One of the most influential personalities in cinema’s history, Steven Spielberg, is Hollywood’s best-known director and one of the world’s wealthiest filmmakers. He has an extraordinary number of commercially successful and critically acclaimed credits to his name, either as a director, producer, or writer since launching the summer blockbuster with Jaws (1975). He has done more to define popular film-making since the mid-1970s than anyone else.

Steven Allan Spielberg was born in 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Leah Frances (Posner), a concert pianist and restaurateur, and Arnold Spielberg, an electrical engineer who worked in computer development. His parents were both born to Russian Jewish immigrant families. Steven spent his younger years in Haddon Township, New Jersey, Phoenix, Arizona, and later Saratoga, California. He went to California State University Long Beach but dropped out to pursue his entertainment career. He gained notoriety as an uncredited assistant editor on the classic western Wagon Train (1957). Among his early directing efforts were Battle Squad (1961), which combined World War II footage with footage of an airplane on the ground that he makes you believe is moving. He also directed Escape to Nowhere (1961), which featured children as World War Two soldiers, including his sister Anne Spielberg, and The Last Gun (1959), a western. All of these were short films. Spielberg directed a couple of movies that would portend his future career in film in the next couple of years. In 1964, he directed Firelight (1964), a movie about aliens invading a small town. In 1967, he directed Slipstream (1967), which was unfinished. However, in 1968, he directed Amblin’ (1968), which featured the desert prominently, and not the first of his movies in which the desert would feature so prominently. Amblin’ also became the name of his production company, which turned out such classics as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Spielberg had a unique and classic early directing project, Duel (1971), with Dennis Weaver. In the early 1970s, Spielberg was working on T.V., directing, among others such series as Rod Serling’s Night Gallery (1969), Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969), and Columbo: Murder by the Book (1971). All of his work in television and short films, as well as his directing projects, were just a hint of the wellspring of talent that would dazzle audiences all over the world.

Spielberg’s first significant directorial effort was The Sugarland Express (1974), with Goldie Hawn, a film that marked him as a rising star. However, it was his next effort that made him an international superstar among directors: Jaws (1975). This classic shark attack tale started the tradition of the summer blockbuster, or, at least, he was credited with creating the practice. His next film was the classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), a unique and original UFO story that remains a classic. In 1978, Spielberg produced his first film, the forgettable I want to Hold Your Hand (1978), and followed that effort with Used Cars (1980), a critically acclaimed, but mostly forgotten, Kurt Russell/Jack Warden comedy about devious used-car dealers. Spielberg hit gold yet one more time with Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), with Harrison Ford taking the part of Indiana Jones. Spielberg produced and directed two films in 1982. The first was Poltergeist (1982), but the highest-grossing movie of all time up to that point was the alien story E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Spielberg also helped pioneer the practice of product placement. The concept, while not uncommon, was still relatively low-key when Spielberg raised the method to almost an art form with his famous (or infamous) placement of Reese’s Pieces in “E.T.” Spielberg was also one of the pioneers of the big-grossing special-effects movies, like “E.T.” and “Close Encounters,” where a robust emphasis on special effects was placed for the first time on such a vast scale. In 1984, Spielberg followed up “Raiders” with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), a commercial success but did not receive the critical acclaim of its predecessor. As a producer, Spielberg took on many projects in the 1980s, such as The Goonies (1985), and was the brains behind the little monsters in Gremlins (1984). He also produced the cartoon An American Tail (1986), a quaint minor animated classic. However, his most significant effort as producer in 1985 was the blockbuster Back to the Future (1985), making Michael J. Fox an instant superstar. Spielberg took on the book The Color Purple (1985), with Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey, with great success. In the latter half of the 1980s, he also directed The Empire of the Sun (1987), a mixed success for the occasionally erratic Spielberg. Success would not escape him for long, though.

The late 1980s found Spielberg’s projects at the center of pop-culture yet again. In 1988, he produced the landmark animation/live-action film Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). The next year proved to be another big one for Spielberg, as he produced and directed Always (1989) as well as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) and Back to the Future Part II (1989). All three of the films were box-office and critical successes. In 1989, he produced the little known comedy-drama Dad (1989), with Jack Lemmon and Ted Danson, which got mostly mixed results. Spielberg has also had an affinity for animation and has been a strong voice in animation in the 1990s. Aside from producing the landmark “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” he produced the animated series Tiny Toon Adventures (1990), Animaniacs (1993), Pinky and the Brain (1995), Freakazoid! (1995), Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain (1998), Family Dog (1993), and Toonsylvania (1998). Spielberg also produced other cartoons such as The Land Before Time (1988), We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story (1993), Casper (1995) (the live-action version), as well as the live-action version of The Flintstones (1994), where he was credited as “Steven Spielrock.” Spielberg also produced many Roger Rabbit short cartoons and many Pinky and the Brain, Animaniacs, and Tiny Toons specials. Spielberg was very active in the early 1990s, as he directed Hook (1991) and produced such films as the cute fantasy Joe Versus the Volcano (1990) and An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991). He also produced the unusual comedy thriller Arachnophobia (1990), Back to the Future Part III (1990), and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990). While these movies were big successes in their own right, they did not quite bring in the kind of box office or critical acclaim as previous efforts. In 1993, Spielberg directed Jurassic Park (1993), which for a short time held the record as the highest-grossing movie of all time, but did not have the universal appeal of his previous efforts. Big box-office spectacles were not his only concern, though. He produced and directed Schindler’s List (1993), a stirring film about the Holocaust. He won the best director at the Oscars and also got Best Picture. In the mid-90s, he helped found the production company DreamWorks, responsible for many box-office successes.

As a producer, he was very active in the late 90s, responsible for such films as The Mask of Zorro (1998), Men in Black (1997), and Deep Impact (1998). However, it was on the directing front that Spielberg was in top form. He directed and produced the epic Amistad (1997), a spectacular film shorted at the Oscars and in release because its release date was moved around so much in late 1997. The next year, however, produced what many believe was one of his career’s best films: Saving Private Ryan (1998), a movie about World War Two that is spectacular in almost every respect. It was stiffed at the Oscars, losing best picture to Shakespeare in Love (1998).

Spielberg produced a series of films, including Evolution (2001), The Haunting (1999), and Shrek (2001). he also made two sequels to Jurassic Park (1993), financially but not particularly critical successes. In 2001, he produced a mini-series about World War Two that was a financial and critical success: Band of Brothers (2001), a tale of an infantry company from its parachuting into France during the invasion to the Battle of the Bulge. In that year, Spielberg was back in the director’s chair for A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), a movie with a message and a huge budget. It did reasonably at the box office and garnered mixed reviews from critics.

Spielberg has been extraordinarily active in films. There are many other things he has done, as well. He produced the short-lived T.V. series Seaquest DSV (1993), an anthology series entitled Amazing Stories (1985), created the video-game series “Medal of Honor” set during World War Two, and was a starting producer of E.R. (1994). Spielberg, if you haven’t noticed, has a great interest in World War Two. He and Tom Hanks collaborated on Shooting War: World War II Combat Cameramen (2000), a documentary about World War II combat photographers. He produced a documentary about the Holocaust called A Holocaust szemei (2000). With all of this to Spielberg’s credit, it’s no wonder that he’s looked at as one of the greatest ever figures in entertainment.