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Top Directors Movie Stars
Build your taste profile and get better suggestions. You've rated 0 of 52 movie stars. Want more suggestions? Launch Quick Rate- Quentin Tarantino
in Inglourious Basterds, Grindhouse: Death Proof, Kill Bill Vol. 1
Influential writer-director Quentin Tarantino was born on March 27, 1963, in Knoxville, Tenn., but moved to Los Angeles with his mother when he was two. After dropping out of high school, he discovered his passion for film while working at a video store in California.
- Steven Spielberg
in The Adventures of Tintin, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Fog City Mavericks
One of the most successful filmmakers in history, Steven Spielberg was born December 18, 1946, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He made 8mm home movies during his youth and spent many years directing for television after dropping out of college. His 1971 television movie Duel hinted at the suspense level of...
- Martin Scorsese
in Shutter Island, Shine a Light, Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
Considered by many to be the greatest living American film director, Martin Scorsese was born in Queens, N.Y., on Nov. 17, 1942. After briefly considering a life in the priesthood, he enrolled instead at New York University's film school. Thanks to several impressive short films, Scorsese worked...
- Alfred Hitchcock
in A Talk with Hitchcock, Family Plot, Frenzy
The universally acknowledged "Master of Suspense," Alfred Hitchcock was born August 13, 1899, to a London greengrocer and his wife, and died April 29, 1980, in Los Angeles, Calif. After designing film titles for movie pioneer Jesse Lasky, Hitchcock landed his first directorial assignment in 1922...
- Peter Jackson
in The Lovely Bones, Entourage: Season 4, The Sci-Fi Boys
Born October 31, 1961, in Pukerua Bay on New Zealand's North Island, Jackson began making movies with his parents' 8mm camera when he was only 8 years old. His first professional movies, in his early twenties, were gory horror flicks (Bad Taste in 1987, Meet the Feebles in 1989 and Braindead in...
- James Cameron
in Avatar, Titanic, The Exodus Decoded
Born in Canada on August 16, 1954, James Cameron attended California State University in the early 1970s. An interest in filmmaking led to a job as an art director and special-effects supervisor for producer Roger Corman. In 1981, Cameron got his first shot at directing with Piranha II: The...
- Ron Howard
in Angels & Demons, Frost/Nixon, The Da Vinci Code
Born into an acting family on March 1, 1954, in Duncan, Okla., Ron Howard has been in front of or behind the camera since his acting debut at 18 months in Frontier Woman (1956).In 1960, he was cast as the precocious Opie on "The Andy Griffith Show," a role he played for eight years.
- Christopher Nolan
in The Dark Knight, Cinema 16: European Short Films, The Prestige
A noted director and screenwriter who split his childhood between London and Chicago, Christopher Nolan was born in London on July 30, 1970. Because his father is British and his mother is American, he has dual citizenship. Nolan released his first feature, Following, in 1998.
- Francis Ford Coppola
in Tetro, Fog City Mavericks, Youth Without Youth
Born April 7, 1939, to Italian-American parents in Detroit, Mich., Francis Ford Coppola grew up in a New York City suburb. He attended UCLA to learn filmmaking and landed a job working as an assistant to B-movie director and producer Roger Corman, who gave Coppola the chance to direct his first...
- Ridley Scott
in Robin Hood, Body of Lies, American Gangster
Born in Tyne and Wear, England, on November 30, 1937, Ridley Scott trained at West Hartlepool Art School, went to the Royal College of Art and eventually landed a job at the BBC, where he worked as a designer and director on several TV series in the 1960s.
- Joel Coen
in A Serious Man, Burn After Reading, No Country for Old Men
A writer and director with a love of classic Hollywood genres, Joel Coen and his partner, brother Ethan, are responsible for some of the big cult and critics' favorites of the last 20 years. Born Nov. 29, 1954, in Minneapolis, Minn., Joel attended Simon's Rock College in Great Barrington, Mass.
- Oliver Stone
in W., Behind the Wheel, Music for the Movies: Georges Delerue
Controversial director, screenwriter and producer Oliver Stone was born September 15, 1946, in New York City, leaving NYU's film school for Vietnam in the late '60s and entering film production upon his return. Stone's wartime and political experiences would forever color his films.
- David Lynch
in Mullholland Dr., Blue Velvet, The Elephant Man
Cult director David Lynch was born January 20, 1946, in Missoula, Mont., where his tumultuous early years served as inspiration for his first feature film, Eraserhead (1977) -- which revealed Lynch's experimental style to audiences and critics alike. His first mainstream feature, The Elephant Man...
- Kevin Costner
in The New Daughter, Swing Vote, NASCAR: The Ride of Their Lives
Born on January 18, 1955, in Lynwood, Calif., Kevin Costner had a classic American boyhood building river rafts, playing school sports and singing in the church choir. He later took acting lessons while majoring in business at California State University at Fullerton.
- Sofia Coppola
in Marie Antoinette, Lost in Translation, CQ
Francis Ford Coppola's only daughter got her start in show business early. Born May 14, 1971, in New York, NY, she was literally baptized into movies when an infant was needed for a scene in The Godfather. At the age of 17, she co-wrote Life Without Zoe, a segment for New York Stories, with her...
- Orson Welles
in War of the Worlds Scandal, Who Is Henry Jaglom?, Directed by John Ford
"Boy genius" Orson Welles was born May 6, 1915, in Kenosha, Wis., displaying an extraordinary talent for acting at a young age. He made his Broadway debut in 1934 in "Romeo & Juliet," and in 1937, he and John Houseman formed the Mercury Theater Company -- a group renowned for its innovative plays...
- Spike Lee
in Passing Strange, Kobe Doin' Work: A Spike Lee Joint, Miracle at St. Anna
Born Shelton Lee on March 20, 1957, in Atlanta, Ga., Spike Lee moved with his parents to Brooklyn, N.Y., when he was just a boy. He attended the Tisch School of the Arts graduate film program and won a student Academy Award for his short film Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983).
- Robert Zemeckis
in A Christmas Carol, A Christmas Carol, Beowulf: Director's Cut
Born in Chicago, Ill., on May 14, 1952, Robert Zemeckis began making short films with an 8mm camera while still in high school. He attended Northern Illinois University before transferring to the University of Southern California film school. Zemeckis first gained attention with the Beatles love...
- Steven Soderbergh
in The Girlfriend Experience, The Informant, Che
Born January 14, 1963, in Atlanta, Ga., Steven Soderbergh moved to Baton Rouge, La., where his father worked at Louisiana State University. While in high school, Soderbergh enrolled in LSU's film animation class and made several shorts.Moving to Hollywood after high school to work as an editor, he...
- Michael Moore
in Sicko, Slacker Uprising, Captain Mike Across America
Born in the working-class community of Davidson, Mich., on April 23, 1954, Michael Moore displayed his social consciousness and populist leanings early, becoming one of the first teens to be elected to public office. As a filmmaker, he shot to fame with his first documentary, Roger & Me (1989)...
- Danny Boyle
in Slumdog Millionaire, Sunshine, Millions
A director with an independent approach to big-studio filmmaking, Danny Boyle was born in Manchester, England, on Oct. 20, 1956. Abandoning earlier ambitions to become a priest, Boyle jumped into theater directing, helming productions at London's Royal Court Theatre and for the Royal Shakespeare...
- Ang Lee
in Taking Woodstock, Lust, Caution, Hollywood Chinese: The Chinese in American Feature Films
Born in Pingtung, Taiwan, on October 23, 1954, Ang Lee went on to graduate from the National Taiwan College of the Arts before traveling to the United States to earn degrees in theater direction and film production. Known for the high quality and widely divergent styles of his films, Lee...
- Wes Anderson
in Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Darjeeling Limited, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Wesley Mortimer Wales "Wes" Anderson (born May 1, 1969) is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer of features, short films and commercials. He was nominated for a 2001 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Royal Tenenbaums.
- Brian De Palma
in Redacted, The Black Dahlia, Sisters
Brian Russell De Palma (born September 11, 1940) is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission...
- Gus Van Sant
in Milk, Entourage: Season 5, Wholphin: Issue 7
Born July 24, 1952, in Louisville, KY., to a traveling salesman and his wife, Gus Van Sant never had a chance to put down real roots, relying on his art to keep him grounded. As a high school student, he began writing and directing short films with a Super-8 camera and soon found his way to the...
- Michael Mann
in Public Enemies, Miami Vice, Lisa Gerrard: Sanctuary
Getting his start as a director of TV commercials in the mid-1960s, Michael Mann brought his rapid-paced, fragmented-image technique to series TV when he began writing for dramas such as "Starsky and Hutch" in the '70s -- a style that reached its zenith in the wildly popular cop show "Miami Vice,"...
- Robert Altman
in A Prairie Home Companion, The American Ruling Class, Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession
Born in Kansas City, Mo., on Feb. 20, 1925, Robert Altman learned about filmmaking after a stint in the Air Force, where he produced documentaries, employee training films and educational shorts.In 1957, he completed The Delinquents, which opened the door for his direction of high-profile TV series...
- Paul Thomas Anderson
in There Will Be Blood, Punch-Drunk Love
Paul Thomas Anderson (born June 26, 1970) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He has written and directed five feature films: Hard Eight (1996), Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999), Punch-Drunk Love (2002) and There Will Be Blood (2007).
- Billy Wilder
in Billy Wilder Speaks, The Front Page, Avanti!
Dubbed "the Viennese pixie," Austrian-born writer-director Billy Wilder arrived in the world June 22, 1906. He became a newspaper reporter and eventually landed in Berlin, where he began penning scripts.With the rise of the Third Reich in 1933, Wilder -- a Jew -- fled to Paris and later to America.
- John Ford
in Never Apologize: A Personal Visit with Lindsay Anderson, John Ford Goes to War, WWII: Combat Chronicles
The son of Irish immigrants, famously prickly director John Ford was born Feb. 1, 1895, in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. After briefly attending the University of Maine, he followed his actor-director brother Francis to Hollywood.Though Ford began his Tinseltown career as a prop man and stunt double, he...
- John Huston
in The Colors of War: Pacific, Humphrey Bogart: Beat the Devil / Jack Benny Show, Making the Misfits
The nucleus of three generations of Academy Award winners, renowned director John Huston was born August 5, 1906, in Nevada, Mo. He began his Hollywood career as a scriptwriter, penning dialogue for such classics as Jezebel (1938) and Sergeant York (1941).
- Sergio Leone
in The Fallen, Once Upon a Time in America, Duck, You Sucker
Sergio Leone was a legendary Italian film director, producer and screenwriter most associated with the "Spaghetti Western" genre. Leone's film making style includes juxtaposing extreme close-up shots with lengthy long shots. His best remembered movies are the 'Man with No Name' trilogy (A Fistful...
- John Cassavetes
in Brilliant But Cancelled: Crime Dramas, A Constant Forge: The Life and Art of John Cassavetes, Big Trouble
Called the father of American independent cinema, John Cassavetes began his career as an actor and continued to call on those skills to fund his directorial efforts. Born Dec. 9, 1929, the New York City native worked steadily in television and film during the 1950s.
- Jonathan Demme
in Rachel Getting Married, Jimmy Carter: Man from Plains, Zoom In: Stories Behind the 2007 Gotham Awards
Jonathan Demme, the offbeat director of one of the best and most controversial films of the 1990s, was born Feb. 22, 1944, in Long Island, N.Y., and began as a cameraman and film critic. He "interned" at American International Pictures, working his way up into the director spot on the B movie Caged...
- Richard Linklater
in Me and Orson Welles, Inning by Inning: A Portrait of a Coach, A Scanner Darkly
Born in Houston on July 30, 1960, Richard Linklater left college to work on an oil rig and used the money he made to create his first feature film, It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books (1988).But it was with the low-budget Slacker (1991) and the subsequent Dazed and Confused (1993) ...
- Jim Jarmusch
in The Limits of Control, Blank City, Broken Flowers
The son of a film critic, director Jim Jarmusch grew up to be the darling of the Cannes Film Festival, winning the Grand Jury Prize for 2005's Broken Flowers. He's also scored a slew of nominations and awards for other movies, including Stranger than Paradise (1984), Down by Law (1986) and Dead Man...
- Sam Peckinpah
in The Osterman Weekend, Convoy, Cross of Iron
Director Sam Peckinpah was born February 21, 1925, in Fresno, Calif. The former Marine began his career in television, writing scripts for "Gunsmoke" and "Zane Grey Theater." His first film directing effort, The Deadly Companions, premiered in 1961, but it wasn't until The Wild Bunch (considered...
- Elia Kazan
in Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde Film 1894-1941, James Dean: Sense Memories, 50 Years: The Best of Hollywood
As legendary for the movies he directed as for his role in the real-life drama of the communist witch-hunts, Elia Kazan earned a storied place in Hollywood history. Born in 1909 in Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey), Kazan began his career in the 1940s on the New York stage, where he directed "A...
- John Lounsbery
in The Rescuers, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
John Lounsbery (March 9, 1911 - February 13, 1976) was an American animator who worked for The Walt Disney Company. He is best known as one of Disney's Nine Old Men. Lounsbery was hired by Disney on July 2, 1935, beginning as an assistant animator on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
- Paul Haggis
in The Black Donnellys: The Complete Series, The Black Donnellys: NBC Pilot, The Dialogue: Paul Haggis
Born on March 10, 1953, in Ontario, Canada, Paul Haggis began his Hollywood career as a writer for numerous sitcoms, including "Diff'rent Strokes" and "One Day at a Time." He earned two Emmys and a Humanitas Prize for his work as a writer and supervising producer of "thirtysomething," then went on...
- Terrence Malick
in The Tree of Life, The New World, The Thin Red Line
Famously shy and with just a handful of movies to his credit, Terrence Malick remains one of America's most admired directors. Born Nov. 30, 1943, in Waco, Texas, Malick attended Harvard University and took his first film class while teaching philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
- Howard Hawks
in Rio Lobo, El Dorado, Man's Favorite Sport?
The director of many films considered to be classics of American cinema, Howard Hawks was born May 30, 1896, in Goshen, Ind. After graduating from Cornell University, he served as a pilot during World War I. Returning stateside, he settled on a career in Hollywood, eventually directing an array of...
- Vincente Minnelli
in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, The Sandpiper, The Courtship of Eddie's Father
The only child of a traveling tent-show conductor, Vincente Minnelli was born in Chicago on Feb. 28, 1903, and spent most of his childhood on the road. After starting out in set and costume design, he diversified by directing Broadway musicals, catching the eye of theater critics who would later...
- John McTiernan
in The Camel Wars, Deadly Exchange, Run
John Campbell McTiernan, Jr. (born January 8, 1951) is an American filmmaker, best known for his action films and most identifiable with the three films he directed back-to-back: Predator, Die Hard, and The Hunt for Red October alongside cult favorite Die Hard With A Vengeance, and Last Action Hero.
- D. W. Griffith
David Llewelyn Wark "D. W." Griffith (January 22 1875 – July 23, 1948) was a premier pioneering Academy Award -winning American film director . He is best known as the director of the controversial and groundbreaking 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent film Intolerance (1916).
- Fred Zinnemann
in Julia, The Day of the Jackal, A Man for All Seasons
Fred Zinnemann (April 29, 1907 - March 14, 1997) was an Austrian-American film director. He won four Academy Awards and directed movies like High Noon, From Here to Eternity and A Man for All Seasons.
- John Sturges
in The Eagle Has Landed, McQ, Charles Bronson: Chino / Man with a Camera
John Eliot Sturges (January 3, 1910 August 18, 1992) was an American film director. His movies include Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Great Escape (1963) and Ice Station Zebra (1968).
- Joseph L. Mankiewicz
in Sleuth, There Was a Crooked Man, Cleopatra
Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on February 11, 1909, Joseph Leo Mankiewicz first worked for the movies as a translator of intertitles, employed by Paramount in Berlin, the UFA's American distributor at the time (1928). He became a dialoguist, then a screenwriter on numerous Paramount...
- Samuel Fuller
in Somebody to Love, Tigrero: A Film That Was Never Made, Golem: The Petrified Garden
Born Aug. 12, 1912, in Worcester, Mass., to Russian and Polish immigrant parents, writer and director Sam Fuller became a New York crime reporter at age 17 and spent the early years of his career writing pulp novels and screenplays. After serving in the First Infantry Division during World War II...
- Douglas Sirk
in Imitation of Life, Battle Hymn, Written on the Wind
The film director Douglas Sirk, whose reputation blossomed in the generation after his 1959 retirement from Hollywood filmmaking, was born Hans Detlef Sierck on April 26, 1900, in Hamburg, Germany to a journalist. Both of his parents were Danish, and the future director would make movies in German...
- Errol Morris
in Standard Operating Procedure, Wholphin: Issue 2, Capturing Reality: The Art of Documentary
Errol Morris (born February 5, 1948) is an American Academy Award-winning documentary film director. In 2003 The Guardian put him seventh in its list of the world's 40 best directors.
