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Dyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read,^[1] and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid naming.^[2][3] Dyslexia is separate and distinct from reading difficulties resulting from other causes, such as a non-neurological deficiency with vision or hearing, or from poor or inadequate reading instruction.^[4][5] It is believed that dyslexia can affect between 5 and 10 percent of a given population although there have been no studies to indicate an accurate percentage.^[6][7][8]

There are three proposed cognitive subtypes of dyslexia: auditory, visual and attentional.^{[7][9][10][11][12][13]} Reading disabilities, or dyslexia, is the most common learning disability, although in research literature it is considered to be a receptive language-based learning disability.^[14] Researchers at MIT found that people with dyslexia exhibited impaired voice-recognition abilities.^[15]

Accomplished adult dyslexics may be able to read with good comprehension, but they tend to read more slowly than non-dyslexics and may perform more poorly at nonsense word reading (a measure of phonological awareness) and spelling.^[16] Dyslexia is not an intellectual disability, since dyslexia and IQ are not interrelated, as a result of cognition developing independently.^[17]

Classification[link]

The World Federation of Neurology defines dyslexia as "a disorder manifested by difficulty in learning to read despite conventional instruction, adequate intelligence and sociocultural opportunity".^[18]

MedlinePlus and the National Institutes of Health define dyslexia as "a reading disability resulting from the inability to process graphic symbols".^[19]

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke gives the following definition for dyslexia:

"Dyslexia is a brain-based type of learning disability that specifically impairs a person's ability to read. These individuals typically read at levels significantly lower than expected despite having normal intelligence. Although the disorder varies from person to person, common characteristics among people with dyslexia are difficulty with spelling, phonological processing (the manipulation of sounds), and/or rapid visual-verbal responding. In adults, dyslexia usually occurs after a brain injury or in the context of dementia. It can also be inherited in some families and so on, and recent studies have identified a number of genes that may predispose an individual to developing dyslexia".^[1]

Other published definitions are purely descriptive or embody causal theories. Varying definitions are used for dyslexia from researchers and organizations around the world; it appears that this disorder encompasses a number of reading skills, deficits and difficulties with a number of causes rather than a single condition.^[20][21]

Castles and Coltheart describe phonological and surface types of developmental dyslexia by analogy to classical subtypes of alexia (acquired dyslexia) which are classified according to the rate of errors in reading non-words.^[22][23] However, the distinction between surface and phonological dyslexia has not replaced the old empirical terminology of dysphonetic versus dyseidetic types of dyslexia.^[21][23][24] The surface/phonological distinction is only descriptive, and devoid of any etiological assumption as to the underlying brain mechanisms.^[25] Studies have, however, alluded to potential differential underlying brain mechanisms in these populations given performance differences.^[26][27][28] The dysphonetic/dyseidetic distinction refers to two different mechanisms; one that relates to a speech discrimination deficit, and another that relates to a visual perception impairment.

Signs and symptoms[link]

Some early symptoms that correlate with a later diagnosis of dyslexia include delays in speech,^[29] letter reversal or mirror writing,^[30][31] and being easily distracted by background noise.^[32] At later ages symptoms can include a difficulty identifying or generating rhyming words, or counting syllables in words (phonological awareness),^[33] a difficulty segmenting words into individual sounds, or blending sounds to make words,^[34] a difficulty with word retrieval or naming problems,^[35][36][37] commonly very poor spelling^[38] which has been called dysorthographia (orthographic coding), and tendencies to omit or add letters or words when writing and reading are considered classic signs.^[39] A common misconception about dyslexia is that dyslexic readers write words backwards or move letters around when reading – this only occurs in a very small population of dyslexic readers.^[40] Dyslexic people are better identified by writing that does not seem to match their level of intelligence from prior observations.

Cause[link]

Since the symptoms of dyslexia were first identified by Oswald Berkhan in 1881,^[41] and the term dyslexia coined in 1887 by Rudolf Berlin,^[42][43] generations of researchers have been investigating what dyslexia is and trying to identify the biological causes. The theories of the etiology of dyslexia have and are evolving with each new generation of dyslexia researchers, and the more recent theories of dyslexia tend to enhance one or more of the older theories as understanding of the nature of dyslexia evolves. Theories should not be viewed as competing, but as attempting to explain the underlying causes of a similar set of symptoms from a variety of research perspectives and background.^[44][45]

Effect of language orthography[link]

The complexity of a language's orthography or spelling system – formally, its orthographic depth – has a direct impact on how difficult it is to learn to read that language. English has a comparatively deep orthography within the Latin alphabet writing system, with a complex orthographic structure that employs spelling patterns at several levels: principally, letter-sound correspondences, syllables, and morphemes. Other languages, such as Spanish, have mostly alphabetic orthographies that employ letter-sound correspondences, so-called shallow orthographies. It is relatively easy to learn to read languages like Spanish; it is much more difficult to learn to read languages with more complex orthographies, such as English.^[46] Logographic writing systems, notably Japanese and Chinese characters, have graphemes that are not linked directly to their pronunciation, which pose a different type of dyslexic difficulty.^{[13][47][48][49]}

From a neurological perspective, different types of writing system, for example alphabetic as compared to logographic writing systems, require different neurological pathways in order to read, write and spell. Because different writing systems require different parts of the brain to process the visual notation of speech, children with reading problems in one language might not have a reading problem in a language with a different orthography. The neurological skills required to perform the tasks of reading, writing, and spelling can vary between different writing systems and as a result different neurological deficits can cause dyslexic problems in relation to different orthographies.^[47][48][49]

Cross-cultural prevalence[link]

Cross-cultural study of the prevalence of dyslexia is difficult as different scholars and different countries often use different criteria to distinguish the cases of dyslexia in the continuum between the able and delayed readers at schools. According to the existing literature, the prevalence of dyslexia can vary widely between cultures. For example, Christall reports differences between 1% and 33%.^[50] Some populations (for example, Japanese and Chinese) may have relatively small number of dyslexic schoolchildren,^[51] and some populations (for example, European, and particularly sub-Saharan African populations) might have higher dyslexia prevalence. According to some researchers, despite the significant differences between the writing systems, Italian, German and English populations suffer similarly from dyslexia.^[52]

Exacerbating conditions[link]

Several learning disabilities often occur with dyslexia, but it is unclear whether these learning disabilities share underlying neurological causes with dyslexia.^[53] These disabilities include, but are not limited to:

• Dysgraphia – a disorder which expresses itself primarily through writing or typing, although in some cases it may also affect eye–hand coordination, direction- or sequence-oriented processes such as tying knots or carrying out a repetitive task. In dyslexia, dysgraphia is often multifactorial, due to impaired letter writing automaticity, finger motor sequencing challenges, organizational and elaborative difficulties, and impaired visual word form which makes it more difficult to retrieve the visual picture of words required for spelling. Dysgraphia is distinct from dyspraxia in that dyspraxia is simply related motor sequence impairment.
• Dyscalculia – a neurological condition characterized by a problem with basic sense of number and quantity and difficulty retrieving rote math facts. Often people with this condition can understand very complex mathematical concepts and principles but have difficulty retrieving basic math facts involving addition and subtraction.
• Attention Deficit Disorder^[29][54][55] – a high degree of co-morbidity has been reported between ADD/ADHD and dyslexia/reading disorders,^[56] it occurs in between 12% and 24% of those with dyslexia.^[8]
• Aphasia – neurologically based speech disorders, which can cause alexia (acquired dyslexia).
• Auditory processing disorder – A condition that affects the ability to process auditory information. Auditory processing disorder is a listening disability.^[57] It can lead to problems with auditory memory and auditory sequencing. Many people with dyslexia have auditory processing problems ^[58] and may develop their own logographic cues to compensate for this type of deficit. Auditory processing disorder is recognized as one of the major causes of dyslexia.^[59][60][61] Some children can acquire auditory processing disorder as a result of experiencing otitis media with effusion (glue ear, sticky ear, grommets) and other severe ear conditions.^[62]
• Developmental dyspraxia^[29] – A neurological condition characterized by a marked difficulty in carrying out routine tasks involving balance, fine-motor control, kinesthetic coordination, difficulty in the use of speech sounds, problems with short-term memory and organization are typical of dyspraxics.
• Scotopic sensitivity syndrome, also known as Irlen Syndrome – A term used to describe sensitivity to certain wavelengths of light which interfere with visual processing.^[63][64]
• Specific language impairment (SLI) – A developmental language disorder that can affect both expressive and receptive language. SLI is defined as a "pure" language impairment, meaning that is not related to or caused by other developmental disorders, hearing loss or acquired brain injury. A study by the Universities of Maastricht and Utrecht examined speech perception and speech production in 3-year-old Dutch children at familial risk of developing dyslexia. Their performance in speech sound categorization and their production of words was compared to that of age-matched children with SLI and typically developing controls. The results of the at-risk and SLI-group were highly similar. Analysis of the individual data revealed that both groups contained subgroups with good and poorly performing children. Their impaired expressive phonology seemed to be related to a deficit in speech perception. The findings indicate that both dyslexia and SLI can be explained by a multi-risk model which includes cognitive processes as well as genetic factors.^{[29][65][non-primary source needed]}

Experience of speech acquisition delays and speech and language problems can be due to problems processing and decoding auditory input prior to reproducing their own version of speech,^[66][67] and may be observed as stuttering, cluttering or hesitant speech.^[21]

Management[link]

There is no cure for dyslexia, but dyslexic individuals can learn to read and write with appropriate educational support. ^[68] There are techniques, and technical aids, which manage or even conceal symptoms of the disorder. ^[69] Since stress and anxiety are contributors to a dyslexic's weaknesses in absorbing information, removing these can assist in improving understanding. ^[70]

For dyslexia intervention with alphabet writing systems the fundamental aim is to increase a child's awareness of correspondences between graphemes and phonemes, and to relate these to reading and spelling. It has been found that training focused towards visual language and orthographic issues yields longer-lasting gains than mere oral phonological training.^[71]

There is some evidence that the use of specially tailored fonts may provide some measure of assistance for those suffering from dyslexia; however scientific confirmation of this currently appears to be limited to a single master's thesis.^[72][73] Intervention early on while language areas in the brain are still developing is most successful in reducing long term impacts of dyslexia.^[74]

History[link]

Dyslexia was identified by Oswald Berkhan in 1881,^[75] but the term dyslexia was later coined in 1887 by Rudolf Berlin,^[76] an ophthalmologist practicing in Stuttgart, Germany.^[77] He used the term to refer to a case of a young boy who had a severe impairment in learning to read and write in spite of showing typical intellectual and physical abilities in all other respects.

In 1896, W. Pringle Morgan, a British physician, from Seaford, East Sussex published a description of a reading-specific learning disorder in a report to the British Medical Journal titled "Congenital Word Blindness". This described the case of a 14-year-old boy who had not yet learned to read, yet showed normal intelligence and was generally adept at other activities typical of children of that age.^[78]

Research[link]

The majority of currently available dyslexia research relates to the alphabetic writing system, and especially to languages of European origin. However, substantial research is also available regarding dyslexia for speakers of Arabic, Chinese, and Hebrew.^{[25][79][80][81][82]}

Genetic research into dyslexia has its roots in the work of Galaburda and Kemper, 1979,^[83] and Galaburda et al. 1985,^[84] from the examination of post-autopsy brains of people with dyslexia. When they observed anatomical differences in the language center in a dyslexic brain, they showed microscopic cortical malformations known as ectopias and more rarely vascular micro-malformations, and in some instances these cortical malformations appeared as a microgyrus. These studies and those of Cohen et al. 1989^[85] suggested abnormal cortical development which was presumed to occur before or during the sixth month of fetal brain development.^[23]

In the area of neurological research into dyslexia, modern neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) have produced clear evidence of structural differences in the brains of children with reading difficulties. It has been found that people with dyslexia have a deficit in parts of the left hemisphere of the brain involved in reading, which includes the inferior frontal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, and middle and ventral temporal cortex.^[86]

Brain activation studies using PET to study language have produced a breakthrough in understanding of the neural basis of language over the past decade. A neural basis for the visual lexicon and for auditory verbal short-term memory components have been proposed,^[87] with some implication that the observed neural manifestation of developmental dyslexia is task-specific (i.e., functional rather than structural).^[88]

Gene–environment interaction[link]

Research has examined gene–environment interactions in reading disability through twin studies, which estimate the proportion of variance associated with environment and the proportion associated with heritability. Studies examining the influence of environmental factors such as parental education,^[89] and teacher quality^[90] have determined that genetics have more influence-supportive environments than less-optimal environments. Instead, it may just allow those genetic risk factors to account for more of the variance in outcome, because environmental risk factors that affect that outcome have been minimized.^[91]

As environment plays a large role in learning and memory,^[92] is likely that epigenetic modifications play an important role in reading ability. Animal models and measures of gene expression and methylation in the human periphery are used to study epigenetic processes, both of which have limitations in extrapolating to the human brain.

See also[link]

• Child development
• History of the alphabet
• Learning theory (education)
• Linguistics
• List of artistic depictions of dyslexia
• List of people diagnosed with dyslexia
• Neurolinguistics
• Philosophy of language
• Writing system
• Neurodiversity
• Dyslexie

References[link]

External links[link]

Organizations

• International Dyslexia Association
• Dyslexia Action (UK)
• British Dyslexia Association
• Dyslexia Research Trust
• Learning Ally, formerly Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic
• The Brain Foundation.Singapore

Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2011.
Born	Steven Allan Spielberg (1946-12-18) December 18, 1946 (age 65)[1] Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
Nationality	United States
Education	Saratoga High School
Alma mater	California State University, Long Beach
Occupation	Film director, film producer
Years active	1963–present
Notable work(s)	Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Color Purple, Empire of the Sun, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can, War of the Worlds, Munich, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Adventures of Tintin, War Horse
Influenced by	Stanley Kubrick, Satyajit Ray, Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Capra, Ingmar Bergman, John Frankenheimer
Influenced	J.J Abrams, Paul Thomas Anderson, Neill Blomkamp, James Cameron, Guillermo del Toro, Roland Emmerich, David Fincher, Peter Jackson, Adam Green, Kal Ng, Robert Rodriguez, John Sayles, Ridley Scott, John Singleton, Kevin Smith, Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino
Net worth	$3.0 billion (2011)[2]
Religion	Judaism
Spouse	Amy Irving (m. 1985–1989) «start: (1985)–end+1: (1990)»"Marriage: Amy Irving to Steven Spielberg" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Steven_Spielberg) Kate Capshaw (m. 1991) «start: (1991)»"Marriage: Kate Capshaw to Steven Spielberg" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Steven_Spielberg)[3]
Children	6

Steven Allan Spielberg (born December 18, 1946)^[4] is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as archetypes 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.^[5] He is also one of the co-founders of 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.^[2]

Early life[link]

Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to a Jewish family.^[6] His mother, Leah Adler (née Posner),^[7] was a restaurateur and concert pianist, and his father, Arnold Spielberg, was an electrical engineer involved in the development of computers.^[8] 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.^[9] 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.^[10] 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."^[11] 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.^[12] 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. He attended Arcadia High School in Phoenix, Arizona for three years; Spielberg graduated from Saratoga High School in 1965. It was during this time Spielberg attained the rank of Eagle Scout.

Spielberg attended Hebrew school from 1953 to 1957, in classes taught by Rabbi Albert L. Lewis,^[13] 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."^[14] 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."^[15]

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 subsequently became a student at 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.^[16][17] 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.^[17]

As an intern and guest of Universal Studios, Spielberg made his first short film for theatrical release, the 26-minute Amblin' (1968),^[8] the title of which Spielberg later took as the name of his production company, Amblin Entertainment. After Sidney Sheinberg, then the vice-president of production for Universal's TV arm, saw the film, Spielberg became the youngest director ever to be signed for a long-term deal with a major Hollywood studio (Universal). He dropped out of Long Beach State in 1969 to take up the television director contract at Universal Studios and began his career as a professional director.^{[citation needed]} In 1969, Variety announced that Spielberg would direct his first full length film, Malcolm Winkler, written by Claudia Salter, produced by John Orland, with Frank Price being the executive producer. However, because of the difficulty in casting the key male role, the film was not made. Steven Spielberg also attended Brookdale Community College for undergrad.

Career[link]

Early career (1969–75)[link]

His first professional TV job came when he was hired to do one of the segments for the 1969 pilot episode of Night Gallery. The segment, "Eyes," starred Joan Crawford, and she and Spielberg were reportedly close friends until her death. The episode is unusual in his body of work, in that the camerawork is more highly stylized than his later, more "mature" films. After this, and an episode of Marcus Welby, M.D., Spielberg got his first feature-length assignment: an episode of The Name of the Game called "L.A. 2017". This futuristic science fiction episode impressed Universal Studios and they signed him to a short contract. He did another segment on Night Gallery and did some work for shows such as Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law and The Psychiatrist before landing the first series episode of Columbo (previous episodes were actually TV films).

Based on the strength of his work, Universal signed Spielberg to do four TV films. The first was a Richard Matheson adaptation called Duel. The film is about a psychotic Peterbilt 281 tanker truck driver who chases a terrified driver (Dennis Weaver) of a small Plymouth Valiant and tries to run him off the road. Special praise of this film by the influential British critic Dilys Powell was highly significant to Spielberg's career. Another TV film (Something Evil) was made and released to capitalize on the popularity of The Exorcist, then a major best-selling book which had not yet been released as a film. He fulfilled his contract by directing the TV film length pilot of a show called Savage, starring Martin Landau. Spielberg's debut feature film was The Sugarland Express, about a married couple who are chased by police as the couple tries to regain custody of their baby. Spielberg's cinematography for the police chase was praised by reviewers, and The Hollywood Reporter stated that "a major new director is on the horizon."^[18] 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."^[19] 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.^[20] It was nominated for Best Picture and featured Spielberg's first of three collaborations with actor Richard Dreyfuss.

Mainstream breakthrough (1975–93)[link]

Rejecting offers to direct Jaws 2,^[21] 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, was not 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 an 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. The film also led to Ford's casting in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner.^[22]

Steven Spielberg with President Ronald Reagan 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 companions and is attempting to return 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 The Twilight Zone (for which he directed the segment "Kick The Can"),^[23] and The Goonies (Spielberg, executive producer, also wrote the story on which the screenplay was based).^[24]

His next directorial feature was the Raiders prequel 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 Western capital investment, 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.^[25] Spielberg was also a co-producer of the 1987 film *batteries not included.

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.^[26] 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.

1994–present[link]

Spielberg in 1990

In 1994, Spielberg took a hiatus from directing to spend more time with his family and build his new studio, DreamWorks,^[27] with partners Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. In 1997, he helmed the sequel to 1993's Jurassic Park with The Lost World: Jurassic Park, 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,^[28] 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 science fiction 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 206 out of the 225 reviews they tallied were positive.^[29] 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.^[30]

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.^{[citation needed]}

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 in 2011, at the Paris premiere of The Adventures of Tintin.

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 Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team, 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.^[31] 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.^[32][33] This was his first film not to be released by DreamWorks since 1997. The film received generally positive reviews from critics,^[34] 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.

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,^[35] with Peter Jackson. The Adventures of Tintin, was not released until October 2011, due to the complexity of the computer animation involved. The world premiere took place on October 22, 2011 in Brussels, Belgium.^[36] The film was released in North American theaters on December 21, 2011, in Digital 3D and IMAX.^[37] It received generally positive reviews from critics,^[38] and grossed over $373 million worldwide.^[39] The Adventures of Tintin won the award for Best Animated Feature Film at the Golden Globe Awards that year.^[40] It is the first non-Pixar film to win the award since the category was first introduced.^[41][42] Jackson has been announced to direct the second film,^[43] which Spielberg will produce.

Spielberg followed that with War Horse, shot in England in the summer of 2010.^[44] It was released just four days after The Adventures of Tintin, on December 25, 2011. The film, based on the novel of the same name written by Michael Morpurgo and published in 1982, follows the long friendship between a British boy and his horse Joey before and during World War I — the novel was also adapted into a hit play in London which is still running there, as well as on Broadway. The film was released and distributed by Disney, with whom DreamWorks has made a 30-picture deal. War Horse received generally positive reviews from critics,^[45] and was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture.^[46]

Production credits[link]

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.

Spielberg at The Pentagon (1999)