[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/georgestevens_610x723.jpg]]

George Cooper Stevens (December 18, 1904 – March 8, 1975) was an American director during UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood. He was the go-to director of comedy for Creator/{{RKO}} during TheThirties.

He began his career in silents as a cinematographer and later directed several Creator/LaurelAndHardy shorts where he honed his directing comedy flair. With great success, he directed many classic films of the era, like ''Film/SwingTime'', arguably the best Creator/GingerRogers and Creator/FredAstaire film, the action/adventure film to inspire ''Franchise/IndianaJones'', ''Film/GungaDin'', and pairing Creator/SpencerTracy and Creator/KatharineHepburn together in ''Film/WomanOfTheYear''.

With the onset of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, he joined the Army’s Signal Corps and headed the film unit during such important events as D-Day and the liberation of the concentration camp Dachau. The latter was of utmost importance for him and the world: his motion picture evidence of the conditions of the camp and its prisoners would be used in the Nuremberg trials to condemn the war crimes of Nazi leadership.

Such strong and horrifying scenes of evil changed Stevens forever, and he vowed to never make a comedy again. He made, as promised, only serious dramas thereafter.

He won an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for Best Director two times: for the Creator/MontgomeryClift drama ''Film/APlaceInTheSun'' and for Creator/JamesDean's last film ''Film/{{Giant}}''.

He died from a heart attack at the age of 71.
----
!!George Stevens' films on [=TV=] Tropes:
[[index]]
* ''Literature/AliceAdams'' (1935)
* ''Film/SwingTime'' (1936)
* ''Film/GungaDin'' (1939)
* ''Film/PennySerenade'' (1941)
* ''Film/TalkOfTheTown'' (1942)
* ''Film/WomanOfTheYear'' (1942)
* ''Film/TheMoreTheMerrier'' (1943)
* ''Film/IRememberMama'' (1948)
* ''Film/APlaceInTheSun'' (1951)
* ''Film/{{Shane}}'' (1953)
* ''Film/{{Giant}}'' (1956)
* ''Film/TheDiaryOfAnneFrank'' (1959)
* ''Film/TheGreatestStoryEverTold'' (1965)
[[/index]]
----