sincerely felt. A more subtle attack on Spielberg would hold that his interest in objects and mechanical effects (as in 1941 and Raiders of the Lost Ark), though provocative, may not always be in perfect balance with his interest in sentiment and human values. Spielberg himself acknowledges his debt to Walt Disney, whose theme "When You Wish upon a Star," a paean to faith and imagination, dictates the spirit of several Spielberg films. And yet certainly if intellectual and persuasive critical constructions be sought to justify our enjoyment of Spielberg's cinema, they can easily be found in the kind of mythic, Jungian criticism which analyzes his very popular work as a kind of direct line to the collective unconscious. Jaws, for instance, is related to the primal fear of being eaten as well as to the archetypal initiation rite; Close Encounters is constructed according to the archetypal form of the quest and its attendant religious structures of revelation and salvation; and of course E.T. has already been widely analyzed as a retelling of the Christ story—complete wth a sacred heart, a ritual death, a resurrection brought about by faith, and an eventual ascension into heaven as E.T. returns home.

If Spielberg is especially notable in any other way, it is perhaps that he represents the most successful example of what has been called the film-school generation, which is increasingly populating the new Hollywood: a generation which has been primarily brought up on television and film, rather than literature, and for whom film seems apparently to have replaced life as a repository of significant experience. And yet if the old Hollywood's studio system is dead, it has been partially replaced by a solid, if informal matrix of friendships and alliances: between Spielberg and a fraternity that includes George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Lawrence Kasdan, John Milius, Bob Zemeckis, Robert Gale, Hal Barwood, Matthew Robbins, Melissa Mathison, and Harrison Ford.

It is noteworthy that Hollywood, though consistently accused of a preference for box-office appeal over critical acclaim, has nevertheless refused (until Schindler's List in 1994) to valorize publicly Spielberg's work, despite his popular and critical success. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has consistently chosen to pass over Spielberg's films and direction—in 1975 bypassing Jaws in favor of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and Milos Forman; in 1977, bypassing Close Encounters for Annie Hall and Woody Allen; in 1981 bypassing Raiders of the Lost Ark for Chariots of Fire and Warren Beatty (as director of Reds); in 1982 bypassing E.T. for Gandhi and Richard Attenborough; and in 1985 bypassing The Color Purple for Out of Africa and Sydney Pollack.

More than requiring an explanatory footnote in film history texts, these "slights" made it clear that the industry of the time had come to hold Spielberg responsible for the juvenilization of the American cinema in the late 1970s and 1980s. If the Coppolas and the Scorseses attempted to remake Hollywood to their own vision of a freer, more European, artistic sensibility (and by and large failed), should Spielberg now be held responsible for betraying earlier victories and turning Hollywood into a Disneyland? And although Spielberg became the richest man in Hollywood, the most commercially savvy, the man everyone most wanted to make a deal with, the most influential, he could not easily become anything at all like its most serious, respected artist. Spielberg's longtime insistence on avoiding adult themes, instead taking refuge in nostalgia, special effects, remakes, and sequels, seemed to be directly responsible for rather perniciously preventing non-Spielberg-like films from being produced. As well, the overwhelming number of Spielberg imitators, many producing films under Spielberg's own auspices, have largely contributed commercially successful hackwork.

Hollywood noted the irony, too, that it was in the Spielberg production of The Twilight Zone movie (directed by John Landis) that two children and actor Vic Morrow should have been killed in a clearly avoidable accident in which the children's employment violated child-labor law. The Color Purple, although conforming to Spielberg's typical pattern of the hidden antagonist, backed off from an explicit representation of Celie's lesbianism, turning her instead into a cute E.T.-like creature. Thus the confrontation of the hidden antagonist (Celie's true nature) became a kind of missing climax in a film which many critics ridiculed. After The Color Purple, when receiving the Irving Thalberg award from the Motion Pictures Academy, Spielberg gave a widely quoted speech which seemed surprisingly to admit responsibility for the state of American film culture: "I think in our romance with technology and our excitement at exploring all the possibilities of film and video, I think we have partially lost something. . . . It's time to renew our romance with the word; I'm as culpable as anyone in exalting the image at the expense of the word. . . . Only a generation of readers will spawn a generation of writers." Spielberg's speech was followed by arguably his finest work: from a screenplay by famed dramatist Tom Stoppard, Empire of the Sun, set in Asia during World War II, includes some of Spielberg's most startling set-pieces (such as a crowd sequence which rivals Eisenstein's use of montage in "The Odessa Steps" sequence of Potemkin, or an unusually expressive evocation of the atomic bombing at Hiroshima), as well as more adult themes relating to war and peace, community integration and disintegration. Nevertheless, when this film was overshadowed in many ways by Bertolucci's Asia epic, The Last Emperor, Spielberg seemed to beat a hasty retreat into safer material.

Always, a remake of A Guy Named Joe in which Spielberg portrayed adult relationships within a fantasy context including helpful ghosts, was both a critical and financial failure. Even more distressing was the critical failure of the 1991 Hook, in which Spielberg's professed appreciation for the word disappeared under the weight of charmless Hollywood juveniles having onscreen food fights amidst special effects gleefully presented by Spielberg as artistic entertainment. Although critics had for years suggested that the source material Peter Pan would provide Spielberg his most natural material (a boy not wanting to grow up), many were stunned when Spielberg's version finally arrived: bloated, overlong, overproduced, looking more like a vapid amusement park ride or a multimillion dollar commercial for a new attraction at the Universal Studio Tour than a film. Its artistic message—that its adult Peter Pan should work less and spend more quality time with his children—was in ludicrous contradiction to the herculean effort required by all, including its director, to devote themselves to such a high-budget, effects-heavy project; thus the film emerges as the most cynical, hypocritical attempt to play on audience sentiment to attract boxoffice in the Spielberg oeuvre. The year 1993 marked a turning point for Spielberg—with the release of two films in the same year that could not have been more different. Jurassic Park, a cinefantastique wonder showing dinosaurs wreaking havoc in a contemporary theme park, was a roller-coaster ride which fast became the most commercially successful film of all time, bypassing even Spielberg's own E.T. Although the special effects were mostly marvelous and definitely the reason for the film's appeal (can anyone who has seen the film ever forget the startlingly graceful images of apatosaurs grazing in the forest?), many critics were startled by a certain desultoriness in the construction of the narrative: loose ends here and there, scenes which seemed not all to pay off. And indeed, deficiencies may be attributed to Spielberg losing some interest in the project—for the other Spielberg film released in 1993 was the film which would finally, irrevocably answer his critics: a black-and-white film photographed in a radically different camera style, devoid of the famous Spielberg backlighting as well as his traditional over-the-top orchestrations, using virtually unknown actors, and all on the single most unremittingly serious subject of the contemporary world: the Holocaust. Spielberg's Schindler's List was his most striking, overwhelming work; with it, he finally won his Academy Awards for film and director, as well as best film awards from the L.A. and New York critics groups, the Board of Review, and the National Society of Film Critics—a startlingly unanimous achievement. For a serious film, Schindler's List was also amazingly successful with the public, which was powerfully moved and horrified by the film. Based on the real-life story of Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist who actually saved over a thousand Jews by employing them at his factory, Schindler's List, keping with the Spielberg ethos, emphasized the most hopeful components of the story without minimizing or denying its horrifying components. The film's coda, which showed the actors along with their real-life counterparts who survived because of Schindler visiting the gravesite of the real Schindler, was criticized by some, but this strategy insisted the audience understand the story as historical and gave the film an even greater emotional depth. Although time will tell whether Schindler's List will retain its instant reputation as a great, towering achievement comparable to, say, Alain Resnais's short Night and Fog, the definitive Holocaust film, the film has—according to his own testimony—altered Spielberg's life, sensibility, and career. The first artistic work that allowed Spielberg directly to explore his Jewish heritage, Schindler's List so consumed him that he has since embarked on what he has called his most important life's work: a video project documenting the survivors of the Holocaust for educational purposes. In interviews given before his multiple Academy Award wins, Spielberg has also said that he could no longer imagine going back to directing the kinds of films he made before Schindler's List. Either Spielberg's sincerity must be regarded as suspect or his resolve as short-lived, for he followed the winning of his first Academy-award by directing The Lost World, a Jurassic Park sequel unnecessary for any motive except craven profit, in the process becoming more a designer of amusement park attractions than an artist. Psychologically vacuous, The Lost World shows men with gadgets who say things like "Lindstrade air rifle. Fires a sub-sonic impact delivery dart." The exposition is obligatory, the villains cardboard, a black Disney child improbably appears to improve the film's demographics, and characters behave stupidly so that dinosaurs can attack them. When at one point, we even see a man ripped in half by two dinosaurs competing for their dinner, we understand that the humanism of Schindler's List has been replaced by the expediency of efficient, crowd-pleasing violence: it feels almost like a pornographic vision. The few pleasures in The Lost World come from its irony—Jeff Goldblum, for instance, responding to a colleague's awe at the dinosaurs: "Yeah, 'ooh, ahhh,' that's how it always starts. But then later there's running and then screaming." A few scenes invoke Hitchcock's The Birds, generally to The Lost World's disadvantage, but only the climactic scenes showing a tyrannosaurus rex drinking from a swimming pool in suburban San Diego evoke, through their surreal wit, any lasting sense of awe.

Amistad, a noble subject in the tradition of Schindler's List, deals with the 1839 shipboard revolt of fifty-three African slaves. Despite the film's idealism and the genuine interest of its historical narrative, much of Amistad is problematic. In a surprising review in the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan put forward the thesis that for Spielberg, "There's been leakage from the no-brainers to the quality stuff and . . . bad habits picked up in the mindless movies are driving out better [habits]." Turan's comments seemed shocking then, particularly delivered in Spielberg's own hometown community, and seem prescient still. Dialogue in Amistad seems incredibly stilted, as reflected in this retort to John Quincy Adams, which passes as conversational: "There remains but one task undone, one vital task the founding fathers left to their sons before their thirteen colonies could precisely be called United States, and that task, sir, as you well know, is crushing slavery." Not all performers escape seeming like high school students dressing up for an historical pageant. As well, there are conceptual lapses: the moral outrage of slavery has little to do with the thunder and lightning Spielberg uses in many of the shipboard sequences, and Spielberg's traditional backlighting—particularly during the Middle Passage of the slaves' journey—adds a sheen of romanticism totally inappropriate to his subject. Although the black slave leader's passionate outburst in court is certainly moving, that it comes after he sees a picture of Christ and that it is accompanied by a theme, which (if African) is orchestrated in the style of a heavenly choir directly out of The Ten Commandments, seem conceptually suspect, too: is it only with the inspiration of Christian myths of sacrifice that black slavescan find their African voice? These failings exist simultaneously with wonderful, expressive moments, particularly those which are silent: an ebony-muscled body framed against a black sky full of stars—an image suggesting the rapturous universal beauty of black. Unforgettable, too, is a slave mother falling backwards and overboard with her newborn baby in order to commit suicide rather than submit; even more horrifying is the sight of fifty slaves, shackled together in a line and tossed into the ocean, each one dragged by the weight of the other, as if they were only so much ballast. Although Spielberg has gotten Hollywood credit for making socially significant films, his "social" films take respectably safe subjects: can anyone be in favor of concentration camps or slavery? So far Spielberg has avoided contemporary stories of anti-Semitism, racial injustice, or social inequity which might alienate some spectators, raise controversy, or invite more ambivalent emotions. Of course, Spielberg is more interested in story-telling than in changing the world. Even in Amistad, John Quincy Adams' advice on how to win a case sounds suspiciously like Spielberg's mantra: "What is their story?" says Adams, noting that whoever tells the best story generally wins. Later, when Adams offers tribute to the leader of the slave revolt, his comment that "if he were white . . . the great authors of our time would fill books about him, his story would be told and be told. . ." itself seems a self-congratulatory pat on Spielberg's own back for being one of these great auteurs/authors.

Amistad was followed by another excursion into the past: Saving Private Ryan, a war story which begins with the June 6, 1944 D-Day storming of Omaha Beach. Saving Private Ryan seems to be that rarest entity: an instant classic—particularly in its D-Day sequence, which presents the confusion and the terror, the beach running red with blood, the literal viscera of graphic violence. General audiences were stunned, and many surviving WWII veterans were emotionally unhinged. Valorizing a generation of veterans, Saving Private Ryan presents their sacrifice with great emotional expressiveness and good old-fashioned patriotism. If The Thin Red Line, the long-awaited Terrence Malick war film released the same year, was more philosophical and profound, Spielberg's film was nevertheless the more coherent story, emotionally perfectly pitched. Although Spielberg won the Academy award for best director, his film's surprising defeat for best film by the comedy Shakespeare in Love was yet another sign that Hollywood retains Spielberg reservations. And certainly critics disparaged Spielberg's framing device as unfairly obscuring the identity of the American pilgrim ostensibly telling the story—itself an unfair criticism for a rhetorical flourish totally appropriate for a story told. If the last hour of Saving Private Ryan seems like an extraordinarily good episode of the TV series Combat, even this criticism seems a quibble, because of the film's accumulating emotional power. Certainly, so many images are unforgettable: the soldier who collects dirt samples from each country he does battle in; the bag filled with hundreds of dog tags, each representing a dead American; a German soldier slowly inserting a knife directly into a GI's heart. The art design and hisorical reconstruction of the film are flawless, its final images of the D-Day battlefield absolutely awe-inspiring (even more so because we never see the beach in long shot until the battle is over). Moving, too, is the Iowa sequence showing a bereaved mother framed in the doorway, its evocation of the opening of The Searchers effortlessly suggesting that the titular search for her surviving child will be successful (just as was the search in the John Ford film Spielberg so obviously admires).

On other fronts, Spielberg has continued to consolidate his position in Hollywood as its most powerful man. His company, Amblin Entertainment, has long been involved with television production, either Spielberg and/or Amblin involved in television series as disparate as Amazing Stories, seaQuest DSV, the top-rated drama ER, and the children's show The Animaniacs. Spielberg has continued to produce the films of others, and at least one post-Schindler film, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, though a traditional Hollywood film in its warmth and sentiment, takes on a contemporary hot-button issue: homophobia in America. More monumentally, in one of the most publicized entertainment stories of 1994, Spielberg formed a new Hollywood studio called DreamWorks SKG in partnership with two of the other most powerful men in Hollywood, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. In 1999, DreamWorks released American Beauty, a savage satire about bankrupt values and homophobia in the suburbs, which won the Academy award for best film. In 2000, inspired by the success of Saving Private Ryan, Spielberg was in the process of producing (in conjunction with Tom Hanks) a series of TV films with World War II stories. As Spielberg moves closer to being an all-powerful, modern-day studio mogul in the style of Walt Disney or Harry Cohn, will his Schindler's experience inspire a greater devotion to serious, artistically ambitious projects requiring no apology, or will the lure of big bucks for sequels and popular entertainments prove too great a temptation for DreamWorks to forego? Although Spielberg executive-produced The Last Days, the 1998

Academy-award winning documentary on Hungarian holocaust survivors, his Amblin released early in 2000 the lowbrow Viva Rock Vegas, the Flintstones sequel. Reportedly, Spielberg is also currently preparing at least one more Jurassic Park sequel. Perhaps Spielberg will find some way of mediating his apparently contradictory goals with enough integrity and skill to retain his critical respectability as a serious artist, as well as his popular appeal.

—Charles Derry

Steven Spielberg

Born: December 18, 1946
Cincinnati, Ohio
Filmmaker and cofounder, DreamWorks SKG

Some filmmakers want to make audiences laugh or cry or jump out of their seats with fright. Others want to make people think about important historical events and the values people need to live a good life. In his career, Steven Spielberg has done both: entertain and educate, produce basic emotions and stir deep thoughts. Along the way, he has become the most successful filmmaker of all time.

Young Man with a Camera

Steven Allan Spielberg was born on December 18, 1946, in Cincinnati, Ohio. His parents, Arnold and Leah, also had three younger daughters. Arnold Spielberg, an electrical engineer, moved often because of his career. As a result, young Steven had a hard time making friends. He also felt like an outsider because of his Jewish faith, and loneliness and isolation became common themes in his adult work.

"People like Steven don't come along every day, and when they do, it's an amazing thing. It's like talking about Einstein or Babe Ruth or Tiger Woods. He's not in a group of filmmakers his age; he's far, far away."

—George Lucas, creator of Star Wars, in Time, 1997

By the time his family settled in Phoenix, Arizona, Spielberg had developed an interest in filmmaking. Making movies, he later told an interviewer, gave him control. In 1958, Spielberg's father encouraged him to make a movie for his Boy Scout troop. By the time he was a junior in high school, he had won an award for his short film Escape to Nowhere, and written and directed a full-length science-fiction film, Firelight. After high school, Spielberg enrolled at California State College at Long Beach, mostly to avoid becoming eligible for the military draft during the Vietnam War (1959-75). Spielberg did not care about classes; he planned to make films on his own and pursue a career in Hollywood.

In 1968, Spielberg completed his first project shot on 35 mm film, the standard used in professional productions. That short, Amblin', earned him a job at Universal Studios. He had hung out at the studio in the past, starting in high school. Sid Sheinberg, a vice president at the studio, saw the film and offered Spielberg a job directing TV shows and movies. He was just twenty-two when he directed his first television episode. Two years later, Spielberg made the TV movie Duel, a thriller shot in less than three weeks. The film won rave reviews and led to Spielberg's first chance to direct a feature film.

Sharks, Aliens, and Raiders

That picture, Sugarland Express, earned good reviews but did not make much money. Spielberg's first huge success was Jaws in 1975. At the time, it was the biggest moneymaker ever, selling more than $130 million in tickets. Two years later, Jaws was followed by another hit, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Not everything Spielberg made was popular: the 1979 comedy 1941 was a colossal flop, and the director told the New York Times, "I'll spend the rest of my life disowning this movie." Throughout his career, several of Spielberg's films were disappointments, to critics or fans, or both. But his successes were so huge, no one paid attention to the misses for long.

Steven Spielberg's mother, Leah, studied classical piano and encouraged her son's artistic efforts. She appeared in some of his early homemade films. In one, she played a soldier driving a jeep, with a helmet covering her short blond hair.

Working with his friend George Lucas (1944-), Spielberg directed the adventure comedy Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981. The success of that film led to two equally popular sequels. As usual, Spielberg showed a flair for special effects and leaving audiences emotionally drained after a thrilling, hair-raising ride. His next film, E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial, showed Spielberg's more emotional side, and a connection to the dreams and pains of childhood. This theme appeared in other Spielberg films, and he admitted that he was like the fictional character Peter Pan—a boy at heart who didn't want to grow up. (In 1991, Spielberg released his own version of the Peter Pan story, Hook.)

Jeffrey Katzenberg: The
"Golden Retriever"

Working for Michael Eisner at both Paramount Pictures and the Walt Disney Company, Jeffrey Katzenberg was sometimes called "the Golden Retriever." He tracked down and brought back the creative talent Eisner wanted for Disney films. After years of loyal service, Katzenberg was stunned when he did not get the president's job at Disney in 1994. His bitterness helped fuel the start of DreamWorks SKG, and motivated many of his efforts with his new company.

Born in 1950, Katzenberg grew up in New York and had an early interest in politics. He worked for New York Mayor John Lindsay (1921-2000) during and after high school, then decided to enter the entertainment industry. In the early 1970s, he began working at Paramount Pictures, taking several positions before teaming up with Eisner, who named him production chief at the studio in 1982. Although just thirty-one at the time, Katzenberg was known for his discipline and determination, working long hours and expecting employees under him to do the same.

In 1984, Katzenberg followed Eisner to Disney to run that company's film operations. Under Katzenberg, the studio was known for cutting costs, often hiring actors who were considered out of favor with the public. Katzenberg also turned around the animation division, which had not produced a major film in years. At first, he had no strong love for animation. But by the time Katzenberg finished with the production of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? in 1988, which combined animation and live-action, he was dedicated to animated films.

When he, Steven Spielberg, and David Geffen started DreamWorks, Katzenberg wanted to challenge Disney as the top studio for animation. He was actively involved in the company's first major animation project, The Prince of Egypt (1998). He also denied that he stole the idea for the film Antz from a similar film released by Disney, A Bug's Life. Both films featured big stars providing voices for insects created on computers. DreamWorks released Antz earlier than it originally planned so it could reach theaters before the Disney film did. Katzenberg also convinced some Disney animators to join his new company, and the DreamWorks animation studio was built near Disney's.

Katzenberg's rivalry with Eisner and Disney had a legal component as well. Kaztenberg sued Disney, saying the company owed him money for the films he had made for them. The lawsuit dragged on for three years, but Katzenberg eventually won a settlement worth about $250 million. He admitted the long lawsuit had not been good for DreamWorks. He told the Los Angeles Times in July 1999, "Was my attention distracted by this?… Did the company suffer? Yes, but it's hard to quantify how it did."

Katzenberg, famous for his energy, ran most daily operations at DreamWorks. Still, despite his responsibilities and his past successes, he was quick to praise his partners. "I feel like I work for Steven and David," he told the Los Angeles Times in 1998. "They're smarter; they're more successful.… I have a lot more to prove. That's why I have to work harder."

Although making movies was his first love, Spielberg also took an interest in the business side of Hollywood. After the success of Jaws he set up his own production company called Amblin'. (The company name was later changed to Amblin Entertainment.) The first film he produced, but did not direct, was I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978). During the 1980s, his successful productions included Gremlins (1984), the three Back to the Future movies (1985, 1989, 1990), and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988). As a producer, Spielberg shaped the careers of several other popular directors, including Robert Zemeckis (1952-), who continued to work with him at DreamWorks SKG.

David Geffen: From Music
to Movies and More

When a Japanese electronics firm bought entertainment company MCA in 1990, David Geffen became the richest person in Hollywood. Earlier in the year, Geffen had sold his record company for ten million shares of MCA stock. The MCA sale gave Geffen $660 million, plus a share of a TV station. Added to his existing wealth, Geffen was just shy of becoming a billionaire—a milestone he soon reached.

Born in 1943 in Brooklyn, New York, Geffen credits his mother Batya with sharpening his business skills. His mother ran a corset shop, and she taught him, as he told Forbes in 1990, "how not to get hustled." Not a good student, Geffen gave up on college to enter the entertainment world. He worked as an usher at the CBS television studios in California, then as a receptionist for a TV production company. His big break came in 1964, when he landed a job in the mailroom at the William Morris talent agency in New York City. Geffen soon became an agent, and his first big client was singer/songwriter Laura Nyro. When Nyro formed a song publishing company, Geffen owned half. The partners sold the company in 1969, and Geffen made his first million.

Soon after, with financial backing from Atlantic Records, Geffen founded his own record company, Asylum. His acts included Jackson Browne (c. 1948-), Linda Ronstadt (1946-), and the Eagles. Through its connection with Atlantic, Asylum was part of Warner Communications, a huge company that also produced films. Warner eventually bought out Geffen's share of Asylum and named him president of Elektra/Asylum records. In 1975, Ceffen entered a new arena, becoming vice chairman of Warner's film division. That job ended the next year, when Ceffen was mistakenly diagnosed with cancer. During the next several years, he focused on medical treatments for a disease that was not as dangerous his doctors thought.

During the 1980s, Geffen returned to the music business full-time, founding Geffen Records and DGC (for David Geffen Company). One of its star acts was Nirvana. In film, Warner Brothers helped him start his own production company. His other interests included collecting art and producing Broadway plays. Geffen sold his company in 1990 and had less direct involvement in the daily operations of his other business interests. He also contributed to organizations related to AIDS. The disease was particularly deadly among homosexuals, and after years of secrecy, Geffen publicly announced his homosexuality in 1992.

When Jeffrey Katzenberg asked Geffen to join him and Steven Spielberg in a new entertainment company, Geffen hesitated. He did not always share power well. But Katzenberg convinced him that starting what became DreamWorks would be a rewarding challenge.

Known for his strong business sense—and getting his own way—Geffen shaped the proposal that brought DreamWorks its initial investments. He, Katzenberg, and Spielberg received a two-thirds share of the company and total control over the operations for a combined $100 million while outside investors put in $900 million for the remaining one-third of the company. Although some business analysts questioned the arrangement, Geffen told Fortune in 1995 that "the names of those who've invested with us speak for themselves. No one has walked away because of the terms." Geffen's track record in the entertainment industry played a part in reassuring investors that DreamWorks was a good investment.

The Serious Side of Spielberg

In 1986, Spielberg surprised many people when he released The Color Purple. Based on the book by African American author Alice Walker (1944-), the movie addressed sexual abuse in the Deep South. The film won several Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Film, although Spielberg was not nominated for Best Director. Some critics thought Spielberg had toned down the emotional core of the book, making it more sentimental—a trait of many of his films. Still, The Color Purple showed that Spielberg could make films for adults that did not rely on expensive special effects.

Spielberg reached deep into his roots in 1993 when he directed Schindler's List. Based on a true story, the film depicts how a German businessman helped Jews escape certain death at concentration camps where Nazi Germans killed millions of Jews and other so-called "undesirable" people during World War II (1939-45). Shot in black-and-white, the film was more than three hours long, and no one expected it to become the blockbuster that it did. Schindler's List let Spielberg explore his Jewish heritage while showing people the horrors of what is known as the Holocaust. Steven Spielberg donated all the profits he made from Schindler's List to various Jewish organizations, including the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. The film earned Spielberg his first Academy Award for Best Director.

The same year, Spielberg showed his other side, the one fascinated with science fiction and high-tech filmmaking. Jurassic Park used digital technology to bring dinosaurs to life, and the film set box-office records, eventually earning almost $1 billion worldwide. It also led to two sequels, although neither was as popular as the original. Spielberg returned to more serious filmmaking in 1998 with Saving Private Ryan, which earned him his second Academy Award for Best Director.

Life at DreamWorks

By 1994, Spielberg was worth an estimated $600 million. He had a family with his second wife, Kate Capshaw (1953-), that included her daughter from a first marriage, Spielberg's son from his first marriage (to actress Amy Irving), and three children of their own, two of whom were adopted. The rigors of joining Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen in a new company were not appealing, especially to his wife. But according to Kim Masters in The Keys to the Kingdom, Spielberg was once again attracted to the idea of control.

Spielberg was certainly the "star" of the three owners, considered the greatest filmmaker of his generation. He asked for and received the freedom to make movies for other studios, which would also give him an outside paycheck if DreamWorks stumbled. The sequels to Jurassic Park were not DreamWorks productions. Most of his films for the new company were co-productions, as was his ten-part series for television, Taken. Released in December 2002, the series brought Spielberg back to his television roots and continued his interest in science fiction, where a creative person has unlimited freedom. "It doesn't have boundaries," he told the SciFi Channel. "It doesn't fence you in … it frees the imagination to journey anywhere it can imagine itself."

For More Information

Books

King, Tom. The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood. New York: Random House, 2000.

Masters, Kim. The Keys to the Kingdom: How Michael Eisner Lost His Grip. New York: William Morrow, 2000.

McBride, Joseph. Steven Spielberg. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.

Periodicals

Bates, James. "Reality is, DreamWorks Never Needed a Studio." Los Angeles Times (July 30, 1999): p. 6.

Brown, Corie. "Making the Dream Work." Newsweek July 19,1999): p. 42.

Corliss, Richard, and Jeffrey Ressner. "Peter Pan Grows Up." Time (May 19, 1997): p. 74.

Eller, Claudia. "DreamWorks Wakes Up to Reality." Los Angeles Times (July 13, 1999): p. 2.

Eller, Claudia, and James Bates. "Animated Features Aren't Studio's Dream Come True." Los Angeles Times (April 28, 2000): p. A-1.

Gubernick, Lisa. "California Dreamin'." Forbes (July 29, 1996): p. 42.

Gubernick, Lisa, and Peter Newcomb. "The Richest Man in Hollywood." Forbes (December 24, 1990): p. 94.

Kilday, Gregg. "In the Works." Entertainment Weekly (October 20, 1995): p. 38.

Miller, Greg. "DreamWorks, Imagine in Venture to Showcase Online Programming." Los Angeles Times (October 26, 1999): p. 1.

Munoz, Lorenza. "The Mudslinging in the Wetlands." Los Angeles Times (April 24, 1999): p. 6.

Nelson, Scott. "At DreamWorks, Katzenberg Holds the Reins." Boston Globe (May 19, 2002): p. L14.

"Savoring Private Ryan." U.S. News & World Report (February 22, 1999): p. 49.

"Steven Spielberg Presents Taken." The Sci Fi Channel. [On-line] http://www.scifi.com./taken/press/productionannouncement.html (accessed on August 15, 2002).

Serwer, Andrew. "Analyzing the Dream." Fortune (April 17, 1995): p. 71.

Spring, Greg. "DreamWorks Attracts Two Big Names." Los Angeles Business Journal (March 27, 1995): p. 5.

Turner, Richard, and Corie Brown. "Fishing Buddies." Newsweek (September 29, 1997): p. 68.

Wallace, Amy. "Creating 'The Prince of Egypt' Led Jeffrey Katzenberg and His DreamWorks Associates to Throw Out Most of Animated Film's Rules." Los Angeles Times (November 22, 1998): p. 2.

. "Ouch! That Stings!" Los Angeles Times (September 21, 1998): p. 6.

Young, Josh. "Needs Improvement." Entertainment Weekly (October 17, 1997): p. 27.

Web Sites

DreamWorks SKG. [On-line] http://www.dreamworks.com (accessed on August 15, 2002).

DreamWorks SKG Fansite. [On-line] http://www.dreamworksfansite.com (accessed on August 15, 2002).

Spielberg, Steven

(1947-)
Amblin Entertainment and
DreamWorks SKG

Overview

Steven Spielberg has turned out some of the most popular, highest–grossing films in movie history. With his movie Jaws, he played a large part in ushering in a new era in modern cinema: the big–budget blockbuster. His critics claim his movies often depend too heavily on spectacular special effects. His fans call him the king of good storytelling. Whatever the opinion, no one can deny that Spielberg has impacted moviegoers since the 1970s and in the process has built a movie–making empire of unmatched dimensions.

Personal Life

Spielberg married actress Amy Irving in 1985. They had one son before divorcing in 1989. In 1991 Spielberg married Kate Capshaw, an actress who starred in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Between them they have seven children.

Now known as a family man, Spielberg is often described as a giant kid. He typically dresses in jeans and sweatshirts and wears a baseball cap. He admits to a fondness for bad television movies and a love for video games. In a 1994 New Yorker article, Tom Hanks described him fondly, saying, "The thing about Steven is he's still the A.V. guy in junior high school. You know, the guy who brings the movie projectors around and knows how to thread them, and all that kind of stuff."

Steven Spielberg was born on December 18, 1947, in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father, Arnold Spielberg, was an electrical engineer who designed computers for RCA, GE, and IBM, and his mother, Leah Spielberg, was an accomplished pianist. Spielberg was the eldest of four children. Spielberg's father moved the family frequently as he pursued jobs around the country, settling in Phoenix, Arizona, from 1957 to 1964. School proved to be difficult for Spielberg. He had trouble making friends because he moved so often, and at school he was constantly teased because he was often the only Jewish student.

At a very young age, Spielberg decided to make movies. His three sisters were his favorite subjects and appeared in many of his earliest attempts at filmmaking. His mother would help with the special effects. By age 13, Spielberg had already won a contest for his 40–minute war movie Escape to Nowhere. In 1964 he turned out Firefly, an earth–versus–alien epic nearly two–and–a–half hours in length.

Upon his high school graduation, Spielberg had hoped to attend film school at the University of California at Los Angeles, but his C grade average was not good enough to gain admittance to the competitive program. Instead, he attended California State College at Long Beach. College held little interest for Spielberg, though, and he spent most of his time at the movies. In a 1996 Cosmopolitan article, Spielberg told of the day that he began sneaking into Universal Studios in 1966. "I went back there every day for three months. I walked past the guard every day, waved at him and he waved back. I always wore a suit and carried a briefcase, and he assumed I was some kid related to some mogul. . . . So every day that summer, I went in my suit and hung out with directors and writers and editors."

Career Details

Though he may dress like an overgrown child, Spielberg has a reputation for being a shrewd businessman. Unable to direct all of the products he was interested in, Spielberg formed his own production company in 1980. The company was called Amblin Entertainment, after one of his first films. Movies that have been released under the Amblin banner include Gremlins, Back to the Future, Goonies, and Men in Black. Amblin also produced several animated films, including Who Framed Roger Rabbit, An American Tail, and Land Before Time. Amblin was likewise responsible for such television shows as the hit drama ER and the animated series Tiny Toons Adventures and Animaniacs. Many of his early films were made with his close friend, director George Lucas. In 1994 Spielberg merged his company with a new production company. He formed the company with former Disney president Jeff Katzenberg and billionaire music producer David Geffen. The power trio planned to combine their talents and envisioned the creation of their own multimedia entertainment projects. Criticized for its slow start, the company has been involved in making records, films, animated movies, toys, and video games. Despite the diversity of the company's endeavors, Spielberg concentrates mostly on filmmaking. He continues to focus on what he has always done best, directing movies.

Spielberg began his career in 1969 when Universal Television's Sid Scheinberg saw Spielberg's short film, Amblin'. Spielberg left school and signed a seven–year contract with Universal. His first assignment was an episode of a 90–minute pilot for Rod Serling's Night Gallery series. He then directed episodes of several other television shows. In 1971 Spielberg directed his first movie. Duel cost only $350,000 to make, drew rave reviews, and grossed over $5 million in foreign releases alone.

Spielberg made two more television movies before directing his first theatrical film. The comedy–drama, The Sugarland Express was released in 1974. The film received positive reviews, even earning Spielberg a best–screenplay award at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival, but it did not fare extremely well at the box office.

Spielberg's next effort was more successful. Entrusted with the screen adaptation of Peter Benchley's best–selling novel Jaws, the director unleashed a sensation; the story of an Atlantic seaside town terrorized by a great white shark seized the public imagination. The 1975 film became the highest–grossing motion picture to date. Its big budget and the incredible special effects used to portray the mechanical shark named Bruce set the stage for a new generation of high–budget, megahit movies. Though not every film was a hit, it was clear from the beginning that Spielberg knew how to win at the box office.

In 1977 Spielberg released his next film project, the science fiction story Close Encounters of the Third Kind, another enormous box office hit. Spielberg released Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981. The action drama set in the 1930s, with Harrison Ford starring as archaeologist–adventurer Indiana Jones, was so successful that Spielberg released two sequels, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, in 1984, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, in 1989.

In 1982 Spielberg made movie history again with the release of E.T.: The Extra–Terrestrial. The movie, a story about a boy and his friendship with a loveable alien trying to find his way home, is close to Spielberg's heart. He has drawn comparisons between the emotions that are portrayed in the movie and those that he felt when his parents divorced. Despite its overwhelming popularity with fans and critics alike and its many nominations, E.T. received no Academy Awards.

In 1986 he made The Color Purple, based on Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize–winning novel of the same name. While the film received some impressive reviews, Spielberg received criticism for patronizing African Americans and for sentimentalizing rural southern poverty. Nonetheless, the movie did well at the box office and introduced two new stars, Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg. The movie received a record–tying 11 Academy Award nominations but failed to win in any category, and Spielberg himself was not even nominated. Empire of the Sun was released in 1987. Based on a true story, the movie recounted the adventures of a young British boy in Shangai during World War II. The film earned fair reviews and box office attendance. Also in 1987, Spielberg finally received recognition for his work: the Academy of Motion Pictures bestowed on him one of its highest honors, the Irving J. Thalberg Award. The award recognizes a distinguished body of works.

Taking a break from serious films, which had not fared as well as some of his others, Spielberg's megahit Jurassic Park was released in 1993. The subject of one of the most intensive pre–release promotions in film history, the story centered on a present–day theme park that featured genetically engineered dinosaurs as the main attraction. Based on a book by Michael Crichton, the film was such a hit that Spielberg could not resist the temptation to do a sequel and subsequently released Jurassic Park: The Lost World in 1997, which grossed $229 million.

Chronology: Steven Spielberg

1947: Born.

1975: Directed Jaws.

1979: Directed Raiders of the Lost Ark.

1981: Directed and coproduced E.T. The Extra–Terrestrial.

1984: Directed and coproduced The Color Purple.

1985: Directed and coproduced Empire of the Sun.

1993: Directed Jurassic Park and Schindler's List.

1994: Established DreamWorks SKG.

1994: Established the Shoah Foundation.

1997: Directed Amistad.

1998: Directed Saving Private Ryan.

2001: Produced Band of Brothers on HBO with Tom Hanks.

In the years 1993–1998, Spielberg finally quieted all the critics who did not believe he could make an "adult" movie. His film Schindler's List, a black–and–white movie filmed in Poland, was a lengthy Holocaust drama based on the true story of a German factory owner who saved the lives of thousands of Jews who worked for him. The critically acclaimed film earned seven Academy Awards, including awards for best picture and best director. The film held personal meaning for Spielberg, who had shunned his Jewish heritage as a child because he had been an outcast. He described his Jewish awakening at the birth of his son Max in 1985, when he began thinking about his family and the stories about the Holocaust that had been told to him when he was young. He told Harper's Bazaar in 1994, "Not since E.T. had I felt such a personal calling, to do something I actually feel part of." Spielberg set up two public foundations with his earnings from the movie for the purposes of studying the Holocaust and keeping alive the memory of the Jews who died in it. One of these foundations, the Shoah Foundation, was established to preserve the testimonies of holocaust survivors and witnesses, and to date has collected more than 50,000 eyewitness testimonies in 57 countries and 32 languages.

A later Spielberg work, Saving Private Ryan, released in the summer of 1998, told the story of eight American soldiers during World War II who go behind enemy lines to retrieve a lost paratrooper after it is discovered that all three of his brothers had been killed during the war. The movie received excellent reviews. Spielberg's realistic portrayal of the D–Day invasion of the beaches of Normandy have led many to call it the greatest war movie of all time.

Spielberg's latest foray into film was a collaboration with the late Stanley Kubrick, entitled A.I.:Artificial Intelligence. After Kubrick died, Spielberg developed the screenplay from a detailed story treatment and 1,000 storyboards the legendary director had left behind. The science fiction film, based on the short story Super–Toys Last All Summer Long, topped the box office at $29.4 million in its opening weekend July 1, 2001.

Spielberg and Tom Hanks reteamed that year to produce a TV project that would honor the hundreds of thousands of "citizen soldiers" that helped turn the tide in World War II. The result was HBO's $120 million 10–part World War II miniseries, Band of Brothers. Debuted on September 9, 2001, the series spotlights the men of Easy Company based on the Stephen E. Ambrose bestseller of the same title. Band of Brothers is a brutal front line portrayal of members of the 506th Regiment, 101 Airborne division, among the first American paratroopers trained for the war.

Social and Economic Impact

Spielberg entered filmmaking at a time when big budgets that paid for high–tech special effects and major marketing campaigns were not the standard. With the unprecedented success of Jaws, that all changed. In a time when no movie had grossed $100 million in the United States or Canada, Jaws grossed almost a half a billion dollars. Ticket sales skyrocketed Close Encounters of the Third Kind into the top–ten moneymakers up to that time. E.T. not only topped box office sales but also became an overwhelming merchandising and video success. The movie made $700 million, the largest box office take at the time, and earned over $1 billion in merchandising. Jurassic Park quickly became the highest–grossing film at its release. Spielberg has made big movies into big business. His estimated gross income for 1997 was $283 million. A Forbes correspondent asked the question, "Has Spielberg had his hand in every single blockbuster coming out of Hollywood—or does it just seem that way?"

Spielberg has once been accused of making only kids' movies with plots full of action and special effects but without depth. Yet, his success with Schindler's List in 1994 and Saving Private Ryan in 1998 have changed his image. These movies brought issues to the forefront that spoke to many people. He presented history in ways that no one had before him. In 1998 Time magazine named Spielberg in its list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. In Time's tribute to Spielberg, film critic Roger Ebert affirmed Spielberg's place on the list. "In the history of the last third of twentieth century cinema, Spielberg is the most influential figure, for better and worse. In his lesser films he relied too much on shallow stories and special effects for their own sake . . . In his best films he tapped into dreams fashioned by our better natures."

Sources of Information

Contact at: Amblin Entertainment and DreamWorks SKG
100 Universal City Plz.
Universal City, CA 91608
Business Phone: (818)733–7000

Bibliography

"'A.I.' Plugs in at No. 1." E! Online, 2 July 2001. Available at http://www.eonline.com.

Appelo, Tim. "First Critic." Entertainment Weekly, 17 December 1993.

Brown, Corie, and Richard Turner. "Fishing Buddies: As DreamWorks Finally Releases its First Movie, the Partners Are Still Learning to Work Together." Newsweek, 29 September 1997.

"Close Combat: HBO's 'Band of Brothers.'" American Cinematographer Magazine, 16 September 2001. Available at http://www.cinematographer.com.

Contemporary Authors. Detroit: Gale Research, 1997.

Corliss, Richard. "Hey, Let's Put on a Show!" Time, 27 March 1995.

Corliss, Richard. "Peter Pan Grows Up: But Can He Still Fly?" Time, 19 May 1997.

Current Biography Yearbook 1996. New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1997.

Ebert, Roger. "Time 100: The Most Important People of the 20th Century." Time, 29 May 1998.

Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998.

Hallett, Anthony and Diane Hallett. Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurs. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997.

Maser, Wayne. "The Long Voyage Home." Harper's Bazaar, February 1994.

Sanello, Frank. "Spielberg: The Man, the Movies, the Mythology." Cosmopolitan, July 1996.

Schiff, Stephen. "Seriously Spielberg." New Yorker, 21 March 1998

"Steven Spielberg." E! Online, 5 October 2001. Available at http://www.eonline.com.

Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. Available at http://www.vhf.org.

Spielberg, Steven

(1947-)
Amblin Entertainment and
DreamWorks SKG

Overview

Steven Spielberg has turned out some of the most popular, highest-grossing films in movie history. With his movie Jaws, he played a large part in ushering in a new era in modern cinema: the big-budget megahit. His critics claim his movies often depend too heavily on spectacular special effects. His fans call him the king of good storytelling. Whatever the opinion, no one can deny that Spielberg has impacted moviegoers since the 1970s, and in the process has built a movie-making empire of unmatched dimensions.

Personal Life

Steven Spielberg was born on December 18, 1947, in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father, Arnold Spielberg, was an electrical engineer who designed computers for RCA, GE, and IBM, and his mother, Leah Spielberg, was an accomplished pianist. Spielberg was the eldest of four children. Spielberg's father moved the family frequently as he pursued jobs around the country, settling in Phoenix, Arizona, from 1957 to 1964. School proved to be difficult for Spielberg. He had trouble making friends because he moved so often, and at school he was constantly teased because he was often the only Jewish student.

At a very young age, Spielberg decided to make movies. His three sisters were his favorite subjects and appeared in many of his earliest attempts at filmmaking. His mother would help with the special effects. By age 13, Spielberg had already won a contest for his 40-minute war movie Escape to Nowhere. In 1964, he turned out Firefly, an earth-versus-alien epic nearly two-and-a-half hours in length.

Upon his high school graduation, Spielberg had hoped to attend film school at the University of California at Los Angeles, but his C grade average was not good enough to gain admittance to the competitive program. Instead, he attended California State College at Long Beach. College held little interest for Spielberg, though, and he spent most of his time at the movies. In a 1996 Cosmopolitan article, Spielberg told of the day that he began sneaking into Universal Studios in 1966. "I went back there every day for three months. I walked past the guard every day, waved at him and he waved back. I always wore a suit and carried a briefcase, and he assumed I was some kid related to some mogul . . . . So every day that summer, I went in my suit and hung out with directors and writers and editors."

Spielberg married actress Amy Irving in 1985. They had one son before divorcing in 1989. In 1991, Spielberg married Kate Capshaw, an actress who starred in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Between them they have seven children.

Now known as a family man, Spielberg is often described as a giant kid. He typically dresses in jeans and sweatshirts and wears a baseball cap. He admits to a fondness for bad television movies and a love for video games. In a 1994 New Yorker article Tom Hanks described him fondly, saying, "The thing about Steven is he's still the A.V. guy in junior high school. You know, the guy who brings the movie projectors around and knows how to thread them, and all that kind of stuff."

Career Details

Though he may dress like an overgrown child, Spielberg has a reputation for being a shrewd businessman. Unable to direct all of the products he was interested in, Spielberg formed his own production company in 1980. The company was called Amblin Entertainment, after one of his first films. Movies that have been released under the Amblin banner include Gremlins, Back to the Future, Goonies, and Men in Black. Amblin also produced several animated films, including Who Framed Roger Rabbit, An American Tail, and Land Before Time. Amblin was likewise responsible for such television shows as the hit drama ER and the animated series Tiny Toons Adventures and Animaniacs. Many of his early films were made with his close friend, director George Lucas. In 1994, Spielberg merged his company with a new production company. He formed the company with former Disney president Jeff Katzenberg and billionaire music producer David Geffen. The power trio planned to combine their talents and envisioned the creation of their own multimedia entertainment projects. Criticized for its slow start, the company has been involved in making records, films, animated movies, toys, and video games. Despite the diversity of the company's endeavors, Spielberg concentrates mostly on filmmaking. He continues to focus on what he has always done best, directing movies.

Spielberg began his career in 1969 when Universal Television's Sid Scheinberg saw Spielberg's short film, Amblin'. Spielberg left school and signed a seven-year contract with Universal. His first assignment was an episode of a 90-minute pilot for Rod Serling's Night Gallery series. He then directed episodes of several other television shows. In 1971, Spielberg directed his first movie. Duel cost only $350,000 to make, drew rave reviews, and grossed over $5 million in foreign releases alone.

Spielberg made two more television movies before directing his first theatrical film. The comedy-drama, The Sugarland Express was released in 1974. The film received positive reviews, even earning Spielberg a best-screenplay award at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival, but it did not fare extremely well at the box office.

Spielberg's next effort was more successful. Entrusted with the screen adaptation of Peter Benchley's best-selling novel Jaws, the director unleashed a sensation; the story of an Atlantic seaside town terrorized by a great white shark seized the public imagination. The 1975 film became the highest-grossing motion picture to date. Its big budget and the incredible special effects used to portray the mechanical shark named Bruce set the stage for a new generation of high-budget, megahit movies. Though not every film was a hit, it was clear from the beginning that he knew how to win at the box office.

In 1977 Spielberg released his next film project, the science fiction story Close Encounters of the Third Kind, another enormous box office hit. Spielberg released Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981. The action drama set in the 1930s, with Harrison Ford starring as archaeologistadventurer Indiana Jones, was so successful that Spielberg released two sequels, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, in 1984 and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. in 1989.

In 1982 Spielberg made movie history again with the release of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. The movie, a story about a boy and his friendship with a loveable alien trying to find his way home, is close to Spielberg's heart. He has drawn comparisons between the emotions that are portrayed in the movie and those that he felt when his parents divorced. Despite its overwhelming popularity with fans and critics alike, and its many nominations, E.T. received no Academy Awards.

Chronology: Steven Spielberg

1947: Born.

1975: Directed Jaws.

1979: Directed Raiders of the Lost Ark.

1981: Directed and co-produced E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.

1984: Directed and co-produced The Color Purple.

1985: Directed and co-produced Empire of the Sun.

1991: Directed Hook.

1993: Directed Jurassic Park and Schindler's List.

1994: Established DreamWorks SKG.

1997: Directed Amistad.

1998: Directed Saving Private Ryan.

In 1986 he made The Color Purple, based on Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. While the film received some impressive reviews, Spielberg received criticism for patronizing African Americans and for sentimentalizing rural Southern poverty. Nonetheless, the movie did well at the box office and introduced two new stars, Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg. The movie received a record-tying 11 Academy Award nominations, but failed to win in any category, and Spielberg himself was not even nominated. Empire of the Sun was released in 1987. Based on a true story, the movie recounted the adventures of a young British boy in Shangai during World War II. The film earned fair reviews and box office attendance. Also, in 1987 Spielberg finally received recognition for his work as the Academy of Motion Pictures bestowed on him one of its highest honors, the Irving J. Thalberg Award. The award recognizes a distinguished body of works.

Taking a break from serious films which had not fared as well as some of his others, Spielberg's megahit Jurassic Park was released in 1993. The subject of one of the most intensive pre-release promotions in film history, the story centered on a present-day theme park that featured genetically engineered dinosaurs as the main attraction. Based on a book by Michael Crichton, the film was such a hit that Spielberg could not resist the temptation to do a sequel, and subsequently released Jurassic Park: The Lost World in 1997, which grossed $229 million.

In the years 1993-98, Spielberg finally quieted all the critics who did not believe he could make an "adult" movie. His film Schindler's List, a black-and-white movie filmed in Poland, was a lengthy Holocaust drama based on the true story of a German factory owner who saved the lives of thousands of Jews who worked for him. The critically acclaimed film earned seven Academy Awards, including awards for best picture and best director. The film held personal meaning for Spielberg who had shunned his Jewish heritage as a child because he had been an outcast. He described his Jewish awakening as the birth of his son Max in 1985, when he began thinking about his family and the stories about the Holocaust that had been told to him when he was young. He told Harper's Bazaar in 1994, "Not since E.T. had I felt such a personal calling, to do something I actually feel part of." Spielberg set up two public foundations with his earnings from the movie for the purposes of studying the Holocaust and keeping it alive the memory of the Jews who died in it.

A later Spielberg work, Saving Private Ryan, released in the summer of 1998, told the story of eight American soldiers during World War II who go behind enemy lines to retrieve a lost paratrooper after it is discovered that all three of his brothers had been killed during the war. The movie received excellent reviews. Spielberg's realistic portrayal of the D-Day invasion of the beaches of Normandy have led many to call it the greatest war movie of all time.

Social and Economic Impact

Spielberg entered filmmaking at a time when big budgets that paid for high-tech special effects and major marketing campaigns were not the standard. With the unprecedented success of Jaws, that all changed. In a time when no movie had grossed $100 million in the United States or Canada, Jaws grossed almost half a billion dollars. Ticket sales skyrocketed Close Encounters of the Third Kind into the top-ten moneymakers up to that time. E.T. not only topped box office sales, but also became an overwhelming merchandising and video success. The movie made $700 million, the largest box office take at the time, and earned over $1 billion in merchandising. Jurassic Park quickly became the highest-grossing film at its release. Spielberg has made big movies into big business. His estimated gross income for 1997 was $283 million. A Forbes correspondent asked the question, "Has Spielberg had his hand in every single blockbuster coming out of Hollywood—or does it just seem that way?"

Spielberg has once been accused of making only kids' movies with plots full of action and special effects, but without depth. Yet, his success with Schindler's List in 1994 and Saving Private Ryan in 1998 have changed his image. These movies brought issues to the forefront that spoke to many people. He presented history in ways that no one had before him. In 1998, Time magazine named Spielberg in its list of the 100 most influential people of the twentieth century. In Time's tribute to Spielberg, film critic Roger Ebert affirmed Spielberg's place on the list. "In the history of the last third of twentieth century cinema, Spielberg is the most influential figure, for better and worse. In his lesser films he relied too much on shallow stories and special effects for their own sake . . . . In his best films he tapped into dreams fashioned by our better natures."

Sources of Information

Contact at: Amblin Entertainment and DreamWorks SKG
100 Universal City Plz.
Universal City, CA 91608
Business Phone: (818)733–7000

Bibliography

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Corliss, Richard. "Hey, Let's Put on a Show!" Time, 27 March 1995.

Corliss, Richard. "Peter Pan Grows Up: But Can He Still Fly?" Time, 19 May 1997.

Current Biography Yearbook 1996. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1997.

Ebert, Roger. "Time 100: The Most Important People of the 20th Century." Time, 29 May 1998.

Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998.

Hallett, Anthony and Diane Hallett. Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurs. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997.

Maser, Wayne. "The Long Voyage Home." Harper's Bazaar, February 1994

Sanello, Frank. "Spielberg: the Man, the Movies, the Mythology." Cosmopolitan, July 1996.

Schiff, Stephen. "Seriously Spielberg." New Yorker, 21 March 1998