Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director. In a career which spanned five decades, he created a notable body of work consisting of thirteen feature films, many of which are considered classics of 20th century cinema.

The Kubrick myth

Kubrick was interviewed numerous times during the course of his career, but these conversations dealt almost exclusively with his views on the filmmaking process. Kubrick's unwillingness to discuss personal matters publicly, coupled with the controversies created by some of his films, led to a situation where newspaper articles started to repeat a set of unfounded rumors as reported facts. These articles ultimately gave rise to a myth of Kubrick as a kind of highly eccentric hermit genius akin to Howard Hughes in his later years.

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After his death in 1999, Kubrick's family and close associates began to take steps to debunk the myth in earnest. Jan Harlan directed the documentary Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001), while Michael Herr published a short book simply entitled Kubrick (2001). The memoir was based on his 1999 Vanity Fair article written to coincide with the release of Eyes Wide Shut.

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Some of the more widely circulated tabloid rumors include the following:

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• A popular rumor, started in the mid-1980s, was that Kubrick had not only shot a fan who intruded on his property, but delivered a coup de grâce gunshot to the intruder's face because he had bled on the grass. This was untrue and was intended to irritate Kubrick into giving an interview; he did not, though he was deeply upset.
• It has been suggested that Kubrick had an IQ well above 200. While Kubrick was clearly a highly intelligent man, such claims, like other claims of extraordinary IQ scores, are nonsense. See the IQ article for details.