Directors who can Tackle Multiple Genres?
by The-Social-Introvert | created - 10 Mar 2016 | updated - 16 Jan 2017 | PublicThe following directors have directed acclaimed movies in a number of genres.
Which of them do you believe is/was the most versatile?
Discuss the list here
1. Martin Scorsese
Producer | Killers of the Flower Moon
Martin Charles Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942 in Queens, New York City, to Catherine Scorsese (née Cappa) and Charles Scorsese, who both worked in Manhattan's garment district, and whose families both came from Palermo, Sicily. He was raised in the neighborhood of Little Italy, which later ...
Notable Examples:
Raging Bull (1980), Sports Biopic
After Hours (1985), Screwball Comedy
Goodfellas (1990), Gangster Drama
The Age of Innocence (1993), Period Romance
Hugo (2011), 3D Family Drama
2. Howard Hawks
Director | Rio Bravo
What do the classic films Scarface (1932), Twentieth Century (1934), Bringing Up Baby (1938), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), His Girl Friday (1940), Sergeant York (1941), To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Red River (1948) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) and Rio Bravo (1959) have in...
Notable Examples:
The Big Sleep (1946), Film Noir
His Girl Friday (1940), Comedy Romance
Rio Bravo (1959), Western
Scarface (1932), Gangster Drama
I Was a Male War Bride (1949), War Comedy
3. Don Siegel
Director | Escape from Alcatraz
Don Siegel was educated at Cambridge University, England. In Hollywood from the mid-'30s, he began his career as an editor and second unit director. In 1945 he directed two shorts (Hitler Lives (1945) and Star in the Night (1945)) which both won Academy Awards. His first feature as a director was ...
Notable Examples:
Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954), Crime Drama
The Shootist (1976), Western
Dirty Harry (1971), Action Thriller
The Big Steal (1949), Film Noir
Ice Station Zebra (1968), Adventure
4. Billy Wilder
Writer | The Apartment
Originally planning to become a lawyer, Billy Wilder abandoned that career in favor of working as a reporter for a Viennese newspaper, using this experience to move to Berlin, where he worked for the city's largest tabloid. He broke into films as a screenwriter in 1929 and wrote scripts for many ...
Notable Examples:
Double Indemnity (1944), Film Noir
The Lost Weekend (1945), Drama
Stalag 17 (1953), War
Some Like It Hot (1959), Comedy Romance
Witness for the Prosecution (1957), Mystery
5. 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 ...
Notable Examples:
The Killing (1956), Film Noir
The Shining (1980), Horror
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), Comedy
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Sci-fi
Barry Lyndon (1975), Period Drama
6. Sam Peckinpah
Writer | The Wild Bunch
"If they move", commands stern-eyed William Holden, "kill 'em". So begins The Wild Bunch (1969), Sam Peckinpah's bloody, high-body-count eulogy to the mythologized Old West. "Pouring new wine into the bottle of the Western, Peckinpah explodes the bottle", observed critic Pauline Kael. That ...
Notable Examples:
The Wild Bunch (1969), Western
The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), Comedy
Straw Dogs (1971), Crime Drama
The Getaway (1972), Action Thriller
Cross of Iron (1977), War
7. Danny Boyle
Director | 127 Hours
Daniel Francis Boyle is a British filmmaker, producer and writer from Radcliffe, Greater Manchester. He is known for directing 28 Days Later, 127 Hours, Trainspotting, T2 Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, Millions, Shallow Grave, The Beach, Yesterday, and Steve Jobs. He won many awards for ...
Notable Examples:
Shallow Grave (1994), Crime
Trainspotting (1996), Drama
28 Days Later... (2002), Horror
Millions (2004), Comedy
Sunshine (2007), Sci-fi
8. Ron Howard
Producer | Arrested Development
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ron Howard is one of this generation's most popular directors. From the critically acclaimed dramas A Beautiful Mind (2001) and Apollo 13 (1995) to the hit comedies Parenthood (1989) and Splash (1983), he has created some of Hollywood's most memorable films.
Howard ...
Notable Examples:
Apollo 13 (1995), Space Drama
A Beautiful Mind (2001), Biography
Cinderella Man (2005), Sports Drama
Frost/Nixon (2008), History
In the Heart of the Sea (2015), Adventure
9. Steven Spielberg
Producer | Schindler's List
One of the most influential personalities in the history of cinema, Steven Spielberg is Hollywood's best known director and one of the wealthiest filmmakers in the world. He has an extraordinary number of commercially successful and critically acclaimed credits to his name, either as a director, ...
Notable Examples:
Duel (1971), Action Thriller
Jaws (1975), Horror
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Adventure
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Sci-fi
Lincoln (2012), History Biopic
10. John Ford
Director | The Quiet Man
John Ford came to Hollywood following one of his brothers, an actor. Asked what brought him to Hollywood, he replied "the train". He became one of the most respected directors in the business, in spite of being known for his westerns, which were not considered "serious" film. He won six Oscars, ...
Notable Examples:
The Searchers (1956), Western
Wee Willie Winkie (1937), Family
The Last Hurrah (1958), Drama
The Quiet Man (1952), Romance
Mister Roberts (1955), War Comedy
11. George Stevens
Director | Giant
George Stevens, a filmmaker known as a meticulous craftsman with a brilliant eye for composition and a sensitive touch with actors, is one of the great American filmmakers, ranking with John Ford, William Wyler and Howard Hawks as a creator of classic Hollywood cinema, bringing to the screen ...
Notable Examples:
The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), Biopic
Wee Willie Winkie (1937), Family
A Place in the Sun (1951), Film-Noir
Shane (1953), Western
Giant (1956), Drama
12. Henry Hathaway
Director | True Grit
Henry Hathaway, son of a stage actress and manager, started his career as a child actor in westerns directed by Allan Dwan. His movie career was interrupted by World War I. After his discharge he briefly tried a career in finance but returned to Hollywood to work as an assistant director under such...
Notable Examples:
Niagara (1953), Film-Noir
How the West Was Won (1962), Western
True Grit (1969), Adventure
North to Alaska (1960), Comedy
23 Paces to Baker Street (1956), Thriller
13. Michael Curtiz
Director | Casablanca
Curtiz began acting in and then directing films in his native Hungary in 1912. After WWI, he continued his filmmaking career in Austria and Germany and into the early 1920s when he directed films in other countries in Europe. Moving to the US in 1926, he started making films in Hollywood for Warner...
Notable Examples:
Casablanca (1942), Romance
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Action
White Christmas (1954), Musical
Mildred Pierce (1945), Film Noir
We're No Angels (1955), Comedy
14. Robert Wise
Director | West Side Story
Robert Earl Wise was born on September 10, 1914 in Winchester, Indiana, the youngest of three sons of Olive R. (Longenecker) and Earl Waldo Wise, a meat packer. His parents were both of Pennsylvania Dutch (German) descent. At age nineteen, the avid moviegoer came into the film business through an ...
Notable Examples:
The Sound of Music (1965), Family
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Adventure
West Side Story (1961), Musical
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Sci-fi
The Haunting (1963), Horror
15. Fritz Lang
Actor | Le mépris
Fritz Lang was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1890. His father managed a construction company. His mother, Pauline Schlesinger, was Jewish but converted to Catholicism when Lang was ten. After high school, he enrolled briefly at the Technische Hochschule Wien and then started to train as a painter. ...
Notable Examples:
M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder (1931), Mystery
Metropolis (1927), Sci-fi
Fury (1936), Film-Noir
Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (1933), Crime
Frau im Mond (1929), Comedy
16. Raoul Walsh
Editor | The Birth of a Nation
Raoul Walsh's 52-year directorial career made him a Hollywood legend. Walsh was also an actor: He appeared in the first version of W. Somerset Maugham's "Rain" renamed Sadie Thompson (1928) opposite Gloria Swanson in the title role. He would have played the Cisco Kid in his own film In Old Arizona ...
Notable Examples:
White Heat (1949), Film-Noir
High Sierra (1940), Adventure
The Thief of Bagdad (1924), Fantasy
The Strawberry Blonde (1941), Comedy
The Roaring Twenties (1939), Crime
17. Otto Preminger
Actor | Stalag 17
Otto Ludwig Preminger was born in Wiznitz, Bukovina, Austria-Hungary. His father was a prosecutor, and Otto originally intended to follow his father into a law career; however, he fell in love with the theater in his 20's and became one of the most imaginative stage producers and directors. He was ...
Notable Examples:
Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Mystery
Laura (1944), Film-Noir
Porgy and Bess (1959), Musical
Advise & Consent (1962), Thriller
The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), Romance
18. Nicholas Ray
Director | Rebel Without a Cause
Nicholas Ray was born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle in 1911, in small-town Galesville, Wisconsin, to Lena (Toppen) and Raymond Joseph Kienzle, a contractor and builder. He was of German and Norwegian descent. Ray's early experience with film came with some radio broadcasting in high school. He left the ...
Notable Examples:
Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Drama
Johnny Guitar (1954), Western
King of Kings (1961), History
Bitter Victory (1957), War
In a Lonely Place (1950), Film-Noir
19. George Cukor
Director | My Fair Lady
George Cukor was an American film director of Hungarian-Jewish descent, better known for directing comedies and literary adaptations. He once won the Academy Award for Best Director, and was nominated other four times for the same Award.
In 1899, George Dewey Cukor was born on the Lower East Side of...
Notable Examples:
My Fair Lady (1964), Musical
The Philadelphia Story (1940), Comedy
A Star Is Born (1954), Romance
Gaslight (1944), Film-Noir
Dinner at Eight (1933), Drama
20. Takashi Miike
Director | Jûsan-nin no shikaku
Takashi Miike was born in the small town of Yao on the outskirts of Osaka, Japan. His main interest growing up was motorbikes, and for a while he harbored ambitions to race professionally. At the age of 18 he went to study at the film school in Yokohama founded by renowned director Shôhei Imamura, ...
Notable Examples:
Jûsan-nin no shikaku (2010), Action
Ôdishon (1999), Romance
Koroshiya 1 (2001), Comedy
Sam gang 2 (2004), Horror
Shin jingi no hakaba (2002), Thriller
21. Alan Parker
Director | Evita
The son of Elsie Ellen, a dressmaker, and William Leslie Parker, a house painter, Alan Parker was a London advertising copywriter in the 1960s and early 1970s with Collett Dickenson Pearce (CDP), an ad agency. He formed a partnership with David Puttnam as his producer (Puttnam had been a ...
Notable Examples:
Evita (1996), Musical
Bugsy Malone (1976), Family
Angel Heart (1987), Horror
Mississippi Burning (1988), History
Come See the Paradise (1990), War
22. Ridley Scott
Producer | The Martian
Described by film producer Michael Deeley as "the very best eye in the business", director Ridley Scott was born on November 30, 1937 in South Shields, Tyne and Wear. His father was an officer in the Royal Engineers and the family followed him as his career posted him throughout the United Kingdom ...
Notable Examples:
Legend (1985), Fantasy
American Gangster (2007), Gangster
Black Hawk Down (2001), War
Blade Runner (1982), Sci-fi
Alien (1979), Horror
23. Alfonso Cuarón
Producer | Gravity
Alfonso Cuarón Orozco was born on November 28th 1961 in Mexico City, Mexico. From an early age, he yearned to be either a film director or an astronaut. However, he did not want to enter the army, so he settled for directing. He didn't receive his first camera until his twelfth birthday, and then ...
Notable Examples:
A Little Princess (1995), Family
Great Expectations (1998), Romance
Y tu mamá también (2001), Comedy
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Fantasy
Gravity (2013), Sci-fi
24. Ang Lee
Director | Wo hu cang long
Born in 1954 in Pingtung, Taiwan, Ang Lee has become one of today's greatest contemporary filmmakers. Ang graduated from the National Taiwan College of Arts in 1975 and then came to the U.S. to receive a B.F.A. Degree in Theatre/Theater Direction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, ...
Notable Examples:
Wo hu cang long (2000), Action
Se, jie (2007), Romance
Life of Pi (2012), Fantasy
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016), War
Taking Woodstock (2009), Comedy
25. Richard Donner
Director | Superman
Richard Donner was born on April 24, 1930 in The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Superman (1978), Ladyhawke (1985) and Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (1980). He was married to Lauren Shuler Donner. He died on July 5, 2021 in Los Angeles, ...
Notable Examples:
Lethal Weapon (1987), Action
The Omen (1976), Horror
Superman (1978), Fantasy
The Goonies (1985), Family
Maverick (1994), Western
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