Gore Verbinski

Director Gore Verbinski started his career (after graduating from UCLA film school, making music videos for bands like Bad Religion and Monster Magnet. His feature film credits include the Nathan Lane comedy Mouse Hunt, the American remake of Japanese horror smash The Ring and the massively-successful Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, starring Johnny Depp. Fast Facts:

1. Born on March 16th, 1964 in Oak Ridge, Tennessee
2. Birth name: Gregor Verbinski
3. Debut feature: Mouse Hunt

Verbinski had originally tried to start a career in music, playing guitar for the punk bands Thelonius Monster and The Cylon Boys' Choir. After dabbling in his off-time with filmmaking, he sold his guitar to buy a Super-8 camera. He graduated UCLA Film School with a BFA in 1987 and started immediately working on music videos and commercials. Among his most famous advertising creations were the "croaking" Budweiser frogs, a series of spots that earned him the Silver Lion Award for advertising at the Cannes Film Festival.

Verbinski wrote and directed a short film, The Ritual, which received enough attention to earn him a shot at directing a feature film, the Nathan Lane comic caper Mouse Hunt. He followed that up with the Brad Pitt-Julia Roberts romantic comedy The Mexican, The Ring, the Nicolas Cage dramedy The Weatherman and, most recently, Walt Disney's Pirates trilogy. The third and final film in the series, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, had the highest-grossing opening weekend of all time: $135,600,000

• Note: The majority of the links in this timeline are to IMDb, which has pop-ups.

• 1964: Born

• 1996: The Ritual

• 1997: Mousehunt

• 2002: The Ring

• 2003: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

• 2006: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

• 2007: Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End