Steven Spielberg

Steven Allan Spielberg KBE (born on December 18, 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio but raised in the suburbs of Haddonfield, New Jersey and Scottsdale, Arizona) is an Oscar winning Jewish American film director and producer whose films range from science fiction to historical drama to horror. He is noted in recent years for his willingness to tackle emotionally powerful issues, such as the horrors of the Holocaust in Schindler's List, slavery in Amistad, and the hardships of war in Saving Private Ryan. One consistent theme in his work is a childlike, even naïve, sense of wonderment and faith, as attested by works such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Hook and A.I..

Trivia

• While the films that Steven Spielberg directed have won numerous awards, no actor or actress has won an Academy Award for a performance for one of his films.
• Spielberg had a cameo role as the Cook County assessor in the last minutes of the 1980 film The Blues Brothers.
• In 1982 Ben Kingsley won Best Actor and Richard Attenborough won Best Director for the film Gandhi, which beat Steven Spielberg's film E.T. for Best Picture. Eleven years later, in 1993, Steven Spielberg cast Richard Attenborough as the grandfather in Jurassic Park (his first performance in 13 years) and Ben Kingsley in Schindler's List. Steven Spielberg won Best Director and Best Picture Oscars that year.
• Spielberg, an Eagle Scout, designed the requirements for the Boy Scout Cinematography merit badge.
• While attending college, Spielberg was a member of Theta Chi Fraternity. Fraternity rumor states that many of his films have very low-key symbols referring to the ritual of the fraternity.
• The asteroid 25930 Spielberg is named in his honour.
• Supports the U.S. Democratic Party.
• Attended Arcadia High School in Scottsdale, AZ and graduated from Saratoga High School in California.
• On attending Saratoga High School, he said that it was the "worst experience" of his life and "hell on Earth". http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/05.29.97/spielberg-9722.html
• In 2002 Spielberg was awarded a B.A. in Film Production and Electronic Arts with an option in Film/Video Production from California State University, Long Beach. He first enrolled at Long Beach State in 1965.
• Applied to, and was rejected by, the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television three separate times. The prominent school later awarded Spielberg an honorary degree in 1994. Two years later, Spielberg became a Trustee of the University and has since tirelessly devoted himself to supporting USC, despite its many snubbings.
• The A&E Network is expected to announce that it will produce a two-hour drama about the relationship between filmmakers George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. According to Daily Variety, the biopic, tentatively titled Celluloid Titans, is being executive produced by Jody Brockway.
• For his work on the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation since 1994, he was awarded with the Great Cross of Merit with Star, the German version of the Great Officer's Cross, in September 1998 for "a very noticeable contribution to the issue of the Holocaust".
• Spielberg is expected to make a cameo appearance within an episode of the second season of Extras, the BBC comedy TV series written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (previously responsible for The Office).http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4715713.stm
• Steven Spielberg is recreated as a LEGO minifigure in the LEGO Studios series of sets.
• His mother, the former Leah Adler, owns a Kosher restaurant in Los Angeles, California.