Born in Cinncinnati, Ohio, December 18, 1947, Steven Spielberg is the som of Arnold Spielberg, an electrical engineer and Leah Posner, a pianist. Spielberg used the making of home movies as an escape, which his parents indulged despite their insistence upon limiting the young Steven's access to television and motion pictures. He developed his talent enough by age 13 to win a prize for a 40 minute war movie called "Escape to Nowhere."
Bluffing his way onto Universal Studios lot in 1967, Spielberg found no one interested in his projects. He attended California State College at Long Beach, although he didn't enroll in "film school." Gaining the support of a Universal Studios executive, Spielberg signed a seven-year contract with Universal Television and left college without a degree.
Spielberg worked on such shows as NIGHT GALLERY, MARCUS WELBY, M.D., and COLUMBO. In 1971 he got the chance to make a feature-length made-for-TV movie, and delivered DUEL, one of the most memorable Movies of the Week ever made, involving a cross-country chase of a motorist by a seemingly-driverless truck. After two other TV features, Spielberg made his big-screen directoral debut with the 1974 THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS.
Spielberg's next film was to make him a household name. 1975's JAWS became the highest-grossing movie of all time up to that point. Next up, the even-higher-grossing CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. After bombing with 1979's World War II comedy 1941, Spielberg returned to the top of the movie charts with 1981's RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.
After the problematic 1982 TWILIGHT ZONE, which was beset by the accidental deaths of several actors during the filming, Spielberg released E.T. and produced POLTERGIST, both winning huge box office profits. His 1984 RAIDERS sequel, INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM, and the production of GREMLINS made the director a controversial figure with the Motion Picture Association of America, who introduced a new "PG-13" rating due to the gory, violent scenes in both movies.
After so many hits, Spielberg could afford to indulge himself and decided he wanted to aim for the grown-up market. The 1986 THE COLOR PURPLE was a risk, although the movie was a great sucess and marked the movie debuts of two African American women who would become huge stars, Oprah Winfrey and Whoopie Goldberg. Snubbed by the Oscars for his directorial achievements in both THE COLOR PURPLE and the 1987 EMPIRE OF THE SUN, Spielberg returned to his lighter fare with another RAIDERS sequel, INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE in 1989 and the 1991 HOOK.
Spielberg had another mega-hit in 1993 with JURASSIC PARK, which again out-did the records to become the highest-grossing picture of all time up to that point. 1993 also saw the release of the film that would finally earn Spielberg the Oscar recognition previously denied him. SCHINDLER'S LIST won Best Picture and Best Director, while Spielberg funneled his not-inconsiderable profits from the picture into the Righteous Persons Foundation, which awards grants to projects benefiting modern Jewish life.
Teaming with fellow entertainment titans David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg to form the multimedia entertainment studio Dreamworks, Spielberg released the JURASSIC PARK sequel, THE LOST WORLD, and a serious film AMISTAD in 1997. The 1998 SAVING PRIVATE RYAN earned Spielberg another Best Director Oscar for the multi-nominated film.
Spielberg himself is nonchalant about his success, quoted as saying, "I've always made films that I, as an audience, would want to see. That's my main philosophy."
