The Masters

1. Stanley Kubrick

Director | 2001: A Space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick was born in Manhattan, New York City, to Sadie Gertrude (Perveler) and Jacob Leonard Kubrick, a physician. His family were Jewish immigrants (from Austria, Romania, and Russia). Stanley was considered intelligent, despite poor grades at school. Hoping that a change of scenery would ...

2. Cormac McCarthy

Writer | The Road

Cormac McCarthy was born on July 20, 1933 in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for The Road (2009), No Country for Old Men (2007) and The Counselor (2013). He was married to Jennifer Claire Winkley, Anne DeLisle and Lee Holleman. He died on June 13, 2023 in Santa Fe...

3. Stephin Merritt

Soundtrack | Shall We Dance?

Born to American beatnik parents Linda 'Alix' Merritt and folk musician Scott Fagan, Stephin Merritt formed and plays principal roles in his band The Magnetic Fields, as well as side-project bands The 6ths, The Gothic Archies and Future Bible Heroes, writing and composing nearly five hundred songs ...

4. Joanna Newsom

Actress | Inherent Vice

Joanna Newsom was born on January 18, 1982 in Grass Valley, California, USA. She is a music artist and actress, known for Inherent Vice (2014), The Strangers (2008) and Paper Towns (2015). She has been married to Andy Samberg since September 21, 2013. They have two children.

5. Paul Thomas Anderson

Director | Punch-Drunk Love

Anderson was born in 1970. He was one of the first of the "video store" generation of film-makers. His father was the first man on his block to own a V.C.R., and from a very early age Anderson had an infinite number of titles available to him. While film-makers like Spielberg cut their teeth making...

6. Yasujirô Ozu

Writer | Tôkyô monogatari

Tokyo-born Yasujiro Ozu was a movie buff from childhood, often playing hooky from school in order to see Hollywood movies in his local theatre. In 1923 he landed a job as a camera assistant at Shochiku Studios in Tokyo. Three years later, he was made an assistant director and directed his first ...

7. William Shakespeare

Writer | The Tragedy of Macbeth

William Shakespeare's birthdate is assumed from his baptism on April 25. His father John was the son of a farmer who became a successful tradesman; his mother Mary Arden was gentry. He studied Latin works at Stratford Grammar School, leaving at about age 15. About this time his father suffered an ...

8. Leonardo Da Vinci

Writer | The Year of Living Locked Up

The archetypal "Renaissance Man," Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest scientific minds as well as one of the greatest visual artists the human race has ever produced. The illegitimate son of a wealthy Florentine notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant woman named Caterina, Leonardo was born in ...

9. Vladimir Nabokov

Writer | Lolita

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was born on April 22, 1899, the eldest of five children in a wealthy aristocratic family in St. Petersburg, Russia. His grandfather was a Justice Minister to the Czar Alexander II. His father, named Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov, was a liberal political leader, the ...

10. Quentin Tarantino

Writer | Reservoir Dogs

Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. His father, Tony Tarantino, is an Italian-American actor and musician from New York, and his mother, Connie (McHugh), is a nurse from Tennessee. Quentin moved with his mother to Torrance, California, when he was four years old.

In January of...

11. György Ligeti

Soundtrack | 2001: A Space Odyssey

1941-43 he began his study of composition under Ferenc Farkas; 1945-49 he continued at the Budapest Music Academy under the same teacher and Sándor Veress. 1950-56 he was lecturer in Harmony and Counterpoint at the Academy at Budapest. Left Hungary toward the end of 1956. 1957-59 freelance work at ...

12. Andrei Tarkovsky

Writer | Offret

The most famous Soviet film-maker since Sergei Eisenstein, Andrei Tarkovsky (the son of noted poet Arseniy Tarkovsky) studied music and Arabic in Moscow before enrolling in the Soviet film school VGIK. He shot to international attention with his first feature, Ivan's Childhood (1962), which won the...

13. Terrence Malick

Writer | Days of Heaven

Terrence Malick was born in Ottawa, Illinois. His family subsequently lived in Oklahoma and he went to school in Austin, Texas. He did his undergraduate work at Harvard, graduating summa cum laude with a degree in philosophy in 1965.

A member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, he attended Magdalen ...

14. Jenova Chen

Director | Flower

Jenova Chen is known for Flower (2009), Journey (2012) and Sky: Children of the Light (2019).

15. René Magritte

Animation_department | Between Earth and the End of Time

René Magritte was born on November 21, 1898 in Lessines, Belgium. He is known for Between Earth and the End of Time (1995), Quality Content (2017) and Illusion of Seeing (1990). He was married to Georgette Magritte. He died on August 15, 1967 in Brussels, Belgium.

16. Thomas Pynchon

Writer | Inherent Vice

Thomas Pynchon was born on May 8, 1937 in Glen Cove, Long Island, New York, USA. He is a writer and actor, known for Inherent Vice (2014), Prüfstand VII (2002) and Thomas Pynchon: A Journey Into the Mind of P. (2002). He has been married to Melanie Jackson since 1991. They have one child.

17. James Turrell

Self | Museum Town

18. Dave McKean

Director | Mirrormask

Dave McKean was born on December 29, 1963 in Taplow, Slough, Berkshire, England, UK. He is a director and writer, known for Mirrormask (2005), Luna (2014) and N[eon] (2002). He is married to Clare. They have two children.

19. Sarah Reich

Actress | Sarah Reich's Tap Music Project: Gemini Vibe

Tap dancer, instructor, and choreographer Sarah Reich was born on May 24, 1989 in Culver City, California. Her mother is Mexican while her father is Hungarian. Reich started tap dancing at the age of five and danced salsa in clubs with her sister when she was twelve years old. Sarah has performed ...

20. Michael Land

Music_department | Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance

Michael Land was born in 1961 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He is a composer, known for Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance (1999), Star Wars: Dark Forces (1995) and Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999).

21. Arnt Jensen

Director | Inside

Arnt Jensen is known for Inside (2016), Limbo (2010) and Freedom Fighters (2003).

22. Jonny Greenwood

Soundtrack | The Master

Jonny Greenwood was born on November 5, 1971 in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK. He is a composer and actor, known for The Master (2012), There Will Be Blood (2007) and Phantom Thread (2017). He has been married to Sharona Katan since 1995. They have three children.

23. Takako Tate

Actress | Dare mo shiranai

Takako Tate was born on July 24, 1978 in Japan. She is an actress, known for Nobody Knows (2004).

24. Vittorio Storaro

Cinematographer | Apocalypse Now

Vittorio Storaro, the award-winning cinematographer who won Oscars for "Apocalypse Now (1979)", "Reds (1981)" and "The Last Emperor (1987)". He was born on June 24, 1940 in Rome, where his father was a projectionist at the Lux Film Studio. At the age of 11, he began studying photography at a ...

25. Fred Astaire

Actor | The Towering Inferno

Fred Astaire was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to Johanna (Geilus) and Fritz Austerlitz, a brewer. Fred entered show business at age 5. He was successful both in vaudeville and on Broadway in partnership with his sister, Adele Astaire. After Adele retired to marry in 1932, Astaire headed to Hollywood. ...

26. Fumito Ueda

Director | Wanda to kyozô

Fumito Ueda is known for Shadow of the Colossus (2005), The Last Guardian (2016) and Ico (2001).

27. J.R.R. Tolkien

Writer | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

English writer, scholar and philologist, Tolkien's father was a bank manager in South Africa. Shortly before his father died (1896) his mother took him and his younger brother to his father's native village of Sarehole, near Birmingham, England. The landscapes and Nordic mythology of the Midlands ...

28. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Soundtrack | Amadeus

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart grew up in Salzburg under the regulation of his strict father Leopold who also was a famous composer of his time. His abilities in music were obvious even when Mozart was still young so that in 1762 at the age of six, his father took him with his elder sister on a concert ...

29. Koji Kondo

Soundtrack | Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Koji Kondo was born on August 13, 1961 in Nagoya, Japan. He is a composer, known for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018) and The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023).

30. Hayao Miyazaki

Writer | Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi

Hayao Miyazaki is one of Japan's greatest animation directors. The entertaining plots, compelling characters, and breathtaking visuals in his films have earned him international renown from critics as well as public recognition within Japan.

Miyazaki started his career in 1963 as an animator at the ...

31. Lisa Park

32. Arthur C. Clarke

Writer | 2001: A Space Odyssey

Arthur C. Clarke was born in the seaside town of Minehead, Somerset, England in December 16, 1917. In 1936 he moved to London, where he joined the British Interplanetary Society. There he started to experiment with astronautic material in the BIS, write the BIS Bulletin and science fiction. During ...

33. Sergei Prokofiev

Soundtrack | Children of Men

Prokofiev was a multi-talented man and an innovative composer. He learned piano from his mother and chess from his father. He always had a chess set on his piano, and was able to play against the chess champions of his time. He studied music with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, graduated with highest ...

34. Nina Paley

Director | Sita Sings the Blues

Nina Paley was born on May 3, 1968 in Champaign, Illinois, USA. She is a director and writer, known for Sita Sings the Blues (2008), Seder-Masochism (2018) and Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet (2014). She was previously married to Liam.

35. Jacques Offenbach

Soundtrack | Moulin Rouge!

Jacques Offenbach, the son of a synagogue cantor, was born in Cologne, Germany, June 20, 1819. So strong were his musical talents that the Paris Conservatory waived the rule forbidding foreigners and enrolled him. At the completion of his studies he began playing the cello in the orchestra of the ...

36. Thomas Tallis

Soundtrack | Inspector Gadget

Thomas Tallis was born in 1505 in England. He was a composer, known for Inspector Gadget (1999), Elizabeth (1998) and The Keep (1983). He died on November 23, 1585 in Greenwich, London, England, UK.

37. Keith Kenniff

Soundtrack | Deniz Seviyesi

Keith Kenniff is known for Deniz Seviyesi (2014), Harvest (2011) and Blood Brother (2013).

38. Frank Miller

Writer | Sin City

Frank Miller was born in Olney, Maryland, to a nurse mother and a carpenter and electrician father, and was raised in Montpelier, Vermont. He is of Irish descent. Miller was a big comics writer/artist in the '70s and '80s. He wrote and penciled the Marvel series "Daredevil" for a long time. His ...

39. Daniel Day-Lewis

Actor | There Will Be Blood

Born in London, England, Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is the second child of Cecil Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate of the U.K., and his second wife, actress Jill Balcon. His maternal grandfather was Sir Michael Balcon, an important figure in the history of British cinema and head of the famous Ealing ...

40. Zdzislaw Beksinski

Art_department | Parasomnia

Zdzislaw Beksinski was born on February 24, 1929 in Sanok, Podkarpackie, Poland. He was a cinematographer, known for Parasomnia (2008), From Within (2019) and Dziennik zapowiedzianej smierci (2000). He was married to Zofia Helena Stankiewicz. He died on February 22, 2005 in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, ...

41. Saul Leiter

Self | Tracing Outlines

Saul Leiter was born on December 3, 1923 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He died on November 26, 2013 in New York City, New York, USA.

42. Edward S. Curtis

Director | In the Land of the Head Hunters

Edward S. Curtis was born on February 19, 1868 in Whitewater, Wisconsin, USA. He was a director and writer, known for In the Land of the Head Hunters (1914), The Alaskan Indians (1916) and Seeing America (1916). He was married to Clara Phillips. He died on October 19, 1952 in Los Angeles, ...

43. Brett Weston

Art_department | Ben Casey

Brett Weston is known for Ben Casey (1961) and The Naked Eye (1956).

44. Kenji Yamamoto

Composer | Metroid Prime 3 Remastered

Kenji Yamamoto was born on April 25, 1964 in Mie Prefecture, Japan. He is a composer, known for Metroid Prime 3 Remastered, Metroid Prime (2002) and Metroid Prime Remastered (2023).