Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg is a contemporary movie director, writer and producer. According to Forbes, he is the highest-grossing director of all time, as his movies have collectively pulled in approximately $8 billion at the box office. He has been nominated for six Best Director Oscars, while seven of his movies have been nominated for Best Picture. Of all these nominations, Spielberg has won two Best Director Oscars for Schindler's List in 1993 and Saving Private Ryan in 1998. He also won the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1987 for his body of work as a producer. In 2009 Spielberg was awarded the Cecil B. Demille Award for lifetime achievement by the Hollywood Foreign Press on the Golden Globes and in 2010 Spielberg, along with Tom Hanks, won eight Emmys for their production of the HBO mini series The Pacific.http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2010-03-12-Pacific12_CV_N.htm

Spielberg directed the first official "blockbuster" film, Jaws in 1975. From there, he went on to make some of the biggest and most memorable films in cinema history, including Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977, Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, E.T. in 1982, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 1984, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1987, and Jurassic Park in 1993. Spielberg co-founded DreamWorks SKG with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen in 1994; the company was sold to Paramount Pictures in 2006. In 2008, Spielberg directed the much-anticipated fourth installment of the Indiana Jones film series, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20192040,00.html

According to the New York Daily News, Spielberg's charity Wunderkids had invested about 70% of its capital with Bernard Madoff, the fund investor who revealed in early December 2008 that his fund was a complete fraud.http://www.nypost.com/seven/12142008/news/regionalnews/daily_news_owner_mort_zuckerman_madoff_v_144237.htm

• December 18, 1946: Born

• 1971: Duel

• 1975: Jaws

• 1977: Close Encounters of the Third Kind

• 1981: Raiders of the Lost Ark

• 1982: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

• 1984: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

• 1985: The Color Purple

• 1985: Marriage to Amy Irving

• 1989: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

• 1989: Divorces Irving

• 1991: Marries Kate Capshaw

• 1993: Jurassic Park

• 1994: Wins First Academy Award for Schindler's List

• 1994: Co-founds DreamWorks SKG with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen

• 1999: Wins Second Academy Award for Saving Private Ryan

• 2001: Band of Brothers

• 2002: Catch Me If You Can

• 2005: War of the Worlds

• 2005: Munich

• 2008: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull