Famous Directors

Meet 25 of Hollywood’s most celebrated directors, from Alfred Hitchcock to Steven Spielberg and Christopher Nolan. Get to know the people behind the camera, discover how they got started, and explore some of the movies they directed.

Kathryn Bigelow

Born: November 27, 1951, in San Carlos, California, United States.
Status: Living, age 74.

Kathryn Bigelow started with a paintbrush. She studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute and joined the Whitney Museum’s independent study program before turning to film.

In 2010, she became the first woman to win the directing Oscar, for The Hurt Locker.

Some Movies She Directed: Near Dark; Point Break; Strange Days; K-19: The Widowmaker; The Hurt Locker; Zero Dark Thirty.

Tim Burton

Born: August 25, 1958, in Burbank, California, United States.
Status: Living, age 68.

Tim Burton trained in animation at CalArts and worked as an apprentice animator at Disney. His short film Vincent paid tribute to his childhood screen idol, Vincent Price.

Years later, Burton got to put that admiration on screen again: Price played the inventor in Edward Scissorhands.

Some Movies He Directed: Pee-wee’s Big Adventure; Beetlejuice; Batman; Edward Scissorhands; Ed Wood; Big Fish.

James Cameron

Born: August 16, 1954, in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada.
Status: Living, age 72.

Before directing major movies, James Cameron built models and designed the look of low-budget movies for filmmaker Roger Corman. His route to The Terminator involved a deal with an unusual price tag.

Cameron sold the rights to producer Gale Anne Hurd for one dollar, with the condition that he direct it himself.

Some Movies He Directed: The Terminator; Aliens; The Abyss; Terminator 2: Judgment Day; True Lies; Titanic; Avatar.

Francis Ford Coppola

Born: April 7, 1939, in Detroit, Michigan, United States.
Status: Living, age 87.

Francis Ford Coppola brought a student project to the big screen with You’re a Big Boy Now. It was his final project at UCLA’s film school.

In 1969, Coppola and George Lucas co-founded American Zoetrope, an independent film company.

Some Movies He Directed: The Godfather; The Godfather Part II; The Conversation; Apocalypse Now; Bram Stoker’s Dracula; The Rainmaker.

Clint Eastwood

Born: May 31, 1930, in San Francisco, California, United States.
Status: Living, age 96.

Clint Eastwood was already an established actor when he directed Play Misty for Me in 1971. He starred in it, too, taking on jobs on both sides of the camera.

A love of jazz led him to make Bird, about saxophonist Charlie Parker.

Some Movies He Directed: Play Misty for Me; The Outlaw Josey Wales; Unforgiven; Mystic River; Million Dollar Baby; Letters from Iwo Jima.

David Fincher

Born: August 28, 1962, in Denver, Colorado, United States.
Status: Living, age 64.

David Fincher won the 2011 Golden Globe for directing The Social Network. For Mank, he drew on a family connection.

The film used a screenplay by his father, Jack Fincher. It centers on Herman J. Mankiewicz, a screenwriter of Citizen Kane.

Some Movies He Directed: Se7en; Fight Club; Zodiac; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Social Network; Gone Girl; Mank.

John Ford

Born: February 1, 1894, in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, United States.
Status: Died August 31, 1973, age 79.

John Ford followed his older brother Francis to California and entered silent movies under the name Jack Ford.

During World War II, his camera work took a different turn. Ford served in the US Navy and made The Battle of Midway, a wartime documentary.

Some Movies He Directed: Stagecoach; The Grapes of Wrath; How Green Was My Valley; The Quiet Man; The Searchers; The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

Greta Gerwig

Born: August 4, 1983, in Sacramento, California, United States.
Status: Living, age 43.

Greta Gerwig acted in and co-wrote independent films before taking charge of a movie alone. She shared directing duties with Joe Swanberg on Nights and Weekends; Lady Bird was her solo directing debut.

She then adapted Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. For Barbie, she directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Noah Baumbach.

Some Movies She Directed: Nights and Weekends (co-directed with Joe Swanberg); Lady Bird; Little Women; Barbie.

Howard Hawks

Born: May 30, 1896, in Goshen, Indiana, United States.
Status: Died December 26, 1977, age 81.

Howard Hawks studied mechanical engineering at Cornell, and his experience also included racing cars and flying planes. That’s quite a résumé even before you count his movies.

His directing career crossed plenty of genres, too. Fast-talking comedies, westerns, and crime films all found a place in his work.

Some Movies He Directed: Bringing Up Baby; His Girl Friday; The Big Sleep; Red River; Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; Rio Bravo.

Alfred Hitchcock

Born: August 13, 1899, in Leytonstone, England, United Kingdom.
Status: Died April 29, 1980, age 80.

Alfred Hitchcock entered movies by designing title cards: the text shown on screen in silent films. He later became a familiar face himself through brief on-screen appearances, known as cameos.

His trailers and hosting role on Alfred Hitchcock Presents helped make the director part of the attraction. Looking for Hitchcock could become a small game within the movie.

Some Movies He Directed: Rebecca; Rear Window; Vertigo; North by Northwest; Psycho; The Birds.

Peter Jackson

Born: October 31, 1961, in the Wellington region, New Zealand.
Status: Living, age 65.

The original King Kong helped spark Peter Jackson’s childhood experiments with models and stop-motion animation, which creates movement one frame at a time. He was already making movies at home.

His film Bad Taste later grew from a short project into a feature. Jackson made it over weekends with friends while holding down a newspaper job.

Some Movies He Directed: Bad Taste; Heavenly Creatures; The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring; The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; King Kong (2005).

Stanley Kubrick

Born: July 26, 1928, in New York City, New York, United States.
Status: Died March 7, 1999, age 70.

Stanley Kubrick worked as a photographer for LOOK magazine before making feature films. His photographs are now held by the Library of Congress and the Museum of the City of New York.

He co-wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey with science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke.

Some Movies He Directed: Dr. Strangelove; 2001: A Space Odyssey; A Clockwork Orange; Barry Lyndon; The Shining; Full Metal Jacket.

David Lean

Born: March 25, 1908, in Croydon, Surrey, England, United Kingdom.
Status: Died April 16, 1991, age 83.

David Lean started as a clapper boy, handling the board that marks takes and helps match sound to picture. He became a film editor before moving into directing.

Lean also served as the first chairman of the British Film Academy. He later donated income from Doctor Zhivago and The Bridge on the River Kwai to its successor, BAFTA, the British film and television academy.

Some Movies He Directed: Brief Encounter; Great Expectations; The Bridge on the River Kwai; Lawrence of Arabia; Doctor Zhivago; A Passage to India.

Ang Lee

Born: October 23, 1954, in Pingtung County, Taiwan.
Status: Living, age 72.

Ang Lee studied theater in the United States before earning a master’s degree in filmmaking at New York University. His directing work has taken him through very different kinds of stories.

Two of those brought him Oscars for directing: Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi.

Some Movies He Directed: The Wedding Banquet; Eat Drink Man Woman; Sense and Sensibility; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Brokeback Mountain; Life of Pi.

Spike Lee

Born: March 20, 1957, in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
Status: Living, age 69.

Spike Lee’s final student film at New York University (NYU), Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads, won a Student Academy Award in 1983.

Lee later returned to NYU to teach filmmaking. His production company, 40 Acres and a Mule, is based in Brooklyn.

Some Movies He Directed: She’s Gotta Have It; Do the Right Thing; Malcolm X; 25th Hour; Inside Man; BlacKkKlansman.

George Lucas

Born: May 14, 1944, in Modesto, California, United States.
Status: Living, age 82.

George Lucas built companies as well as movie worlds. He founded Lucasfilm in 1971 and Industrial Light & Magic, a visual-effects company, in 1975.

His work also took him beyond the director’s chair. Lucas created the Indiana Jones story and worked as a producer, while Steven Spielberg directed the original films.

Some Movies He Directed: American Graffiti; Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope; Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace; Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones; Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith.

Sidney Lumet

Born: June 25, 1924, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
Status: Died April 9, 2011, age 86.

Sidney Lumet came to movies after stage work and extensive directing in live television. His first full-length movie, 12 Angry Men, put the focus on actors sharing a cramped space.

Lumet rehearsed the cast for two weeks before shooting. For a story set largely in one room, those performances had plenty of work to do.

Some Movies He Directed: 12 Angry Men; Serpico; Dog Day Afternoon; Network; The Verdict; Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.

Christopher Nolan

Born: July 30, 1970, in London, England, United Kingdom.
Status: Living, age 56.

Christopher Nolan studied English literature at University College London, where he joined the film society. He also met future producer and wife Emma Thomas there.

Memento grew from a story by his brother, Jonathan Nolan.

Some Movies He Directed: Memento; The Prestige; The Dark Knight; Inception; Interstellar; Dunkirk; Oppenheimer.

Martin Scorsese

Born: November 17, 1942, in New York City, New York, United States.
Status: Living, age 83.

As a child with asthma, Martin Scorsese spent time watching movies in theaters and on television. Cinema became a refuge, long before it became his career.

He later helped protect the movies themselves. In 1990, Scorsese joined fellow filmmakers in establishing The Film Foundation, which works to preserve and restore films.

Some Movies He Directed: Taxi Driver; Raging Bull; Goodfellas; Casino; The Departed; Hugo; The Wolf of Wall Street.

Ridley Scott

Born: November 30, 1937, in South Shields, England, United Kingdom.
Status: Living, age 88.

Ridley Scott began at the BBC as a trainee set designer before moving into directing. One of his earlier screen worlds belonged to a bread delivery boy.

Scott directed the 1973 Hovis commercial, featuring a boy and his bicycle. Hovis is a British bread brand, so this was quite a different assignment from the later Alien.

Some Movies He Directed: Alien; Blade Runner; Thelma & Louise; Gladiator; Black Hawk Down; The Martian.

Steven Spielberg

Born: December 18, 1946, in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States.
Status: Living, age 79.

Steven Spielberg’s 1993 releases make an unusual double bill: Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List.

The following year, he founded the Shoah Foundation. Its mission was to record and preserve interviews with Holocaust survivors.

Some Movies He Directed: Jaws; Raiders of the Lost Ark; E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial; Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; Jurassic Park; Schindler’s List; Saving Private Ryan.

Quentin Tarantino

Born: March 27, 1963, in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States.
Status: Living, age 63.

Quentin Tarantino worked at Video Archives, a rental store in Manhattan Beach, California, while developing screenplays. It was also where he formed a friendship with fellow writer Roger Avary.

In 1994, Pulp Fiction won the Palme d’Or, the Cannes Film Festival’s top feature-film prize.

Some Movies He Directed: Reservoir Dogs; Pulp Fiction; Jackie Brown; Kill Bill: Vol. 1; Inglourious Basterds; Django Unchained; Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.

Orson Welles

Born: May 6, 1915, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, United States.
Status: Died October 10, 1985, age 70.

Orson Welles made his name in theater and radio before Hollywood, including a 1938 radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds. He went on to direct and star in Citizen Kane.

His interest in the stage kept finding its way into his films. Welles repeatedly returned to Shakespeare, including in Macbeth and Chimes at Midnight.

Some Movies He Directed: Citizen Kane; The Magnificent Ambersons; The Lady from Shanghai; Touch of Evil; The Trial; Chimes at Midnight.

Billy Wilder

Born: June 22, 1906, in Sucha, then Austria-Hungary (now Sucha Beskidzka, Poland).
Status: Died March 27, 2002, age 95.

Billy Wilder left Germany for Paris in 1933 after the Nazis took power, then moved to the United States. He built a Hollywood career that included writing, directing, and producing.

At the 1961 Oscars, The Apartment brought him three awards. He won for producing Best Picture, directing, and writing the screenplay with I. A. L. Diamond.

Some Movies He Directed: Double Indemnity; The Lost Weekend; Sunset Boulevard; Sabrina; Some Like It Hot; The Apartment.

Robert Zemeckis

Born: May 14, 1952, in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
Status: Living, age 74.

Robert Zemeckis brought live actors and animated characters into the same screen world in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He directed the film, with Richard Williams serving as animation director.

Later, Zemeckis used performance capture in The Polar Express and A Christmas Carol. That process records actors’ performances to drive animated characters.

Some Movies He Directed: Romancing the Stone; Back to the Future; Who Framed Roger Rabbit; Forrest Gump; Contact; Cast Away; The Polar Express.

Ages as of November 14, 2026.