Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg was born on December 18, 1946, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Arnold Spielberg and Leah Adler, both American Jews. His family later lived in Haddon Township, New Jersey, and Scottsdale, Arizona, where he made films using his father's camera. As a teenager, he completed Escape to Nowhere, a forty minute film concerning an East African war, and gained recognition. He attended California State University, Long Beach, but left before graduating, eventually returning in 2002 to earn his degree there. Universal Television hired him after an internship, and he directed episodes of Night Gallery, Columbo, and Marcus Welby, M.D. there.

Duel, his 1971 television film, turns Richard Matheson's story into a relentless pursuit between a salesman and an anonymous trucker. The Sugarland Express opened theatrically in 1974, but Jaws the following year established him as a major Hollywood director internationally. Adapted from Peter Benchley's novel, Jaws follows Amity police chief Martin Brody as shark attacks endanger a summer resort town. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, released in 1977, depicts ordinary people drawn toward a mysterious Wyoming mountain formation site. Raiders of the Lost Ark, created with George Lucas, introduced archaeologist Indiana Jones, played by Harrison Ford, in 1981 worldwide.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial became 1982's highest-grossing film, centering on Elliott, a boy who helps an extraterrestrial return home safely eventually. The 1985 adaptation of Alice Walker's The Color Purple earned eleven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture that year. Empire of the Sun, based on J. G. Ballard's novel, featured Christian Bale as British schoolboy Jim Graham in Shanghai. Schindler's List portrayed Oskar Schindler's rescue of Jewish workers during the Holocaust and won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. He won Best Director Oscars for Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan at separate Academy Award ceremonies.

Saving Private Ryan opens with the Normandy landing and follows Captain John Miller's squad searching for paratrooper James Ryan afterward. With DreamWorks cofounders Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, Spielberg helped establish the studio in 1994 and served as a principal. His later credits include Jurassic Park, Minority Report, Munich, Lincoln, Bridge of Spies, The Post, and West Side Story notably. In 2022, The Fabelmans drew from his childhood, depicting Sammy Fabelman's discovery of filmmaking amid family upheaval and westward relocation. Spielberg has also produced films, including Back to the Future, Gremlins, and the Men in Black series through Amblin Entertainment.