DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY
Steven Allan Spielberg gained notoriety as an uncredited assistant editor on the classic western Caravana (1957).
Among his early directing efforts were Battle Squad (1961).
He also directed Escape to Nowhere (1961)and The Last Gun (1959), a western. All of these were short films.
The next couple of years, Spielberg directed a couple of movies that would portend his future career in movies.
Jaws (1975) made him an international superstar among directors. Spielberg hit gold yet one more time with Raiders of the lost Ark (1981), with Harrison Ford taking the part of Indiana Jones.
Spielberg produced and directed two films in 1982. The first was Poltergeist (1982), and E.T. (1982).
Spielberg also helped pioneer the practice of product placement. The concept, while not uncommon, was still relatively low-key when Spielberg raised the practice to almost an art form with his famous (or infamous) placement of Reece's Pieces in ""E.T."" Spielberg was also one of the pioneers of the big-grossing special-effects movies, like ""E.T."" and ""Close Encounters"", where a very strong emphasis on special effects was placed for the first time on such a huge scale.
As a producer, Spielberg took on many projects in the 1980s, such as Goonies (1985) and Gremlins (1984). His biggest effort as producer in 1985, however, was the blockbuster Back to the future (1985), which made Michael J. Fox an instant superstar.
The late 1980s found Spielberg's projects at the center of pop-culture yet again. In 1988, he produced the landmark animation/live-action film Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). The next year proved to be another big one for Spielberg, as he produced and directed Indiana Jones and the last crusade (1989), and Back to the future II (1989).
Spielberg was very active in the early 1990s, as he directed Hook (1991) and Jurassic Park (1993), which for a short time held the record as the highest grossing movie of all time, but did not have the universal appeal of his previous efforts. Big box-office spectacles were not his only concern, though.
He produced and directed Schindler’s list (1993), a stirring film about the Holocaust. He won best director at the Oscars, and also got Best Picture.
In the mid-90s, he helped found the production company DreamWorks, which was responsible for many box-office successes.