Stone, Oliver (1946-…), is an American motion-picture director, screenwriter, and producer. Stone is best known for his often controversial films about American society.
Stone served as a combat soldier in the Vietnam War in 1967 and 1968. He wrote and directed three films about the Vietnam War era. He won an Academy Award as best director for Platoon (1986), a realistic portrayal of a young soldier’s experiences during the war. Stone also won an Academy Award for his direction of Born on the Fourth of July (1989), a true story about a soldier who was paralyzed during the war. Heaven and Earth (1993) depicts the war’s devastation of the Vietnamese people.
Stone first became well known for writing the film Midnight Express (1978), a grim tale of an American’s experiences in a Turkish prison. He won an Academy Award for the film’s screenplay. Stone co-wrote and directed Wall Street (1987), a story about corrupt values in the world of finance; The Doors (1991), a portrayal of the 1960’s rock group of the same name; JFK (1991), a controversial interpretation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy ; Natural Born Killers (1994), a satire about American fascination with violence; Nixon (1995), a biography of President Richard M. Nixon ; Any Given Sunday (1999), an exploration of professional football in the United States; Alexander (2004), a historical epic about the Macedonian general Alexander the Great; and Snowden (2016), a biography of Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor who was charged by the United States with espionage. Stone directed World Trade Center (2006), a realistic account of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001; the biographical film W. (2008), based on the life and presidency of George W. Bush; Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010), a sequel to Wall Street; and the crime thriller Savages (2012).
Stone was born on Sept. 15, 1946, in New York City. He wrote the memoir (autobiography) Chasing the Light (2020) about his life and career.
