Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg was born on December 18, 1947 in Cincinnati, Ohio. His mother Leah Spielberg was a concert pianist and his father, Arnold Spielberg was an electric engineer who was part of the team that designed the first computers. His family moved from Ohio to New Jersey, and then to Arizona while he was just a young boy. Steven Spielberg is married to actress Kate Capshaw. They each have a child from a previous marriage, his was from actress Amy Irving and have a son and daughter, and also an adopted son and adopted daughter. They recently had their fifth child together, a baby daughter named Destry Allen Spielberg. Spielberg began making short films before he was a teen, casting family members and friends as actors and placing himself as director. He studied film in California State College and made regular trips to Universal Studios. In 1969, he made his professional debut with a 24-minute show, Amblin'. But his breakthrough came with the television movie Duel (1971). With the success of Duel, Spielberg debuted feature films like: The Sugarland Express (1973), Jaws (1975 making $130 million and costing only $8.5 million), Third Kind (1977, earned Spielberg his first Academy Award nomination as Best Director).

More blockbuster hits included Star Wars (with George Lucas), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Poltergeist (1982), Gremlins (1984), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Back to the Future (1985), The Color Purple (1985, honored