Every so often, someone emerges in a field and manages to not only revolutionize it, but do so several times. American director and producer Steven Allan Spielberg is one of those people, with a career that has gone uninterrupted since the mid-1970s. To put it simply, he is one of the most influential powers in Hollywood.
Spielberg was born on December 18, 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio to Leah (née Posner, later Adler), and Arnold Spielberg. After playing with his father's 8mm camera as a kid, he enrolled in a community college with a small film program and used those connections to get work directing TV episodes, including the pilot episode of Night Gallery.note He also worked as an assistant at Universal's editorial department, and snooped around on film sets to learn more about the trade note . In 1971, he got his big break directing the low-budget cult TV film Duel, a taut thriller that was such a hit that he was allowed to shoot more scenes to give it a cinema release in Europe.
The success of Duel got Spielberg a lot of attention, enough for him to be brought on as the director for the film that would launch him into the stratosphere: Jaws, the first summer blockbuster (setting the record for all-time highest-grossing movie just before Star Wars came out, pushing the record up even further). With basically a blank check, he followed this up with the Benevolent Alien Invasion film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the 30s serial throwback Raiders of the Lost Ark (the first of the Indiana Jones films; he directed all the sequels as well) and the family favourite E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which became the highest-grossing film of all time in its day (his second time achieving that milestone).
In 1985, Spielberg branched into directing dramas with his ultra-serious The Color Purple (1985), which was nominated for several Oscars; it would not be his last excursion into this genre. He went on to make Hook in 1991, and Jurassic Park in 1993 (his third time making the most successful movie of all time), which revolutionized the use of CG animation in film. Schindler's List, released the same year, won the Oscar for Best Picture, Saving Private Ryan won a handful of Oscars itself, and A.I.: Artificial Intelligence saw him taking over directorial reins from his good friend Stanley Kubrick, who died in mid-production. Catch Me If You Can teamed him with Tom Hanks for the second time after Saving Private Ryan, and became another acclaimed hit.
Spielberg is also known for being a collaborator with other very popular films including Poltergeist and The Goonies (a team effort with Richard Donner and Chris Columbus). Even recently he was found working in mega-blockbusters like Transformers (2007). He was additionally a co-founder of the studio DreamWorks SKG in 1994 alongside Disney studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg and record producer David Geffen. DreamWorks and Spielberg (as producer) would later go on to make the first Medal of Honor video game, widely regarded as the PS1's GoldenEye. He still runs Amblin Entertainment.
Spielberg has been a long-time friend of George Lucas ever since they met at a film festival when both were in college (Spielberg said he was insanely jealous of Lucas' student film that eventually became THX 1138). While their only official collaborations are Indiana Jones, and to a lesser extent The Land Before Time (Spielberg was supposed to direct Return of the Jedi, issues with the Directors Guild of America stopped that from happening), they frequently spend time together and discuss each other's projects. Spielberg was also a frequent collaborator with Stan Winston, the puppeteer and makeup virtuoso who brought the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park and the robots of A.I.: Artificial Intelligence marvelously to life. He's also famously collaborated with John Williams, with the composer providing the scores for virtually all of Spielberg's films.
Aside from film, Spielberg has also done television work. He directed part of the pilot of Rod Serling's Night Gallery as well as a few TV movies in addition to Duel, and has produced television shows such as Amazing Stories, SeaQuest DSV, ER, and United States of Tara.
He's also delved into animation. He collaborated with Don Bluth in the 1980s to produce box office successes like An American Tail and The Land Before Time, also starting his own animation studio, Amblimation, which would go on to produce the somewhat less successful We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, and Balto; it and Bluth would be spiritually replaced by Katzenberg's DreamWorks Animation (he also had input in DWA's first Shrek movie). He is also known as the executive producer for (and mistakenly believed to have created, thanks to In Case You Forgot Who Wrote It) Warner Bros. Silver Age cartoons Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Freakazoid!, Pinky and the Brain, and some lesser known works, such as Histeria!note , Toonsylvania (one of his first animated projects when he created DreamWorks Studios), and the much-reviled Pinky and the Brain spinoff Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain.
On top of everything else, he has also worked extensively with the Universal Studios parks as a creative consultant. He helped oversee the development of both Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure, as well as many attractions; including E.T. Adventure note , JAWS, Kongfrontation, Back to the Future: The Ride, Jurassic Park River Adventure, The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, Men in Black: Alien Attack, Transformers: The Ride, and so on.
Spielberg has been married to Kate Capshaw since 1991, and was married to Amy Irving from 1985 to 1989. He has seven children: one son by Irving, two daughters and a son by Capshaw, an adopted son and daughter with Capshaw, and a stepdaughter from Capshaw's previous marriage.
In 2018, Spielberg became the first-ever director to have his total worldwide box office cross $10 billion. Even with the plethora of honors he's received over the course of his career, he has said that his Oscars pale in comparison to the honor of being selected as a bearer of the Olympic Flag in the Salt Lake City games of 2002.
- Night Gallery (1969) (TV series, two episodes including the pilot)
- "Murder by the Book", the first episode of Columbo (1971)
- Duel (1971 Made-for-TV Movie, later released theatrically in Europe)
- Something Evil (1972 made-for-TV movie)
- The Sugarland Express (1974)
- Jaws (1975)
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
- 1941 (1979)
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
- Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983, "Kick The Can" segment)
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
- The Color Purple (1985) (1985) — he would later produce the 2023 remake
- Empire of the Sun (1987)
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
- Always (1989)
- Hook (1991)
- Jurassic Park (1993)
- Schindler's List (1993)
- The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
- Amistad (1997)
- Saving Private Ryan (1998)
- A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001)
- Minority Report (2002)
- Catch Me If You Can (2002)
- The Terminal (2004)
- War of the Worlds (2005)
- Munich (2005)
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
- Boom Blox (2008) (video game)
- The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
- War Horse (2011)
- Lincoln (2012)
- Bridge of Spies (2015)
- The BFG (2016)
- The Post (2017)
- Ready Player One (2018)
- West Side Story (2021)
- The Fabelmans (2022)
- I Wanna Hold Your Hand
- Poltergeist
- Gremlins
- Back to the Future
- The Goonies
- An American Tail
- The Flintstones
- The Money Pit
- Innerspace
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit
- The Land Before Time
- Tiny Toon Adventures
- Joe Versus the Volcano
- Cape Fear (uncredited executive producer)
- We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story
- Animaniacs
- SeaQuest DSV
- ER
- Casper
- Balto
- Twister
- Men in Black
- Freakazoid!
- The Prince of Egypt (uncredited)
- Vanilla Sky
- Band of Brothers
- Shrek (uncredited)
- Austin Powers in Goldmember (cameo appearance As Himself)
- Road to Perdition (uncredited)
- Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (uncredited)
- Memoirs of a Geisha
- Flags of Our Fathers
- Letters from Iwo Jima
- Transformers Film Series
- The Lovely Bones
- United States of Tara
- How to Train Your Dragon (uncredited)
- Hereafter
- True Grit
- Super 8
- Cowboys & Aliens
- Fright Night (uncredited)
- Real Steel
- Terra Nova
- The Wolf of Wall Street (uncredited [co-directed one scene])
- Interstellar (originally slated to direct before Christopher Nolan)
- Spielberg (A documentary of his life and work)
- First Man (executive producer)
- The Dig (its main premise was originally pitched by him, and the game credits him as such)
- The Turning (uncredited)
- Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai
- Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Originally set to direct but later stepped down and was replaced by James Mangold, still attached as producer)
- Tiny Toons Looniversity
Tropes associated with Spielberg's filmography.
- Adolf Hitlarious: After applying it in some level on films like 1941 and two of the Indiana Jones movies (Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), he put on record that he swore off ever using this trope again after filming Schindler's List, thinking that portraying the Nazis as anything else but pure unmockable evil was just in poor taste. This is one of the various Real Life Writes the Plot elements that led to a planned Who Framed Roger Rabbit sequel set during World War II to be scrapped and forced Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull to use Russian Communists as the villains. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny went back to using Nazi villains once Spielberg stepped down as director and James Mangold took over, though Spielberg remained on board as a producer and loved the final film when he saw it.
- Associated Composer: All those leitmotifs you currently have stuck in your head are composed by John Williams, who has scored all but four of Spielberg's films since The Sugarland Express. (The sole exceptions are The Color Purple (1985), which they mutually agreed would be better served with music by Quincy Jones; Bridge of Spies, due to a health issue; Ready Player One, due to time constraints*; and West Side Story, due to the film having a built-in soundtrack from the original musical.)
- Author Appeal: In most of Spielberg's films, fathers or father-figures are either absent or aloof. Several
essays have analyzed this as a manifestation of Steven's childhood getting projected into his art (his own father strongly disapproved of his interest in movies, though he admitted he was wrong after Steven's incredible success). - Bittersweet Ending: A good chunk of his movies have either this or happy endings, if the hero dies it will be a dignified Heroic Sacrifice or be remembered in the end for what they've done.
- Black-and-White Morality: Unsurprisingly, any of his films that deal with the Third Reich fall squarely into this. Even Schindler's List, which makes a point of showing the title character as a deeply flawed and imperfect man, makes clear that his vices are not in the same league as those of the Nazi characters.
- Celebrity Cameo: Spielberg has a brief cameo at the end of The Blues Brothers, where he plays the Assessor of Cook County, Illinois (i.e. the guy they actually need to pay the $5000 bucks to save the orphanage to). He also appears As Himself in Austin Powers in Goldmember.
- Central Theme: Spielberg's films touch upon several recurring themes, depending on the film. These films include coming across the extraordinary, faith, and tension of parent-child relationships (especially difficult father-son relationships) His family-friendly films often deal with themes of growing up, family, and feelings of wonder and the power of imagination.
- Creator Cameo: He has a small appearance in his 1972 Made-for-TV Movie Something Evil (a rare non-Universal TV effort), is heard as the coast guard in Jaws before Quint breaks the radio, walks alongside George Lucas in an airport in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and watches a CNN broadcast in The Lost World: Jurassic Park. For a case where he produced, in Gremlins Spielberg is the guy driving the trolley while Billy's dad is on the phone.
- Creator Thumbprint:
- It's not surprising to learn that J. J. Abrams is directly inspired by Spielberg's style, considering that Spielberg himself had a tendency to include Lens Flares in his own films, though most of these from intense light sources that often backlit actors.
- Characters often talk over each other, resulting in two conversations simultaneously occurring or eventually merging in a scene.
- There's a reason why Mystery Science Theater 3000 and RiffTrax often joke that any shot of a character staring in awe at something offscreen is guest directed by Spielberg.
- Spielberg had a streak of films with WWII-era airplanes appearing in them, starting modestly with Close Encounters of the Third Kind and continued much more prominently in 1941, the Indiana Jones movies, Empire of the Sun and Always.
- Development Hell: Spielberg was announced to helm a Blackhawk film in early 2018 with David Koepp at the script. Outside of a late 2020 update on Instagram about the script by Koepp in which he indicated to still be working on it, nothing has seemingly moved forward on the project, likely a result of Warner Bros' well-documented executive leadership problems during that period.
- Disappeared Dad: Divorce and absent fathers is a common topic in Spielberg's films, like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and War of the Worlds. Said to have been partially drawn from his parents divorce in his youth.
- Emotional Torque: His main motivation in filmmaking.
- Enforced Method Acting: He's renowned for finding creative ways to coax performances out of child actors, most famously in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
- Fanservice: Almost totally averted in Spielberg's works. Sexuality is usually offscreen, nudity is rarely seen, and when nudity is seen it's usually for Fan Disservice, as with a murder scene in Munich or concentration camp prisoners in Schindler's List.
- One of the very rare straight examples (combined with Naked People Are Funny) is actually a parody of a Fan Disservice scene in an earlier Spielberg film. In the opening scene of Jaws, a young woman goes skinny-dipping on a beach in the early hours of the morning, only to be eaten by a shark. In the opening scene of 1941, a young woman goes skinny-dipping on a beach in the early hours of the morning only to be rather surprised by a surfacing Japanese submarine; unlike in the previous scene, she escapes after suffering nothing more than a Naked Freak-Out. Bonus points because it was the same actress in both scenes.
- The Film of the Book: Jaws, The Color Purple (1985), Empire of the Sun, Hook, Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, Catch Me If You Can, War of the Worlds, Munich, War Horse, Lincoln, The BFG, and Ready Player One.
- First Contact: Spielberg made four films with this theme: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, War of the Worlds (2005), and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Only the third one shows the aliens as clear villains.
- Friend to All Children: His works use a lot of child actors and he's known for being one of the better directors to deal with kids, always able to get good performances out of them but never forgetting that they're still kids and need to have a normal childhood.
- Genre-Prolific Creator: While often associated with science fiction (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, Minority Report, Ready Player One), he's done monster movies (Jaws, Jurassic Park), action adventure (Indiana Jones), comedy (1941), romance (Always, The Terminal), war epics (Empire of the Sun, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, War Horse), crime dramas (The Sugarland Express), disaster movies (War of the Worlds), fantasy (Hook, The BFG), biopics (Catch Me If You Cannote , Lincoln), period pieces and historical dramas (The Color Purple (1985), Amistad), political thrillers (Munich, Bridge of Spies, The Post), suspense thrillers (Duel), comic book movies (The Adventures of Tintin), even a musical (West Side Story).
- Gorn: "Gorn" might be too strong a word, but Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan and Munich don't shy away from what happens when people suffer violent deaths.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: More common than his critics who find him too family-friendly would imagine; in particular, his espionage movies.
- Growing Up Sucks: Many of Spielberg's films thrive on innocent, naïve and escapist adventure stories, often shown from a child's point of view. Half of the time they are boyish fantasies. This has lead many movie critics to compare him to a cinematic Peter Pan character, whose films never touch upon real adult issues. Spielberg even made a Peter Pan film, Hook! The criticism has died out a little from the moment Spielberg started making more adult films such as The Color Purple (1985), Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Munich and Lincoln, but even in these serious films you'll find lighthearted and comedic moments. Terry Gilliam once (quite unfairly) criticized Spielberg for always wanted to leave his audience with happy endings and answers to everything. A few of Spielberg's films. most notably Hook and Ready Player One, set out about averting this trope, emphasizing the joys of adulthood and engaging with the world and forming relationships in a more mature way.
- Heroic Sacrifice: When good people die in Spielberg's films, they often sacrifice themselves to a greater cause. See Eddie Carr in The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Miller in Saving Private Ryan.
- Kid Hero: Children are often cast as heroes in Spielberg's films or they are at least deemed very important to the progression of the story.
- The Knights Who Say "Squee!": One of the most accomplished, legendary directors in film history. Has big-name actors champing at the bit to work with him. Still so impressed by Anthony Hopkins that he couldn't bring himself to call Hopkins anything but "Sir Anthony" for the entire shoot of Amistad. (Hopkins prefers "Tony".)
- Military Super Hero: In Spielberg's work, soldiers are always cast as brave ordinary people one should look up to, especially if they are American. They won't be perfect people, but they always live up to their duty and do what is right. There's also a strong theme in his more recent work of joining the army for the greater good. In War of the Worlds and Lincoln a youngster wants to join the army, in both occasions because he wants to do his patriotic duty and help his country out. Needless to say, in both cases the boys survive.
- The Oner: Unlike many other directors, Spielberg's oners are on the short end of the scale (averaging about 1-1:30), and he rarely calls attention to them. Many of them are more "invisible coverage" of a scene, essentially moving around actors, the camera and action to create "separate shots" but without breaking up the action. Some great examples includes Marcus and Indy's dialogue at Indy's home in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1:36) or the dialogue above the ferry in Jaws (1:43). His motion capture films like The Adventures of Tintin and Ready Player One all have extensive Oners, however all due in part by what seems to be Spielberg's realization that the limits of a real life cinematographer are missing in the world of animation.
- Parental Issues: In Spielberg's work a lot of troubled father-son relations can be found or adults who don't like children. These two tropes keep reappearing in almost every film he makes.
- Parents as People: A recurring theme throughout his filmography is realistic parental figures who generally mean well and love their kids but have their own flaws and biases and sometimes don't know what is best or how to relate to them. While they are never shown as perfect, they are almost always given a lot of sympathy and understanding.
- Patriotic Fervor: Spielberg is quite proud of his home country and likes to show it in his work, especially when American soldiers fight Nazis. However he is also critical of blind patriotism as in 1941, racism (Amistad, The Color Purple (1985), Lincoln), the Red Scare (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Bridge of Spies), anti-immigrant attitudes (The Terminal), and also corruption (The Post). He also took a small jab at imperialism in War of the Worlds with a character commenting "occupations never work", referencing the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.
- Production Posse:
- Has often worked with producers Bonnie Curtis, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Gerald R. Molen, and Colin Wilson. Starting with Bridge of Spies he has also worked with Kristie Macosko Krieger (who started out as his assistant on various films).
- John Williams has composed the scores to all but four of his movies: The Color Purple (1985) was scored by Quincy Jones, Bridge of Spies which was scored by Thomas Newman, Ready Player One which was scored by Alan Silvestri, and West Side Story, for which David Newman rearranged Leonard Bernstein's original score.
- Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski and production designer Rick Carter have worked on nearly all of Spielberg's movies since the 90s.
- Costume designer Joanna Johnston has worked with Spielberg seven times since Last Crusade, while Mary Zophres has worked with him 3 times.
- Editor Michael Kahn has edited all of Spielberg's films since their first collaboration on Close Encounters of the Third Kind (with the exception of ET The Extraterrestrial).
- Spielberg has worked with writer David Koepp five times, and Tony Kushner four times.
- Tom Hanks has worked with Spielberg five times, Harrison Ford has worked with him four times (five if you count his Deleted Role in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), Richard Dreyfuss has worked with him three times, and Mark Rylance is set to work with him four times. He's also made two films each with Daniel Craig, Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley, Simon Pegg, Jesse Plemons, Amy Ryan, Meryl Streep, and Robin Williams.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: Heavily on the idealistic, often whimsical side. Even in his films portraying the harsh realities of war, there's a certain lever of optimism and wonder.
- Summer Blockbuster: He invented and popularized the genre after Jaws became the best-selling film of all time in 1975. He broke his own record twice with the release of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Jurassic Park (1993).
- Special Effects: Spielberg's films are known for their technical achievements in the fields of special effects, most notably in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Jurassic Park (1993). However, they always complemented the stories and the characters instead of the other way around.
- Tear Jerker: Despite being a special effects innovator Spielberg is known for his emotional depth in his stories and has a great sense of Character Development, though sometimes he is accused of taking it to over-the-top levels.
- Thematic Series: Spielberg considers Duel, Jaws and Jurassic Park to be one, and has also connected ET The Extraterrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and War of the Worlds (friendly aliens, enigmatic aliens, hostile aliens). Other possible thematic series include A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, Minority Report and Ready Player One (dystopian scifi exploring the evolution of technology) and Empire of the Sun, Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan (films exploring the personal impact of World War II on the survivors).
- What Could Have Been:
- George Lucas wanted him to direct Return of the Jedi, but the Director's Guild of America wouldn't allow it because Lucas was no longer a member of the Guild.
- He was approached to direct The Phantom Menace, but he declined, and later apparently offered to direct Attack of the Clones, but Lucas turned him down. Spielberg later helped direct a few parts of Revenge of the Sith.
- He's always wanted to direct a James Bond movie, but Eon Productions head Albert R. Broccoli rejected him twice. The first time, early in his career, Broccoli turned him down because he was young, inexperienced, and unknown. Spielberg approached Broccoli again after directing Jaws, but Broccoli wouldn't hire him because he was afraid he'd demand too much money and ask for too much creative control.
- Being a big fan of Mortal Kombat, he was originally going to have a cameo in the first film adaptation of the games, where he'd be directing one of Johnny Cage's movies, but scheduling conflicts forced him to drop out at the last minute. The character he would have portrayed ultimately appears to be a Captain Ersatz of him.
- He was attached to direct the first Harry Potter movie but backed out for a few reasons. One is that he wanted to make the film animated but Warner Bros. and J. K. Rowling weren't sold on the idea. Two was that he didn't have much experience working with kids or making movies for kids at that point, which is why Chris Columbus was eventually picked to direct. Another is that he considered it too much of a built-in slam dunk and wanted something he saw as more "challenging" to make work.
- He was going to have a small cameo in Casper that was actually filmed, but later cut for pacing.
- Interstellar was written for him to direct. Many have noted that a certain plot twist near the end would fit far better into a Spielberg film than a Christopher Nolan one.
- He spent several months working on Rain Man before commitments to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade forced him to drop out. He gave all his notes to the film's eventual director, Barry Levinson, and would eventually work with the film's lead actors, Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, on Hook and Minority Report and War Of the Worlds, respectively.
- Even before he directed West Side Story, he had long desired to direct a musical. He once noted that 1941 was planned as one but changed during its chaotic production. Later he was attached to a project about opera divas but that was shelved. The closest he came was the opening of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
- Spielberg and David Koepp were announced to work on a Blackhawk film adaptation in 2018 (whether it was to be set in the DC Extended Universe or not had never been made clear). DC Films' infamous tendency to announce projects and never commit to them, their string of huge box office bombs between 2020 and 2023 and the restructuring as DC Studios with an impending Continuity Reboot have prevented it from getting off the ground.
- Was initially attached to direct [1] in the early 1970s, but dropped out after three years due to being unable to come up with a satisfactory script.
