Spielberg, Steven (1946-…), is an American motion-picture director and producer. Several of his films rank among the highest grossing movies in history. Spielberg is a superb technician, especially expert in propelling his stories forward with breathless style. Spielberg won Academy Awards for directing the films Schindler’s List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). He also has won several Golden Globe Awards for directing, and some television programs he produced have won Emmy Awards.
Spielberg’s films tend to fall into two categories. One is light entertainment that appeals primarily to youthful audiences. Most of his commercial hits fall into this category. They include Jaws (1975); Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977); E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982); Jurassic Park (1993) and its sequel The Lost World (1997); War of the Worlds (2005); the animated feature The Adventures of Tintin (2011); and The BFG (2016). His other popular movies include the “Indiana Jones” films Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). In addition, Spielberg directed the comedies Catch Me If You Can (2002) and The Terminal (2004).
The second category of films consists of more serious works. Schindler’s List is a powerful drama set during the Holocaust in Europe. Saving Private Ryan is a realistic story of battle during World War II (1939-1945). Spielberg’s other serious films include Sugarland Express (1974), The Color Purple (1985), Empire of the Sun (1987), Amistad (1997), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Minority Report (2002), Munich (2005), War Horse (2011), Lincoln (2012), Bridge of Spies (2015), and The Fabelmans (2022). In addition, Spielberg produced the TV miniseries Band of Brothers (2001) and The Pacific (2010), which are about World War II; and Taken (2002), about abduction by aliens.
Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Dec. 18, 1946. Unlike most of his peers, he is largely self-taught. Spielberg began making movies as a teenager. He dropped out of college after his low-budget, amateur films led to a television contract with Universal Studios. Later, in 2002, he completed a B.A. degree in film and electronic arts from California State University, Long Beach. Spielberg first gained recognition with the suspenseful TV movie Duel (1971). In 1994, he joined with entertainment executives Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen to form the film studio DreamWorks SKG. DreamWorks later developed into a major animation studio.
In 1994, after filming Schindler’s List, Spielberg established the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. It recorded more than 50,000 video testimonies of survivors, rescuers, and other eyewitnesses of the Holocaust. In 2006, the foundation became part of the University of Southern California (USC), and its name was changed to the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education. The institute preserves the video archive and makes it available for educational use.
