• Three time Academy Award winning director and screenwriter Oliver Stone has produced many controversial and politically charged movies, but says: "I consider my films first and foremost to be dramas about individuals in personal struggles and I consider myself to be a dramatist before I am a political filmmaker."

  Himself a Vietnam War veteran, Stone directed a trilogy of powerful films about the war: Platoon (1986), which earned him his first "Best Director" Oscar, Born on the Fourth of July (1989), for which he received "Best Director" Academy Award, and Heaven and Earth (1993).

  His 1991 movie, JFK, which suggests that government officials were involved in the assassination of former president John F. Kennedy, came under criticism for being an inaccurate portrayal of events presented as fact, as did his four-time Academy Award nominated film portrayal of Richard Nixon, Nixon (1995). Stone published annotated screenplays for both films, which cited references and provided the facts behind his claims.

• 1. Full name: William Oliver Stone
  2. Birth date: September 15, 1946
  3. Birth place: New York, New York
  4. Attended Yale University
  5. Stone's film JFK led to the Assassination Disclosure Act.

• Quotes

  1. "I love intelligent films that come at you fast. I don't have attention deficit disorder, my mind moves fast. There's a lot to deal with in my films."
  2. "The Indians once told me that stones are the most revered and ancient of recording devices. And that perhaps I am here on this Earth to write of these mute histories - just another stone, an 'Oliver' stone."

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