Steven Spielberg
(Director)

Born in Cincinnati on December 18th, 1946, Steven's family moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, when he was just a child. The son of an electrical engineer father and a concert pianist mother, Steven had an early fascination with cinema, and at 13 he won a local contest for his 40-minute film Escape to Nowhere. Despite a prodigious output at a young age, Spielberg was unable to get accepted to USC's film school and instead opted to major in English Literature at California State University at Long Beach.

In 1969 Spielberg was offered a seven-year contract at Universal Studios' television division, during which time he made Duel. His success on that film lead to his first feature, 1974's The Sugarland Express, a the film that earned Spielberg the Best Screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival. Spielberg followed that movie with Jaws and effectively earned his place in American film history. His filmography reads like the American Film Institute's top 100 list - Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jurassic Park are just a few of the mega-hits Spielberg directed.

In 1993 Spielberg took a sharp turn towards more adult, political material with the haunting Schindler's List. The film brought him his first "Best Director" and "Best Picture" Oscars. Spielberg continued to alternate his brand of Saturday-matinee film (The Lost World: Jurassic Park) with more thoughtful, serious fare (Amistad and Saving Private Ryan).

Spielberg met his second wife, Kate Capshaw, when she auditioned for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. She won a part in the movie, and the two were married in 1991. Both Spielberg and Capshaw had one child from a previous marriage and now the couple has a total of seven children including two adopted children. By all accounts, the family is a rarity in Hollywood: a happy, cohesive clan.