One of the most influential personalities in the history of cinema, Steven Spielberg is Hollywood's best known
director and one of the wealthiest filmmakers in the world. He has an extraordinary number of commercially successful and critically acclaimed credits to his name, either as a director, producer or writer since launching the summer blockbuster with Der weiße Hai (1975), and he has done more to define popular film-making since the mid-1970s than anyone else.
Steven Allan Spielberg was born in 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Leah Frances (Posner), a concert pianist and restaurateur, and Arnold Spielberg, an electrical engineer who worked in computer development. His parents were both born to Russian Jewish immigrant families. Steven spent his younger years in Haddon Township, New Jersey, Phoenix, Arizona, and later Saratoga, California. He went to California State University Long Beach, but dropped
out to pursue his entertainment career.
Among his
early directing efforts were Battle Squad (1961), which combined World
War II footage with footage of an airplane on the ground that he makes
you believe is moving. He also directed
Escape to Nowhere (1961), which
featured children as World War Two soldiers, including his sister
Anne Spielberg, and
The Last Gun (1959), a western.
All of these were short films. The next couple of years, Spielberg
directed a couple of movies that would portend his future career in
movies. In 1964, he directed
Firelight (1964), a movie about aliens
invading a small town. In 1967, he directed
Slipstream (1967), which was
unfinished. However, in 1968, he directed
Amblin' (1968), which featured the desert
prominently, and not the first of his movies in which the desert would
feature. Amblin' also became the name of his production
company, which turned out such classics as
E.T. - Der Außerirdische (1982).
Spielberg had a unique and classic early directing project,
Duell (1971), with
Dennis Weaver. In the early 1970s,
Spielberg was working on TV, directing among others such series as
Rod Serling's
Wo alle Wege enden (1969),
Dr. med. Marcus Welby (1969)
and
Tödliche Trennung (1971).
All of his work in television and short films, as well as his directing
projects, were just a hint of the wellspring of talent that would
dazzle audiences all over the world.
Spielberg's first major directorial effort was
Sugarland Express (1974),
with Goldie Hawn, a film that marked him as
a rising star. It was his next effort, however, that made him an
international superstar among directors:
Der weiße Hai (1975). This classic shark attack tale
started the tradition of the summer blockbuster or, at least, he was
credited with starting the tradition. His next film was the classic
Die unheimliche Begegnung der 3. Art (1977),
a unique and original UFO story that remains a classic. In 1978,
Spielberg produced his first film, the forgettable
I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978),
and followed that effort with
Mit einem Bein im Kittchen (1980), a critically
acclaimed, but mostly forgotten,
Kurt Russell/Jack Warden
comedy about devious used-car dealers. Spielberg hit gold yet one more
time with
Jäger des verlorenen Schatzes (1981),
with Harrison Ford taking the part
of Indiana Jones. Spielberg produced and directed two films in 1982.
The first was Poltergeist (1982), but
the highest-grossing movie of all time up to that point was the alien
story
E.T. - Der Außerirdische (1982).
Spielberg also helped pioneer the practice of product placement. The
concept, while not uncommon, was still relatively low-key when
Spielberg raised the practice to almost an art form with his famous (or
infamous) placement of Reese's Pieces in "E.T." Spielberg was also one
of the pioneers of the big-grossing special-effects movies, like "E.T."
and "Close Encounters", where a very strong emphasis on special effects
was placed for the first time on such a huge scale. In 1984, Spielberg
followed up "Raiders" with
Indiana Jones und der Tempel des Todes (1984),
which was a commercial success but did not receive the critical acclaim
of its predecessor. As a producer, Spielberg took on many projects in
the 1980s, such as
Die Goonies (1985), and was the
brains behind the little monsters in
Gremlins - Kleine Monster (1984). He also produced the
cartoon
Feivel, der Mauswanderer (1986), a
quaint little animated classic. His biggest effort as producer in 1985,
however, was the blockbuster
Zurück in die Zukunft (1985),
which made Michael J. Fox an
instant superstar. As director, Spielberg took on the book
Die Farbe Lila (1985), with
Whoopi Goldberg and
Oprah Winfrey, with great success. In the
latter half of the 1980s, he also directed
Das Reich der Sonne (1987), a
mixed success for the occasionally erratic Spielberg. Success would not
escape him for long, though.
The late 1980s found Spielberg's projects at the center of pop-culture
yet again. In 1988, he produced the landmark animation/live-action film
Falsches Spiel mit Roger Rabbit (1988).
The next year proved to be another big one for Spielberg, as he
produced and directed Always - Der Feuerengel von Montana (1989) as
well as
Indiana Jones und der letzte Kreuzzug (1989),
and
Zurück in die Zukunft II (1989).
All three of the films were box-office and critical successes. Also, in
1989, he produced the little known comedy-drama
Dad (1989), with
Jack Lemmon and
Ted Danson, which got mostly mixed results.
Spielberg has also had an affinity for animation and has been a strong
voice in animation in the 1990s. Aside from producing the landmark "Who
Framed Roger Rabbit", he produced the animated series
Tiny Toon Abenteuer (1990),
Animaniacs (1993),
Pinky und der Brain (1995),
Freakazoid! (1995),
Pinky, Elmyra & der Brain (1998),
Hund mit Familie (1993) and
Toonsylvania (1998). Spielberg
also produced other cartoons such as
In einem Land vor unserer Zeit (1988),
Vier Dinos in New York (1993),
Casper (1995) (the live action version) as
well as the live-action version of
Flintstones: Die Familie Feuerstein (1994), where
he was credited as "Steven Spielrock". Spielberg also produced many
Roger Rabbit short cartoons, and many Pinky and the Brain, Animaniacs
and Tiny Toons specials. Spielberg was very active in the early 1990s,
as he directed Hook (1991) and produced such
films as the cute fantasy
Joe gegen den Vulkan (1990)
and
Feivel, der Mauswanderer im wilden Westen (1991).
He also produced the unusual comedy thriller
Arachnophobia (1990),
Zurück in die Zukunft III (1990)
and
Gremlins 2 - Die Rückkehr der kleinen Monster (1990).
While these movies were big successes in their own right, they did not
quite bring in the kind of box office or critical acclaim as previous
efforts. In 1993, Spielberg directed
Jurassic Park (1993), which for a
short time held the record as the highest grossing movie of all time,
but did not have the universal appeal of his previous efforts. Big
box-office spectacles were not his only concern, though. He produced
and directed
Schindlers Liste (1993), a
stirring film about the Holocaust. He won best director at the Oscars,
and also got Best Picture. In the mid-90s, he helped found the
production company DreamWorks, which was responsible for many
box-office successes.
As a producer, he was very active in the late 90s, responsible for such
films as
Die Maske des Zorro (1998),
Men in Black (1997) and
Deep Impact (1998). However, it was
on the directing front that Spielberg was in top form. He directed and
produced the epic Amistad - Das Sklavenschiff (1997), a
spectacular film that was shorted at the Oscars and in release due to
the fact that its release date was moved around so much in late 1997.
The next year, however, produced what many believe was one of the best
films of his career:
Der Soldat James Ryan (1998), a
film about World War Two that is spectacular in almost every respect.
It was stiffed at the Oscars, losing best picture to
Shakespeare in Love (1998).
Spielberg produced a series of films, including
Evolution (2001),
Das Geisterschloss (1999) and
Shrek - Der tollkühne Held (2001). he also produced two sequels
to Jurassic Park (1993), which were
financially but not particularly critical successes. In 2001, he
produced a mini-series about World War Two that definitely *was* a
financial and critical success:
Band of Brothers: Wir waren wie Brüder (2001), a
tale of an infantry company from its parachuting into France during the
invasion to the Battle of the Bulge. Also in that year, Spielberg was
back in the director's chair for
A.I.: Künstliche Intelligenz (2001),
a movie with a message and a huge budget. It did reasonably at the box
office and garnered varied reviews from critics.
Spielberg has been extremely active in films there are many other
things he has done as well. He produced the short-lived TV series
SeaQuest (1993), an
anthology series entitled
Unglaubliche Geschichten (1985),
created the video-game series "Medal of Honor" set during World War
Two, and was a starting producer of
Emergency Room: Die Notaufnahme (1994). Spielberg, if you haven't
noticed, has a great interest in World War Two. He and
Tom Hanks collaborated on
Shooting War: World War II Combat Cameramen (2000), a
documentary about World War II combat photographers, and he produced a
documentary about the Holocaust called
A Holocaust szemei (2000).
With all of this to Spielberg's credit, it's no wonder that he's looked
at as one of the greatest ever figures in entertainment.
