Events

1099 – The First Crusade: The Siege of Jerusalem begins.

1420 – Troops of the Republic of Venice capture Udine, ending the independence of the Patriarchal State of Friuli.

1494 – Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas which divides the New World between the two countries.

1628 – The Petition of Right, a major English constitutional document, is granted the Royal Assent by Charles I and becomes law.

1654 – Louis XIV is crowned King of France.

1692 – Port Royal, Jamaica, is hit by a catastrophic earthquake; in just three minutes, 1,600 people are killed and 3,000 are seriously injured.

1776 – Richard Henry Lee presents the "Lee Resolution" to the Continental Congress. The motion is seconded by John Adams and leads to the United States Declaration of Independence.

1800 – David Thompson reaches the mouth of the Saskatchewan River in Manitoba.

1810 – The newspaper Gazeta de Buenos Ayres is first published in Argentina.

1832 – Asian cholera reaches Quebec, brought by Irish immigrants, and kills about 6,000 people in Lower Canada.

1862 – The United States and the United Kingdom agree to suppress the slave trade.

1863 – During the French intervention in Mexico, Mexico City is captured by French troops.

1866 – 1,800 Fenian raiders are repelled back to the United States after they loot and plunder around Saint-Armand and Frelighsburg, Quebec.

1880 – War of the Pacific: The Battle of Arica, assault and capture of Morro de Arica (Arica Cape), that ended the Campaña del Desierto (Desert Campaign).

1892 – Benjamin Harrison becomes the first President of the United States to attend a baseball game.

1892 – Homer Plessy is arrested for refusing to leave his seat in the "whites-only" car of a train; he would lose the resulting court case, Plessy v. Ferguson.

1893 – Mohandas Gandhi's first act of civil disobedience.

1899 – American Temperance crusader Carrie Nation begins her campaign of vandalizing alcohol-serving establishments by destroying the inventory in a saloon in Kiowa, Kansas.

1905 – Norway's parliament dissolves its union with Sweden, a vote that is confirmed by a national plebiscite on August 13 of that year.

1906 – Cunard Line's RMS Lusitania is launched at the John Brown Shipyard, Glasgow (Clydebank), Scotland.

1909 – Mary Pickford makes her screen debut at the age of 16.

1917 – World War I: Battle of Messines – Allied ammonal mines underneath German trenches at Messines Ridge are detonated, killing 10,000 German troops.

1919 – Sette giugno: Riot in Malta; four are killed.

1929 – The Lateran Treaty is ratified, bringing Vatican City into existence.

1936 – The Steel Workers Organizing Committee, a trade union, is founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Philip Murray is elected its first president.

1938 – The Douglas DC-4E makes its first test flight.

1940 – King Haakon VII of Norway, Crown Prince Olav and the Norwegian government leave Tromsø and go into exile in London.

1942 – World War II: The Battle of Midway ends.

1942 – World War II: Japanese soldiers occupy the American islands of Attu and Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska.

1944 – World War II: The steamer Danae carrying 350 Cretan Jews and 250 Cretan partisans is sunk without survivors off the shore of Santorini.

1944 – World War II: Battle of Normandy – At Abbey Ardennes members of the SS Division Hitlerjugend massacre 23 Canadian prisoners of war.

1945 – King Haakon VII of Norway returns with his family to Oslo after five years in exile.

1948 – Edvard Beneš resigns as President of Czechoslovakia rather than signing a constitution making his nation a Communist state.

1955 – Lux Radio Theater signs off the air permanently. The show launched in New York in 1934, and featured radio adaptations of Broadway shows and popular films.

1965 – The Supreme Court of the United States hands down its decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, effectively legalizing the use of contraception by married couples.

1967 – Israeli forces enter Jerusalem during the Six-Day War.

1971 – The United States Supreme Court overturns the conviction of Paul Cohen for disturbing the peace, setting the precedent that vulgar writing is protected under the First Amendment.

1971 – The Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Division of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service raids the home of Ken Ballew for illegal possession of hand grenades, which all turn out to be inert or dummies.

1975 – Sony introduces the Betamax videocassette recorder for sale to the public.

1975 – The inaugural Cricket World Cup begins in England.

1977 – 500 million people watch on television as the high day of Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II begins.

1981 – The Israeli Air Force destroys Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor during Operation Opera. The facility could have been used to make nuclear weapons.

1982 – Priscilla Presley opens Graceland to the public; the bathroom where Elvis Presley died five years earlier is kept off-limits.

1989 – Surinam Airways Flight 764 crashes on approach to Paramaribo-Zanderij International Airport in Suriname due to pilot error, killing 176 of 187 aboard.

1991 – Mount Pinatubo explodes generating an ash column high.

1995 – The long range Boeing 777 enters service with United Airlines.

1998 – James Byrd, Jr. of Texas is killed when white supremacists drag him behind a pickup truck along an asphalt pavement.

2000 – The United Nations defines the Blue Line as the border between Israel and Lebanon.

2006 – Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, is killed in an airstrike by the United States Air Force.

Births

1529 – Étienne Pasquier, French lawyer and writer (d. 1615)

1757 – Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (d. 1806)

1761 – John Rennie, Scottish engineer (d. 1821)

1770 – Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1828)

1778 – Beau Brummell, English fashion leader (d. 1840)

1811 – James Young Simpson, British obstetrician (d. 1870)

1831 – Amelia Edwards, English author and Egyptologist (d. 1892)

1837 – Alois Hitler, father of Adolf Hitler (d. 1903)

1840 – Charlotte of Belgium, Empress of Mexico (d. 1927)

1845 – Leopold Auer, Hungarian violinist and composer (d. 1930)

1848 – Paul Gauguin, French painter (d. 1903)

1862 – Philipp Lenard, Austrian physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1947)

1863 – Bones Ely, professional baseball player (d. 1952)

1868 – Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Scottish architect, designer, and watercolourist (d. 1928)

1879 – Knud Rasmussen, Greenlander explorer (d. 1933)

1879 – Joan Voûte, Dutch astronomer (d. 1963)

1880 – Thorleif Lund, Norwegian actor (d. 1956)

1883 – Sylvanus Morley, American archaeologist and spy (d. 1948)

1886 – Henri Coandă, Romanian aerodynamics pioneer (d. 1972)

1894 – Alexander de Seversky, Russian-born aviation pioneer (d. 1974)

1896 – Douglas Campbell, American World War I flying ace (d. 1990)

1896 – Robert S. Mulliken, American chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1986)

1896 – Imre Nagy, Hungarian politician (d. 1958)

1897 – George Szell, Hungarian conductor (d. 1970)

1899 – Elizabeth Bowen, Irish novelist (d. 1973)

1900 – Glen Gray, American jazz musician and leader of the Casa Loma Orchestra (d. 1963)

1902 – Herman B Wells, American college president and chancellor of Indiana University (d. 2000)

1905 – James J. Braddock, Irish-American boxer and one-time Heavyweight Champion of the World (d. 1974)

1907 – Prince Sigvard, Duke of Uppland (d. 2002)

1909 – Virginia Apgar, American physician and developer of the Apgar test (d. 1974)

1909 – Peter W. Rodino, American politician (d. 2005)

1909 – Jessica Tandy, English-born American actress (d. 1994)

1910 – Mike Sebastian, American football player (d. 1989)

1910 – Bradford Washburn, American explorer (d. 2007)

1911 – Brooks Stevens, American industrial designer (d. 1995)

1917 – Gwendolyn Brooks, American poet (d. 2000)

1917 – Dean Martin, American singer and actor (d. 1995)

1920 – Georges Marchais, French politician (d. 1997)

1921 – Tal Farlow, American jazz guitarist (d. 1998)

1921 – Dorothy Ruth, American horse breeder; adopted daughter of Babe Ruth (d. 1989)

1922 – Leo Reise, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1975)

1923 – Jules Deschênes, Canadian jurist (d. 2000)

1925 – John Biddle, American yachting cinematographer and lecturer (d. 2008)

1927 – Charles de Tornaco, Belgian racing driver (d. 1953)

1928 – Dave Bowen, Welsh international football manager (d. 1995)

1928 – James Ivory, American film director

1928 – Reg Park, British bodybuilder (d. 2007)

1929 – Ernie Roth, American wrestling manager (d. 1983)

1929 – John Napier Turner, Canadian seventeenth Prime Minister of Canada

1931 – Malcolm Morley, English painter

1931 – Virginia McKenna, English actress

1932 – Tina Brooks, American jazz musician (d. 1974)

1933 – Herb Score, American baseball player (d. 2008)

1935 – Harry Crews, American author

1935 – Thomas Kailath, American engineer

1937 – Neeme Järvi, Estonian conductor

1938 – Goose Gonsoulin, American football player

1938 – Ian St. John, Scottish footballer

1940 – Tom Jones, Welsh singer

1940 – Ronald Pickup, English actor

1942 – Muammar al-Gaddafi, Leader and Guide of the Revolution of Libya

1943 – Nikki Giovanni, American poet

1943 – Ken Osmond, American actor

1943 – Michael Pennington, English actor

1945 – Wolfgang Schüssel, Chancellor of Austria

1946 – Jenny Jones, Canadian-born American talk show host

1947 – Don Money, American baseball player and manager

1947 – Thurman Munson, American baseball player (d. 1979)

1950 – Gary Graham American actor

1951 – Terry O'Reilly Canadian ice hockey player

1952 – Liam Neeson, Northern Irish actor

1952 – Orhan Pamuk, Turkish writer, Nobel laureate

1953 – Colleen Camp, American actress

1953 – Johnny Clegg, South African musician

1953 – Dougie Donnelly, Scottish television broadcaster

1954 – Louise Erdrich, American author

1955 – William Forsythe, American actor

1955 – Tim Richmond, American race car driver (d. 1989)

1956 – Antonio Reid, American music producer

1957 – Juan Luis Guerra, Dominican musician

1957 – Paddy McAloon, English singer and songwriter (Prefab Sprout)

1958 – Prince, American musician

1958 – Surakiart Sathirathai, Thai Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand

1960 – Bill Prady, American television producer

1961 – Dave Catching, American musician

1962 – Michael Cartellone, American drummer (Lynyrd Skynyrd)

1962 – Thierry Hazard, French singer and songwriter

1962 – Takuya Kurosawa, Japanese racing driver

1962 – Simon Day, English comedian

1963 – Roberto Alagna, French tenor

1964 – Judie Aronson, American actress

1964 – Gia Carides, Australian actress

1965 – Mick Foley, American wrestler

1965 – Jean-Pierre François, French footballer and singer

1965 – Billy Reeves, English songwriter and BBC radio presenter

1965 – Damien Hirst, English artist

1965 – Christine Roque, French singer

1966 – Eric Kretz, American musician (Stone Temple Pilots)

1966 – Stéphane Richer, Canadian ice hockey player

1967 – Dave Navarro, American musician

1969 – Adam Buxton, British TV presenter and DJ

1969 – Prince Joachim of Denmark

1969 – Kim Rhodes, American actress

1970 – Cafu, Brazilian footballer

1970 – Andrei Kovalenko, Russian hockey player

1970 – Mike Modano, American ice hockey player

1970 – Helen Baxendale, English actress

1971 – Terrell Buckley, American football player

1971 – Alex X. Mooney, American politician

1972 – Karl Urban, New Zealand actor

1973 – Song Yun-ah, South Korean model and actress

1974 – Mahesh Bhupathi, Indian tennis player

1974 – Bear Grylls, British adventurer and former soldier, now Chief Scout

1974 – Cassius Khan, Canadian musician

1975 – Shane Bond, New Zealand cricket player

1975 – Allen Iverson, American basketball player

1976 – Necro, American rapper

1976 – Cassidy Rae, American actress

1977 – Marcin Baszczyński, Polish footballer

1977 – Preston Campbell, Australian Rugby League Player

1977 – Joe Horgan, American baseball player

1977 – Odalis Pérez, Dominican baseball player

1978 – Tony An, Korean singer (H.O.T)

1978 – Mini Anden, Swedish model

1978 – Adrienne Frantz, American actress

1978 – Bill Hader, American comedian

1979 – Brian Donnelly, Canadian artist

1979 – Kevin Hofland, Dutch footballer

1979 – Evelina Papantoniou, Greek fashion model and actress

1980 – Ed Moses, American swimmer

1981 – Stephen Bywater, British footballer

1981 – Tyler Johnson, American baseball player

1981 – Anna Kournikova, Russian tennis player

1981 – Kevin Kyle, Scottish footballer

1981 – Larisa Oleynik, American actress

1982 – Virgil Vasquez, American baseball player

1983 – Milan Jurčina, Slovakian hockey player

1983 – Mark Lowe, American baseball player

1983 – Pierre Pierce, American professional basketball player and convicted sex offender

1985 – Shannon Shorr, American poker player

1985 – Charlie Simpson, English singer (Busted, Fightstar)

1985 – Simon Whaley, English footballer

1988 – Michael Cera, Canadian actor

1988 – Milan Lucic, Canadian ice hockey player

1990 – Allison Schmitt, American swimmer

1993 – Jordan Fry, American actor

1993 – Park Ji-yeon, South Korean singer and actress

1996 – Jasper Harris, English actor

Deaths

1329 – Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland (b. 1274)

1358 – Ashikaga Takauji, Japanese shogun (b. 1305)

1394 – Anne of Bohemia, wife of Richard II of England (b. 1367)

1618 – Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, English governor of Virginia (b. 1577)

1676 – Paul Gerhardt, German hymnist (b. 1606)

1711 – Henry Dodwell, Irish theologian (b. 1641)

1779 – William Warburton, English critic and Bishop of Gloucester (b. 1698)

1810 – Luigi Schiavonetti, Italian engraver (b. 1765)

1821 – Tudor Vladimirescu, Romanian rebellion leader (b. c. 1780)

1826 – Joseph von Fraunhofer, German physicist (b. 1787)

1840 – King Frederick William III of Prussia (b. 1770)

1854 – Charles Baudin, French admiral (b. 1792)

1859 – David Cox, English artist (b. 1783)

1866 – Chief Seattle, Native American leader

1879 – William Tilbury Fox, English dermatologist (b. 1836)

1896 – Pavlos Carrer, Greek composer (b. 1829)

1911 – Maurice Rouvier, French statesman (b. 1842)

1915 – Charles Reed Bishop, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1822)

1916 – Émile Faguet, French writer and critic (b. 1847)

1927 – Edmund James Flynn, Premier of Quebec (b. 1847)

1933 – Dragutin Domjanić, Kajkavian poet (b. 1875)

1936 – Stjepan Seljan, Croatian explorer (b. 1875)

1937 – Jean Harlow, American actress (b. 1911)

1942 – Alan Blumlein, English electronics engineer (b. 1903)

1945 – Kitaro Nishida, Japanese philosopher (b. 1870)

1951 – Oswald Pohl, German SS officer (b. 1892)

1954 – Alan Turing, British mathematician and computer scientist (b. 1912)

1963 – ZaSu Pitts, American actress (b. 1894)

1965 – Judy Holliday, American actress (b. 1921)

1966 – Jean Arp, German-born sculptor, painter, and poet (b. 1886)

1967 – Anatoly Maltsev, Russian mathematician (b. 1909)

1967 – Dorothy Parker, American writer (b. 1893)

1968 – Dan Duryea, American actor (b. 1907)

1970 – E. M. Forster, English author (b. 1879)

1978 – Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, British chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1897)

1979 – Forrest Carter, American author (b. 1925)

1980 – Elizabeth Craig, British writer (b. 1883)

1980 – Henry Miller, American writer (b. 1891)

1988 – Vernon Washington, American actor (b. 1927)

1989 – Chico Landi, Brazilian racing driver (b. 1907)

1992 – Bill France, Sr., first president of NASCAR, NASCAR founder (b. 1909)

1993 – Dražen Petrović, Croatian basketball player (b. 1964)

1995 – Hsuan Hua, Chinese-born religious leader (b. 1918)

1996 – Max Factor, Jr., American businessman (b. 1904)

1999 – Paco Stanley, Mexican TV entertainer (b. 1942)

2001 – Víctor Paz Estenssoro, President of Bolivia (b. 1907)

2001 – Carole Fredericks, American singer (b. 1952)

2001 – Betty Neels, English novelist (b. 1910)

2002 – Mary Lilian Baels, Belgian princess (b. 1916)

2002 – Basappa Danappa Jatti, former Vice-President of India and Acting President (b. 1912)

2003 – Trevor Goddard, English actor (b. 1962)

2006 – John Tenta, Canadian wrestler (b. 1963)

2006 – Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Jordanian-born Mujahid (b. 1966)

2008 – Rudy Fernandez, Filipino actor (b. 1953)

2008 – Jim McKay, American sportscaster (b. 1921)

2009 – Kenny Rankin, American singer (b. 1940)

2009 – Hugh Hopper, British musician (b. 1945)

2010 – Stuart Cable, Welsh musician (b. 1970)

2010 – Adriana Xenides, Australian TV personality (b. 1956)

2010 – Omar Rayo, Colombian painter, sculptor, caricaturist and plastic artist. (b. 1928)

2011 – Nataraja Ramakrishna, Indian Classical Dancer and Composer. (b. 1923)

Holidays and observances

Anniversary of the Memorandum of the Slovak Nation (Slovakia)

Birthday of Prince Joachim (Denmark)

Christian Feast Day:

*Colmán of Dromore

*Paul I of Constantinople

*Robert of Newminster

*June 7 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Flag Day (Peru)

Journalist Day (Argentina)

Sette Giugno (Malta)

The first day of the Vestalia (Roman Empire)

Union Dissolution Day (Norway)

External links

BBC: On This Day

On This Day in Canada

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Category:Days of the year Category:June

Caption	Spielberg in 1999
Birth date	December 18, 1946
Birth place	Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
Birth name	Steven Allan Spielberg
Spouse
Children	6, including Sasha
Occupation	Film director, producer, screenwriter
Religion	Jewish
Networth	$3.0 billion (2011)
Years active	1963–present

Steven Allan Spielberg (born December 18, 1946) is an American film director, screenwriter, film producer, video game designer and studio executive. In a career spanning five decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an archetype of modern Hollywood blockbuster filmmaking. In later years, his films began addressing such issues as the Holocaust, slavery, war and terrorism. He is considered one of the most popular and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. He is also one of the co-founders of the DreamWorks movie studio.

Spielberg won the Academy Award for Best Director for Schindler's List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). Three of Spielberg's films—Jaws (1975), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Jurassic Park (1993)—achieved box office records, each becoming the highest-grossing film made at the time. To date, the unadjusted gross of all Spielberg-directed films exceeds $8.5 billion worldwide. Forbes puts Spielberg's wealth at $3.0 billion. He spent his childhood in Haddon Township, New Jersey, where he saw one of his first films in a theater, as well as in Scottsdale, Arizona. Throughout his early teens, Spielberg made amateur 8 mm "adventure" films with his friends, the first of which he shot at the Pinnacle Peak Patio restaurant in Scottsdale. He charged admission (25 cents) to his home films (which involved the wrecks he staged with his Lionel train set) while his sister sold popcorn.

In 1958, he became a Boy Scout, and fulfilled a requirement for the photography merit badge by making a nine-minute 8 mm film entitled The Last Gunfight. Spielberg recalled years later to a magazine interviewer, "My dad's still-camera was broken, so I asked the scoutmaster if I could tell a story with my father's movie camera. He said yes, and I got an idea to do a Western. I made it and got my merit badge. That was how it all started." At age 13, Spielberg won a prize for a 40-minute war film he titled Escape to Nowhere which was based on a battle in east Africa. In 1963, at age 16, Spielberg wrote and directed his first independent film, a 140-minute science fiction adventure called Firelight (which would later inspire Close Encounters). The film, which had a budget of US$500, was shown in his local cinema and generated a profit of $1. He also made several WWII films inspired by his father's war stories.

After his parents divorced, he moved to Saratoga, California with his father. His three sisters and mother remained in Arizona. Although he attended Arcadia High School in Phoenix, Arizona for three years, Spielberg ended up graduating from Saratoga High School in 1965. It was during this time Spielberg attained the rank of Eagle Scout.

Spielberg attended synagogue as a young boy in Haddon Heights, NJ, an area which did not allow Jews before World War II. He attended Hebrew school from 1953 to 1957, in classes taught by Rabbi Albert L. Lewis, who would later be memorialized as the main character in Mitch Albom's, Have a Little Faith.

As a child, Spielberg faced difficulty reconciling being an Orthodox Jew with the perception of him by other children he played with. “It isn’t something I enjoy admitting,” he once said, “but when I was 7, 8, 9 years old, God forgive me, I was embarrassed because we were Orthodox Jews. I was embarrassed by the outward perception of my parents’ Jewish practices. I was never really ashamed to be Jewish, but I was uneasy at times. My grandfather always wore a long black coat, black hat and long white beard. I was embarrassed to invite my friends over to the house, because he might be in a corner davening [praying], and I wouldn’t know how to explain this to my WASP friends.” Spielberg also said he suffered from acts of anti-Semitic prejudice in his early life: he later said, "In high school, I got smacked and kicked around. Two bloody noses. It was horrible."

After moving to California, he applied to attend the film school at University of Southern California School of Theater, Film and Television two separate times, but was unsuccessful. He was a student subsequently of California State University, Long Beach. While attending Long Beach State in the 1960s, Spielberg became a member of Theta Chi Fraternity. His actual career began when he returned to Universal Studios as an unpaid, seven-day-a-week intern and guest of the editing department (uncredited). After Spielberg became famous, USC awarded him an honorary degree in 1994, and in 1996 he became a trustee of the university. In 2002, thirty-five years after starting college, Spielberg finished his degree via independent projects at CSULB, and was awarded a B.A. in Film Production and Electronic Arts with an option in Film/Video Production. However, the film fared poorly at the box office and received a limited release.

Studio producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown offered Spielberg the director's chair for Jaws, a thriller-horror film based on the Peter Benchley novel about an enormous killer shark. Spielberg has often referred to the gruelling shoot as his professional crucible. Despite the film's ultimate, enormous success, it was nearly shut down due to delays and budget over-runs.

But Spielberg persevered and finished the film. It was an enormous hit, winning three Academy Awards (for editing, original score and sound) and grossing more than $470 million worldwide at the box office. It also set the domestic record for box office gross, leading to what the press described as "Jawsmania." Jaws made him a household name, as well as one of America's youngest multi-millionaires, and allowed Spielberg a great deal of autonomy for his future projects. It was nominated for Best Picture and featured Spielberg's first of three collaborations with actor Richard Dreyfuss.

Mainstream breakthrough (1975–93)

Rejecting offers to direct Jaws 2, King Kong and Superman, Spielberg and actor Richard Dreyfuss re-convened to work on a film about UFOs, which became Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). One of the rare films both written and directed by Spielberg, Close Encounters was a critical and box office hit, giving Spielberg his first Best Director nomination from the Academy as well as earning six other Academy Awards nominations. It won Oscars in two categories (Cinematography, Vilmos Zsigmond, and a Special Achievement Award for Sound Effects Editing, Frank E. Warner). This second blockbuster helped to secure Spielberg's rise. His next film, 1941, a big-budgeted World War II farce, wasn't nearly as successful and though it grossed over $92.4 million dollars worldwide (and did make a small profit for co-producing studios Columbia and Universal) it was seen as a disappointment, mainly with the critics.

Spielberg then revisited his Close Encounters project and, with financial backing from Columbia Pictures, released Close Encounters: The Special Edition in 1980. For this, Spielberg fixed some of the flaws he thought impeded the original 1977 version of the film and also, at the behest of Columbia, and as a condition of Spielberg revising the film, shot additional footage showing the audience the interior of the mothership seen at the end of the film (a decision Spielberg would later regret as he felt the interior of the mothership should have remained a mystery). Nevertheless, the re-release was a moderate success, while the 2001 DVD release of the film restored the original ending.

Next, Spielberg teamed with Star Wars creator and friend George Lucas on an action adventure film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first of the Indiana Jones films. The archaeologist and adventurer hero Indiana Jones was played by Harrison Ford (whom Lucas had previously cast in his Star Wars films as Han Solo). The film was considered a homage to the cliffhanger serials of the Golden Age of Hollywood. It became the biggest film at the box office in 1981, and the recipient of numerous Oscar nominations including Best Director (Spielberg's second nomination) and Best Picture (the second Spielberg film to be nominated for Best Picture). Raiders is still considered a landmark example of the action-adventure genre.

and Nancy Reagan after a showing of E.T. at the White House]] A year later, Spielberg returned to the science fiction genre with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. It was the story of a young boy and the alien he befriends, who was accidentally left behind by his people and is trying to get back home. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial went on to become the top-grossing film of all time. E.T. was also nominated for nine Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director.

Between 1982 and 1985, Spielberg produced three high-grossing films: Poltergeist (for which he also co-wrote the screenplay), a big-screen adaptation of (for which he directed the segment "Kick The Can"), and The Goonies (Spielberg, executive producer, also wrote the story on which the screenplay was based).

His next directorial feature was the Raiders sequel Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Teaming up once again with Lucas and Ford, the film was plagued with uncertainty for the material and script. This film and the Spielberg-produced Gremlins led to the creation of the PG-13 rating due to the high level of violence in films targeted at younger audiences. In spite of this, Temple of Doom is rated PG by the MPAA, even though it is the darkest and, possibly, most violent Indy film. Nonetheless, the film was still a huge blockbuster hit in 1984. It was on this project that Spielberg also met his future wife, actress Kate Capshaw.

In 1985, Spielberg released The Color Purple, an adaptation of Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, about a generation of empowered African-American women during depression-era America. Starring Whoopi Goldberg and future talk-show superstar Oprah Winfrey, the film was a box office smash and critics hailed Spielberg's successful foray into the dramatic genre. Roger Ebert proclaimed it the best film of the year and later entered it into his Great Films archive. The film received eleven Academy Award nominations, including two for Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey. However, much to the surprise of many, Spielberg did not get a Best Director nomination. The Color Purple is the second of two Spielberg films not to be scored by John Williams, the first being Duel.

In 1987, as China began opening to the world, Spielberg shot the first American film in Shanghai since the 1930s, an adaptation of J. G. Ballard's autobiographical novel Empire of the Sun, starring John Malkovich and a young Christian Bale. The film garnered much praise from critics and was nominated for several Oscars, but did not yield substantial box office revenues. Reviewer Andrew Sarris called it the best film of the year and later included it among the best films of the decade.

After two forays into more serious dramatic films, Spielberg then directed the third Indiana Jones film, 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Once again teaming up with Lucas and Ford, Spielberg also cast actor Sean Connery in a supporting role as Indy's father. The film earned generally positive reviews and was another box office success, becoming the highest grossing film worldwide that year; its total box office receipts even topped those of Tim Burton's much-anticipated film Batman, which had been the bigger hit domestically. Also in 1989, he re-united with actor Richard Dreyfuss for the romantic comedy-drama Always, about a daredevil pilot who extinguishes forest fires. Spielberg's first romantic film, Always was only a moderate success and had mixed reviews.

In 1991, Spielberg directed Hook, about a middle-aged Peter Pan, played by Robin Williams, who returns to Neverland. Despite innumerable rewrites and creative changes coupled with mixed reviews, the film proved popular with audiences, making over $300 million worldwide (from a $70 million budget).

In 1993, Spielberg returned to the adventure genre with the film version of Michael Crichton's novel Jurassic Park, about a theme park with genetically engineered dinosaurs. With revolutionary special effects provided by friend George Lucas's Industrial Light & Magic company, the film would eventually become the highest grossing film of all time (at the worldwide box office) with $914.7 million. This would be the third time that one of Spielberg's films became the highest grossing film ever.

Spielberg's next film, Schindler's List, was based on the true story of Oskar Schindler, a man who risked his life to save 1,100 Jews from the Holocaust. Schindler's List earned Spielberg his first Academy Award for Best Director (it also won Best Picture). With the film a huge success at the box office, Spielberg used the profits to set up the Shoah Foundation, a non-profit organization that archives filmed testimony of Holocaust survivors. In 1997, the American Film Institute listed it among the 10 Greatest American Films ever Made (#9) which moved up to (#8) when the list was remade in 2007.

Since 1994

In 1994, Spielberg took a hiatus from directing to spend more time with his family and build his new studio, DreamWorks, with partners Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. In 1997, he helmed the sequel to 1993's Jurassic Park with , which generated over $618 million worldwide despite mixed reviews, and was the second biggest hit of 1997 behind James Cameron's Titanic (which topped the original Jurassic Park to become the new recordholder for box office receipts).

His next film, Amistad, was based on a true story (like Schindler's List), specifically about an African slave rebellion. Despite decent reviews from critics, it did not do well at the box office. Spielberg released Amistad under DreamWorks Pictures, which issued all of his films from Amistad until Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in May 2008 (see below).

In 1998, Spielberg re-visited Close Encounters yet again, this time for a more definitive 137-minute "Collector's Edition" that puts more emphasis on the original 1977 release, while adding some elements of the previous 1980 "Special Edition," but deleting the latter version's "Mothership Finale," which Spielberg regretted shooting in the first place, feeling it should have remained ambiguous in the minds of viewers.

His next theatrical release in that same year was the World War II film Saving Private Ryan, about a group of U.S. soldiers led by Capt. Miller (Tom Hanks) sent to bring home a paratrooper whose three older brothers were killed in the last twenty four hours of action in France. The film was a huge box office success, grossing over $481 million worldwide and was the biggest film of the year at the North American box office (worldwide it made second place after Michael Bay's Armageddon). Spielberg won his second Academy Award for his direction. The film's graphic, realistic depiction of combat violence influenced later war films such as Black Hawk Down and Enemy at the Gates. The film was also the first major hit for DreamWorks, which co-produced the film with Paramount Pictures (as such, it was Spielberg's first release from the latter that was not part of the Indiana Jones series). Later, Spielberg and Tom Hanks produced a TV mini-series based on Stephen Ambrose's book Band of Brothers. The ten-part HBO mini-series follows Easy Company of the 101st Airborne Division's 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. The series won a number of awards at the Golden Globes and the Emmys.

In 2001, Spielberg filmed fellow director and friend Stanley Kubrick's final project, A.I. Artificial Intelligence which Kubrick was unable to begin during his lifetime. A futuristic film about a humanoid android longing for love, A.I. featured groundbreaking visual effects and a multi-layered, allegorical storyline, adapted by Spielberg himself. Though the film's reception in the US was relatively muted, it performed better overseas for a worldwide total box office gross of $236 million.

Spielberg and actor Tom Cruise collaborated for the first time for the futuristic neo-noir Minority Report, based upon the sci-fi short story written by Philip K. Dick about a Washington D.C. police captain in the year 2054 who has been foreseen to murder a man he has not yet met. The film received strong reviews with the review tallying website Rotten Tomatoes giving it a 92% approval rating, reporting that 200 out of the 218 reviews they tallied were positive. The film earned over $358 million worldwide. Roger Ebert, who named it the best film of 2002, praised its breathtaking vision of the future as well as for the way Spielberg blended CGI with live-action.

Spielberg's 2002 film Catch Me If You Can is about the daring adventures of a youthful con artist (played by Leonardo DiCaprio). It earned Christopher Walken an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The film is known for John Williams' score and its unique title sequence. It was a hit both commercially and critically.

Spielberg collaborated again with Tom Hanks along with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Stanley Tucci in 2004's The Terminal, a warm-hearted comedy about a man of Eastern European descent who is stranded in an airport. It received mixed reviews but performed relatively well at the box office. In 2005, Empire magazine ranked Spielberg number one on a list of the greatest film directors of all time.

Also in 2005, Spielberg directed a modern adaptation of War of the Worlds (a co-production of Paramount and DreamWorks), based on the H. G. Wells book of the same name (Spielberg had been a huge fan of the book and the original 1953 film). It starred Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning, and, as with past Spielberg films, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) provided the visual effects. Unlike E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which depicted friendly alien visitors, War of the Worlds featured violent invaders. The film was another huge box office smash, grossing over $591 million worldwide.

Spielberg's film Munich, about the events following the 1972 Munich Massacre of Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games, was his second film essaying Jewish relations in the world (the first being Schindler's List). The film is based on , a book by Canadian journalist George Jonas. It was previously adapted into the 1986 made-for-TV film Sword of Gideon. The film received strong critical praise, but underperformed at the U.S. and world box-office; it remains one of Spielberg's most controversial films to date. Munich received five Academy Awards nominations, including Best Picture, Film Editing, Original Music Score (by John Williams), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Director for Spielberg. It was Spielberg's sixth Best Director nomination and fifth Best Picture nomination.

Spielberg directed Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which wrapped filming in October 2007 and was released on May 22, 2008. This was his first film not to be released by DreamWorks since 1997. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, and has performed very well in theaters. As of May 10, 2010, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has grossed $317 million domestically, and over $786 million worldwide.

Production credits

Since the mid-1980s Spielberg has increased his role as a film producer. He headed up the production team for several cartoons, including the Warner Brothers hits Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Toonsylvania, and Freakazoid!, for which he collaborated with Jean MacCurdy and Tom Ruegger. Due to his work on these series, in the official titles, most of them say, "Steven Spielberg presents" as well as making numerous cameos on the shows. Spielberg also produced the Don Bluth animated features, An American Tail and The Land Before Time, which were released by Universal Studios. He also served as one of the executive producers of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and its three related shorts (Tummy Trouble, Roller Coaster Rabbit, Trail Mix-Up), which were all released by Disney, under both the Walt Disney Pictures and the Touchstone Pictures banners. He was furthermore, for a short time, the executive producer of the long-running medical drama ER. In 1989, he brought the concept of The Dig to LucasArts. He contributed to the project from that time until 1995 when the game was released. He also collaborated with software publishers Knowledge Adventure on the multimedia game Steven Spielberg's Director's Chair, which was released in 1996. Spielberg appears, as himself, in the game to direct the player. The Spielberg name provided branding for a Lego Moviemaker kit, the proceeds of which went to the Starbright Foundation. (1999)]]

In 1993, Spielberg acted as executive producer for the highly anticipated television series seaQuest DSV; a science fiction series set "in the near future" starring Roy Scheider (who Spielberg had directed in Jaws) and Jonathan Brandis akin to that aired on Sundays at 8:00 pm. on NBC. While the first season was moderately successful, the second season did less well. Spielberg's name no longer appeared in the third season and the show was cancelled mid way through it.

Spielberg served as an uncredited executive producer on The Haunting, The Prince of Egypt, Shrek, and Evolution. In 2005, he served as a producer of Memoirs of a Geisha, an adaptation of the novel by Arthur Golden, a film he was previously attached to as director. In 2006 Spielberg co-executive produced with famed filmmaker Robert Zemeckis a CGI children's film called Monster House, marking their eight collaboration together since 1990's Back to the Future Part III. He also teamed with Clint Eastwood for the first time in their careers, co-producing Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima with Robert Lorenz and Eastwood himself. He earned his twelfth Academy Award nomination for the latter film as it was nominated for Best Picture. Spielberg served as executive producer for Disturbia and the Transformers live action film with Brian Goldner, an employee of Hasbro. The film was directed by Michael Bay and written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, and Spielberg continues to collaborate on the sequels, and . In 2011, he produced the J. J. Abrams science fiction thriller film Super 8 for Paramount Pictures.

Other major television series Spielberg produced were Band of Brothers, Taken and The Pacific. He was an executive producer on the critically acclaimed 2005 TV miniseries Into the West which won two Emmy awards, including one for Geoff Zanelli's score. For his 2010 miniseries The Pacific he teamed up once again with co-producer Tom Hanks, with Gary Goetzman also co-producing'. The miniseries is believed to have cost $250 million and is a 10-part war miniseries centered on the battles in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Writer Bruce McKenna, who penned several installments of (Band of Brothers), was the head writer. The Pacific was filmed at locations mostly in Australia, including Far North Queensland, Melbourne, and the Northern Territory and at Melbourne's Central City Studios.

In 2007, Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett co-produced On the Lot a short-lived TV reality show about filmmaking. Despite this, he never gave up working on television. He currently serves as one of the executive producers on United States of Tara, a show created by Academy Award winner Diablo Cody which they developed together (Spielberg is uncredited as creator).

Acting credits

Steven Spielberg had cameo roles in The Blues Brothers, Gremlins, Vanilla Sky, and Austin Powers in Goldmember, as well as small uncredited cameos in a handful of other films, such as a life-station worker in Jaws. He also made numerous cameo roles in the Warner Brothers cartoons he produced, such as Animaniacs, and even made reference to some of his films. Spielberg voiced himself in the film Paul, and in one episode of Tiny Toon Adventures titled Buster and Babs Go Hawaiian.

Involvement in video games

Apart from being an ardent gamer Spielberg has had a long history of involvement in video games. In 2005 the director signed with Electronic Arts to collaborate on three games including an action game and an award winning puzzle game for the Wii called Boom Blox (and its 2009 sequel: Boom Blox Bash Party). Previously, he was involved in creating the scenario for the adventure game The Dig. In 1996, Spielberg worked on and shot original footage for a movie-making simulation game called "Steven Spielberg's Director's Chair". He is the creator of the Medal of Honor series by Electronic Arts. He is credited in the special thanks section of the 1998 video game .

Upcoming projects

In early 2009, Spielberg shot the first film in a planned trilogy of motion capture films based on The Adventures of Tintin written by Belgian artist Hergé, with Peter Jackson. , will not be released until December 23, 2011 due to the complexity of the computer animation involved. Jackson has been announced to direct the second film, which Spielberg will produce. Spielberg's next film War Horse, was shot in England in the summer of 2010, and will be released just five days after The Adventures of Tintin, on December 28, 2011. The film, based on the novel of the same name, is about the long friendship between a British boy and his horse Joey before and during World War I — a novel that was adapted into a hit play in London which is running on Broadway as of April 2011. It will be released and distributed by Disney, with whom DreamWorks has made a 30-picture deal. The novel was written by Michael Morpurgo and published in 1982. He will follow this with Lincoln, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field. Based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's bestseller , the film will follow Lincoln's leadership during the years of the American Civil War. It is being written by Tony Kushner and will be shot in the fall of 2011 and released in the fourth quarter of 2012 by Disney's Touchstone Pictures division. Next after that will be Robopocalypse, based on the upcoming 2011 novel of the same name by Daniel H. Wilson. Set to shoot in early 2012, the film will follow humanity's battle against a robot uprising and is to be released by Touchstone Pictures in 2013.

In 2007, Spielberg reportedly tried to obtain the screen rights to make a film based on Microsoft's Halo series. In September 2008, Steven Spielberg bought film rights for John Wyndham's novel Chocky and is interested in directing it. In May 2009, Steven Spielberg bought the rights to the life story of Martin Luther King, Jr.. Spielberg will be involved not only as producer but also as a director. However, the purchase was made from the King estate, led by son Dexter, while the two other surviving children, the Reverend Bernice and Martin III, immediately threatened to sue, not having given their approvals to the project.

Spielberg is also producing a Fox TV series titled Terra Nova. Terra Nova will begin in the year 2149 when all life on the planet Earth is threatened with extinction resulting in scientists opening a door that allows people to travel back 85 million years to prehistoric times.

Themes

Spielberg's films often deal with several recurring themes. Most of his films deal with ordinary characters searching for or coming in contact with extraordinary beings or finding themselves in extraordinary circumstances. In an AFI interview in August 2000 Spielberg commented on his interest in the possibility of extra terrestrial life and how it has influenced some of his films. Spielberg described himself as feeling like an alien during childhood, and his interest came from his father, a science fiction fan, and his opinion that aliens would not travel light years for conquest, but instead curiosity and sharing of knowledge.

A strong consistent theme in his family-friendly work is a childlike, even naïve, sense of wonder and faith, as attested by works such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Hook, and A.I. Artificial Intelligence. According to Warren Buckland, these themes are portrayed through the use of low height camera tracking shots, which have become one of Spielberg's directing trademarks. In the cases when his films include children (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Empire of the Sun, Jurassic Park, etc.), this type of shot is more apparent, but it is also used in films like Munich, Saving Private Ryan, The Terminal, Minority Report, and Amistad. If one views each of his films, one will see this shot utilized by the director, notably the water scenes in Jaws are filmed from the low-angle perspective of someone swimming. Another child oriented theme in Spielberg's films is that of loss of innocence and coming-of-age. In Empire of the Sun, Jim, a well-groomed and spoiled English youth, loses his innocence as he suffers through World War II China. Similarly, in Catch Me If You Can Frank naively and foolishly believes that he can reclaim his shattered family if he accumulates enough money to support them.

The most persistent theme throughout his films is tension in parent-child relationships. Parents (often fathers) are reluctant, absent or ignorant. Peter Banning in Hook starts off in the beginning of the film as a reluctant married-to-his-work parent who through the course of his film regains the respect of his children. The notable absence of Elliott's father in E.T., is the most famous example of this theme. In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, it is revealed that Indy has always had a very strained relationship with his father, who is a professor of medieval literature, as his father always seemed more interested in his work, specifically in his studies of the Holy Grail, than in his own son, although his father does not seem to realize or understand the negative effect that his aloof nature had on Indy (he even believes he was a good father in the sense that he taught his son "self reliance," which is not how Indy saw it). Even Oskar Schindler, from Schindler's List, is reluctant to have a child with his wife. Munich depicts Avner as a man away from his wife and newborn daughter. There are of course exceptions; Brody in Jaws is a committed family man, while John Anderton in Minority Report is a shattered man after the disappearance of his son. This theme is arguably the most autobiographical aspect of Spielberg's films, since Spielberg himself was affected by his parents' divorce as a child and by the absence of his father. Furthermore to this theme, protagonists in his films often come from families with divorced parents, most notably E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (protagonist Elliot's mother is divorced) and Catch Me If You Can (Frank Abagnale's mother and father split early on in the film). Little known also is Tim in Jurassic Park (early in the film, another secondary character mentions Tim and Lex's parents' divorce). The family often shown divided is often resolved in the ending as well. Following this theme of reluctant fathers and father figures, Tim looks to Dr. Alan Grant as a father figure. Initially, Dr. Grant is reluctant to return those paternal feelings to Tim. However, by the end of the film, he has changed, and the kids even fall asleep with their heads on his shoulders.

Most of his films are generally optimistic in nature. Critics frequently accuse his films of being overly sentimental, though Spielberg feels it is fine as long as it is disguised. The influence comes from directors Frank Capra and John Ford.

Contemporaries

In terms of casting and production itself, Spielberg has a known penchant for working with actors and production members from his previous films. For instance he has cast Richard Dreyfuss in several films: Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Always. Aside from his role as Indiana Jones, Spielberg also cast Harrison Ford as a headteacher in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (though the scene was ultimately cut). Although Spielberg directed him only once (in Raiders of the Lost Ark, for which he voiced many of the animals), veteran voice actor Frank Welker has lent his voice in a number of productions Spielberg has executively produced from Gremlins to its sequel , as well as The Land Before Time (and lending his voice to its sequels which Spielberg had no involvement in), Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and television shows such as Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, and SeaQuest DSV. Recently Spielberg has used Tom Hanks on several occasions and has cast him in Saving Private Ryan, Catch Me If You Can, and The Terminal. Spielberg also has collaborated with Tom Cruise twice on Minority Report and War of the Worlds. Spielberg has also cast Shia LaBeouf in four films: Transformers, Eagle Eye, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and . Spielberg prefers working with production members with whom he has developed an existing working relationship. An example of this is his production relationship with Kathleen Kennedy who has served as producer on all his major films from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial to the recent Munich. Other working relationships include Allen Daviau, a childhood friend and cinematographer who shot the early Spielberg film Amblin and most of his films up to Empire of the Sun; Janusz Kamiński who has shot every Spielberg film since Schindler's List (see List of film director and cinematographer collaborations); and the film editor Michael Kahn who has edited every film directed by Spielberg from Close Encounters to Munich (except E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial). Most of the DVDs of Spielberg's films have documentaries by Laurent Bouzereau.

A famous example of Spielberg working with the same professionals is his long time collaboration with John Williams and the use of his musical scores in all of his films since The Sugarland Express (except The Color Purple and ). One of Spielberg's trademarks is his use of music by John Williams to add to the visual impact of his scenes and to try and create a lasting picture and sound of the film in the memories of the film audience. These visual scenes often uses images of the sun (e.g. Empire of the Sun, Saving Private Ryan, the final scene of Jurassic Park, and the end credits of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (where they ride into the sunset), of which the last two feature a Williams score at that end scene. Spielberg is a contemporary of filmmakers George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, John Milius, and Brian De Palma, collectively known as the "Movie Brats". Aside from his principal role as a director, Spielberg has acted as a producer for a considerable number of films, including early hits for Joe Dante and Robert Zemeckis.

Personal life

Marriages and children

From 1985 to 1989 Spielberg was married to actress Amy Irving. In their 1989 divorce settlement, she received $100 million from Spielberg after a judge controversially vacated a prenuptial agreement written on a napkin. Their divorce was recorded as the third most costly celebrity divorce in history. Following the divorce, Spielberg and Irving shared custody of their son, Max Samuel.

Spielberg subsequently developed a relationship with actress Kate Capshaw, whom he met when he cast her in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. They married on October 12, 1991. Capshaw is a convert to Judaism. They currently move among their four homes in Pacific Palisades, California; New York City; Quelle Farm, Georgica Pond in East Hampton, NY; and Naples, Florida.

There are seven children in the Spielberg-Capshaw family:

Jessica Capshaw (born August 9, 1976) – daughter from Kate Capshaw's previous marriage to Robert Capshaw

Max Samuel Spielberg (born June 13, 1985) – son from Spielberg's previous marriage to actress Amy Irving

Theo Spielberg (born 1988) – son adopted by Capshaw before her marriage to Spielberg, who later also adopted him Sasha Rebecca Spielberg (born May 14, 1990, Los Angeles) Sawyer Avery Spielberg (born March 10, 1992, Los Angeles)

Mikaela George (born February 28, 1996) – adopted with Kate Capshaw

Destry Allyn Spielberg (born December 1, 1996)

Wealth

Forbes magazine places Spielberg's personal net worth at $3.0 billion.

Recognition

In 2002, Spielberg was one of eight flagbearers who carried the Olympic Flag into Rice-Eccles Stadium at the Opening Ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. In 2006, Premiere listed him as the most powerful and influential figure in the motion picture industry. Time listed him as one of the . At the end of the 20th century, Life named him the most influential person of his generation.

Starbright

In 1991 Steven Spielberg co-founded Starbright with Randy Aduana—a foundation dedicated to improving sick children's lives through technology-based programs focusing on entertainment and education. In 2002 Starbright merged with the Starlight Foundation forming what is now today the Starlight Children's Foundation.

Politics

Spielberg usually supports U.S. Democratic Party candidates. He has donated over $800,000 for the Democratic party and its nominees. He has been a close friend of former President Bill Clinton and worked with the President for the USA Millennium celebrations. He directed an 18-minute film for the project, scored by John Williams and entitled The American Journey. It was shown at America's Millennium Gala on December 31, 1999, in the National Mall at the Reflecting Pool at the base of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Spielberg resigned as a member of the national advisory board of the Boy Scouts of America in 2001 because of his disapproval of the organization's anti-homosexuality stance.

Spielberg joined Jeffrey Katzenberg and Haim Saban in endorsing the re-election of Hollywood friend Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Republican Governor of California, on August 7, 2006.

In 2007 the Arab League voted to boycott Spielberg's movies after he donated $1 million for relief efforts in Israel during the 2006 Lebanon War.

On February 20, 2007, Spielberg, Katzenberg, and David Geffen invited Democrats to a fundraiser for Barack Obama. However, on June 14, 2007, Spielberg endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) for President. While Geffen and Katzenberg supported Obama, Spielberg was always a supporter of Hillary Clinton. However Spielberg directed a video for Obama at the DNC in August 2008 and attended Obama's inauguration.

In February 2008, Spielberg pulled out of his role as advisor to the 2008 Summer Olympics in response to the Chinese government's inaction over the War in Darfur. Spielberg said in a statement that "I find that my conscience will not allow me to continue business as usual." It also said that "Sudan's government bears the bulk of the responsibility for these on-going crimes, but the international community, and particularly China, should be doing more.." The International Olympic Committee respected Spielberg's decision, but IOC president Jacques Rogge admitted in an interview that "[Spielberg] certainly would have brought a lot to the opening ceremony in terms of creativity." Spielberg's statement drew criticism from Chinese officials and state-run media calling his criticism "unfair".

In September 2008, Spielberg and his wife offered their support to same-sex marriage, by issuing a statement following their donation of $100,000 to the "No on Proposition 8" campaign fund, a figure equal to the amount of money Brad Pitt donated to the same campaign less than a week prior.

Hobbies

Spielberg is an avid film buff, and, when not shooting a picture, he will indulge in "movie orgies" (watching many over a single weekend). He sees almost every major summer blockbuster in theaters if not preoccupied and enjoys most of them; "If I get pleasure from anything, I can't think of it as dumb or myself as shallow [...] I'll probably go late to that movie and go, 'What the dickens was everybody complaining about, that wasn't so bad!'".

Since playing Pong while filming Jaws in 1974, Spielberg has been an avid video gamer. He owns a Wii, a PlayStation 3, a PSP, and Xbox 360, and enjoys playing first-person shooters such as the Medal of Honor series and . He has also criticized the use of cut scenes in games, calling them intrusive, and feels making story flow naturally into the gameplay is a challenge for future game developers.

Stalking

In 2001, Spielberg was stalked by conspiracy theorist and former social worker Diana Napolis. She accused him, along with actress Jennifer Love Hewitt, of controlling her thoughts through "cybertronic" technology and being part of a satanic conspiracy against her. Napolis was committed for life in a mental institution before pleading guilty to stalking and released on probation with a condition that she have no contact with either Spielberg or Hewitt.

Spielberg was a target of the 2002 white supremacist terror plot.

Jonathan Norman was arrested after making two attempts to enter Spielberg's Pacific Palisades home in June and July 1997. Norman was jailed for 25 years in California. Spielberg, told the court: "Had Jonathan Norman actually confronted me, I genuinely, in my heart of hearts, believe that I would have been raped or maimed or killed."

Achievements

, 1999.]] Spielberg has won three Academy Awards. He has been nominated for six Academy Awards for the category of Best Director, winning two of them (Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan), and seven of the films he directed were up for the Best Picture Oscar (Schindler's List won). In 1987 he was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for his work as a creative producer.

Drawing from his own experiences in Scouting, Spielberg helped the Boy Scouts of America develop a merit badge in cinematography. The badge was launched at the 1989 National Scout Jamboree, which Spielberg attended, and where he personally counseled many boys in their work on requirements.

That same year, 1989, saw the release of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The opening scene shows a teenage Indiana Jones in scout uniform bearing the rank of a Life Scout. Spielberg stated he made Indiana Jones a Boy Scout in honor of his experience in Scouting. For his career accomplishments and service to others, Spielberg was awarded the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award.

Steven Spielberg received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1995.

In 1998 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit with Ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Award was presented to him by President Roman Herzog in recognition of his film Schindler's List and his Shoa-Foundation.

In 1999, Spielberg received an honorary degree from Brown University. Spielberg was also awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service by Secretary of Defense William Cohen at the Pentagon on August 11, 1999; Cohen presented the award in recognition of Spielberg's film Saving Private Ryan.

In 2001, he was honored as an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II.

In 2004 he was admitted as knight of the Légion d'honneur by president Jacques Chirac. On July 15, 2006, Spielberg was also awarded the at the Summer Gala of the Chicago International Film Festival, and also was awarded a Kennedy Center honour on December 3. The tribute to Spielberg featured a short, filmed biography narrated by Tom Hanks and included thank-yous from World War II veterans for Saving Private Ryan, as well as a performance of the finale to Leonard Bernstein's Candide, conducted by John Williams (Spielberg's frequent composer).

In November 2007, he was chosen for a Lifetime Achievement Award to be presented at the sixth annual Visual Effects Society Awards in February 2009. He was set to be honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the January 2008 Golden Globes; however, the new, watered-down format of the ceremony resulting from conflicts in the 2007–08 writers strike, the HFPA postponed his honor to the 2009 ceremony. In 2008, Spielberg was awarded the Légion d'honneur.

In June 2008, Spielberg received Arizona State University's Hugh Downs Award for Communication Excellence.

Spielberg received an honorary degree at Boston University's 136th Annual Commencement on May 17, 2009. In October 2009 Steven Spielberg received the Philadelphia Liberty Medal; presenting him with the medal was former US president and Liberty Medal recipient Bill Clinton. Special guests included Whoopi Goldberg, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter.

Praise and criticism

Film

, in the Gala Dinner held on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, honoring Steven Spielberg.]] In 2005, Steven Spielberg was rated the greatest film director of all time by Empire Magazine.

After watching the unconventional, off-center camera techniques of Jaws, Alfred Hitchcock praised "young Spielberg," saying "He's the first one of us who doesn't see the proscenium arch." Or, to paraphrase, he was the first mainstream director to think outside the visual dynamics of the theater.

Some of Spielberg's most famous fans include film legends Robert Aldrich, Ingmar Bergman, Werner Herzog, Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa, David Lean, Sidney Lumet, Roman Polanski, Martin Scorsese, Francois Truffaut and Zhang Yimou.

Subsequently, Spielberg's movies have also influenced many directors that followed, including J.J Abrams, Paul Thomas Anderson, Neill Blomkamp, James Cameron, Guillermo del Toro, Roland Emmerich, David Fincher, Peter Jackson, Kal Ng, Robert Rodriguez, John Sayles, Ridley Scott, John Singleton, Kevin Smith, Steven Soderbergh and Quentin Tarantino.

British film critic Tom Shone has said of Spielberg, "If you have to point to any one director of the last twenty-five years in whose work the medium of film was most fully itself – where we found out what it does best when left to its own devices, it has to be that guy."

However, Spielberg is not without his critics—many of whom complain that his films are overly sentimental and tritely moralistic. In his book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood, Peter Biskind summarized the views of Spielberg's detractors, accusing the director of "infantilizing the audience, reconstituting the spectator as child, then overwhelming him and her with sound and spectacle, obliterating irony, aesthetic self-consciousness, and critical reflection."

Critics of mainstream film such as Ray Carney and American artist and actor Crispin Glover (who starred in the Spielberg-produced Back to the Future and also sued Spielberg for using Glover's likeness in Back to the Future Part II) claim that Spielberg's films lack depth and do not take risks.

The late film critic, Pauline Kael, who had championed Spielberg's films in the 1970s, expressed disappointment in his later development, stating that "he’s become, I think, a very bad director.... And I’m a little ashamed for him, because I loved his early work.... [H]e turned to virtuous movies. And he’s become so uninteresting now.... I think that he had it in him to become more of a fluid, far-out director. But, instead, he’s become a melodramatist."

Imre Kertész, Hungarian Jewish author, Nazi concentration camp survivor, and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, criticized Spielberg's depiction of the Holocaust in Schindler's List as kitsch, saying "I regard as kitsch any representation of the Holocaust that is incapable of understanding or unwilling to understand the organic connection between our own deformed mode of life and the very possibility of the Holocaust."

French New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard stated that he holds Spielberg partly responsible for the lack of artistic merit in mainstream cinema and accused Spielberg of using his film Schindler's List to make a profit of tragedy while Schindler's wife lived in poverty in Argentina. In defense of Spielberg, critic Roger Ebert said "Has Godard or any other director living or dead done more than Spielberg, with his Holocaust Project, to honor and preserve the memories of the survivors?"

Stephen Rowley wrote an extensive essay about Spielberg and his career in Senses of Cinema. In it he discussed Spielberg's strengths as a film maker, saying "there is a welcome complexity of tone and approach in these later films that defies the lazy stereotypes often bandied about his films" and that "Spielberg continues to take risks, with his body of work continuing to grow more impressive and ambitious", concluding that he has only received "limited, begrudging recognition" from critics .

In August 2007, Ai Weiwei, artistic designer for the Beijing Olympic Stadium Bird's Nest accused those choreographing the Olympic opening ceremony, including Spielberg, of failing to live up to their responsibility as artists. Ai said, "It's disgusting. I don't like anyone who shamelessly abuses their profession, who makes no moral judgment."

Filmography

Awards and nominations

'''Academy Awards:

1978: Best Director (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, nominated)

1982: Best Director (Raiders of the Lost Ark, nominated)

1983: Best Director (E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, nominated)

1983: Best Picture (E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, nominated)

1986: Best Picture (The Color Purple, nominated)

1987: Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award (won)

1994: Best Director (Schindler's List, won)

1994: Best Picture (Schindler's List, won)

1999: Best Director (Saving Private Ryan, won)

1999: Best Picture (Saving Private Ryan, nominated)

2006: Best Director (Munich, nominated)

2006: Best Picture (Munich, nominated)

2007: Best Picture (Letters from Iwo Jima, nominated)

'''BAFTA Awards:

1976: Best Direction (Jaws, nominated)

1979: Best Direction (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, nominated)

1979: Best Screenplay (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, nominated)

1983: Best Direction (E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, nominated)

1983: Best Film (E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, nominated)

1986: Academy Fellowship (won)

1994: Best Film (Schindler's List, won)

1994: David Lean Award for Direction (Schindler's List, won)

1999: Best Film (Saving Private Ryan, nominated)

1999: David Lean Award for Direction (Saving Private Ryan, nominated)

'''Cannes Film Festival

1974: Best Screenplay (The Sugarland Express, won)

1974: Golden Palm (The Sugarland Express, nominated)

'''Critics Choice Awards:

1999: Best Director (Saving Private Ryan, won)

2003: Best Director (Catch Me If You Can and Minority Report, won)

2006: Best Director (Munich, nominated)

'''Directors Guild of America:

1976: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (Jaws, nominated)

1978: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, nominated)

1982: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (Raiders of the Lost Ark, nominated'')

1983: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, nominated)

1986: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (The Color Purple, won); this was the first time a director won this award without receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Director.

1988: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (Empire of the Sun, nominated)

1994: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (Schindler's List, won)

1998: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (Amistad, nominated)

1999: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (Saving Private Ryan, won); this win makes Spielberg the only individual to win this award three times.

2000: The D.W. Griffith Award for Lifetime Achievement

2006: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (Munich, nominated)

'''Golden Globes:

1976: Best Director (Jaws, nominated)

1978: Best Director (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, nominated)

1978: Best Screenplay (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, nominated)

1982: Best Director (Raiders of the Lost Ark, nominated)

1983: Best Picture – Drama (E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, won)

1983: Best Director (E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, nominated)

1986: Best Director (The Color Purple, nominated)

1994: Best Picture – Drama (Schindler's List, won)

1994: Best Director (Schindler's List, won)

1998: Best Director (Amistad, nominated)

1999: Best Picture – Drama (Saving Private Ryan, won)

1999: Best Director (Saving Private Ryan, won)

2002: Best Director (AI: Artificial Intelligence, nominated)

2006: Best Director (Munich, nominated)

2008: Cecil B. DeMille Award (won)

'''Hasty Pudding Theatricals:

1983: Man of the Year (won)

'''Hollywood Walk of Fame:

2003: Star on the Walk of Fame (won)

'''NBR Award:

1987: Best Director (Empire of the Sun, won)

2001: Billy Wilder Award (won)

'''Primetime Emmys:

1986: Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series (Amazing Stories for episode "The Mission", nominated)

1991: Outstanding Animated Program – One Hour or Less (Tiny Toon Adventures for episode "The Looney Beginning", nominated)

1995: Outstanding Animated Program – One Hour or Less (Tiny Toon Adventures: Night Ghoulery, nominated)

1996: Outstanding Animated Program – One Hour or Less (A Pinky & the Brain Christmas Special, won)

2002: Outstanding Non-Fiction Special – Informational (We Stand Alone Together, nominated)

2002: Outstanding Miniseries (Band of Brothers, won)

2003: Outstanding Miniseries (Taken, won)

2006: Outstanding Miniseries (Into the West, nominated)

'''Producers Guild of America:

1994: Motion Picture Producer of the Year (Schindler's List, won)

1998: Motion Picture Producer of the Year (Amistad, nominated)

1998: Vision Award (Amistad, won)

1999: Motion Picture Producer of the Year (Saving Private Ryan, won)

1999: Milestone Award (won)

2000: PGA Hall of Fame – Motion Pictures (E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, won)

2002: Television Producer of the Year – Longform (Band of Brothers, won)

2006: Television Producer of the Year – Longform (Into the West, nominated)

'''Saturn Awards:

1978: Best Director (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, won); tied with George Lucas for Star Wars

1978: Best Writing (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, won); tied with George Lucas for Star Wars

1982: Best Director (Raiders of the Lost Ark, won)

1983: Best Science Fiction Film (E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, won)

1983: Best Director (E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, nominated)

1985: Best Director (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, nominated)

1994: Best Science Fiction Film (Jurassic Park, won)

1994: Best Director (Jurassic Park, won)

1994: President's Award (won)

1998: Best Director (The Lost World: Jurassic Park, nominated)

1999: Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film (Saving Private Ryan, won)

2002: Best Science Fiction Film (AI: Artificial Intelligence, won)

2002: Best Director (AI: Artificial Intelligence, nominated)

2002: Best writing (AI: Artificial Intelligence, won)

2003: Best Science Fiction Film (Minority Report, won)

2003: Best Director (Minority Report, won)

2006: Best Director (War of the Worlds, nominated)

2009: Best Director (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, nominated)

, at the distributition of Kennedy Center Honors.]]

'''Venice Film Festival:

1993: Career Golden Lion (won)

2001: Future Film Festival Digital Award (AI: Artificial Intelligence, won)

'''Writers Guild of America:

1975: Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen (The Sugarland Express, nominated)

1978: Best Drama Written Directly for the Screen (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, nominated)

Other

2009 Liberty Medal

2006 Kennedy Center Honors

2001 Knight Commander, Order of the British Empire (Honorary)

2003 Knight Grand Cross Order of Merit of the Italian Republic

1998 Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

References

Further reading

External links

Steven Spielberg Bibliography (via UC Berkeley)

Official website of Dreamworks

Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation (founded by Spielberg)

Time 100: Steven Spielberg

Spielberg at 60 – Empire

Fansite and forum "Playmountain," the successor of "Spielbergfilms"

Spielberg's financial success in a single image

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