National Film Registry Directors.

1. Solomon Sir Jones

Director | Film 29

Solomon Sir Jones was born on August 20, 1869 in Mason, Tennessee, USA. He was a director, known for Film 29 (1927), Film 14 (1926) and Film 9 (1926). He died in 1936 in the USA.

Film 1 (1925) - 2016 Film 2 - 2016 Film 3 - 2016 Film 4 - 2016 Film 5 - 2016 Film 6 - 2016 Film 7 - 2016 Film 8 - 2016 Film 9 - 2016 Film 10 - 2016 Film 11 - 2016 Film 12 - 2016 Film 13 - 2016 Film 14 - 2016 Film 15 - 2016 Film 16 - 2016 Film 17 - 2016 Film 18 - 2016 Film 19 - 2016 Film 20 - 2016 Film 21 - 2016 Film 22 - 2016 Film 23 - 2016 Film 24 - 2016 Film 25 - 2016 Film 26 - 2016 Film 27 - 2016 Film 28 - 2016 Film 29 - 2016

2. Frank Capra

Director | It's a Wonderful Life

One of seven children, Frank Capra was born on May 18, 1897, in Bisacquino, Sicily. On May 10, 1903, his family left for America aboard the ship Germania, arriving in New York on May 23rd. "There's no ventilation, and it stinks like hell. They're all miserable. It's the most degrading place you ...

The Strong Man (1926) - 2007 The Power of the Press (1928) - 2005 It Happened One Night (1934) - 1993 Lost Horizon (1937) - 2016 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) - 1989 Why We Fight (1942) - 2000 The Battle of Russia - 2000 The Nazis Strike - 2000 Divide and Conquer - 2000 The Battle of Britain - 2000 The Battle of China - 2000 War Comes to America - 2000 It's a Wonderful Life (1946) - 1990

3. William K.L. Dickson

Cinematographer | Sandow

Born in France to British parents, William Kennedy-Laurie Dickson stayed in that country until age 19, when he, his mother and sisters (their father had died sometime before) returned to Great Britain. Once there, Dickson--in an early indication of his lifelong fascination with science and ...

Newark Athlete (1891) - 2010 Blacksmith Scene (1893) - 1995 Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894) - 2015 Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894) - 2003 Awakening of Rip (1896) - 1995 Exit of Rip and the Dwarf (1896) - 1995 Rip Leaving Sleepy Hollow (1896) - 1995 Rip Meeting the Dwarf (1896) - 1995 Rip Passing Over the Mountain (1896) - 1995 Rip's Toast (1896) - 1995 Rip's Toast to Hudson (1896) - 1995 Rip's Twenty Years' Sleep (1896) - 1995

4. 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, ...

The Iron Horse (1924) - 2011 The Informer (1935) - 2018 Stagecoach (1939) - 1995 Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) - 2003 The Grapes of Wrath (1940) - 1989 How Green Was My Valley (1941) - 1990 My Darling Clementine (1946) - 1991 The Quiet Man (1952) - 2013 The Searchers (1956) - 1989 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) - 2007 How the West Was Won (1962)(segment "The Civil War") - 1997

5. Howard Hawks

Director | Red River

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...

Scarface (1932) - 1994 Twentieth Century (1934) - 2011 Bringing Up Baby (1938) - 1990 Only Angels Have Wings (1939) - 2017 His Girl Friday (1940) - 1993 Sergeant York (1941) - 2008 Ball of Fire (1941) - 2016 The Big Sleep (1946) - 1997 Red River (1948) - 1990 The Thing From Another World (1951)(uncredited) - 2001 Rio Bravo (1959) - 2014

6. William Wyler

Director | The Best Years of Our Lives

William Wyler was an American filmmaker who, at the time of his death in 1981, was considered by his peers as second only to John Ford as a master craftsman of cinema. The winner of three Best Director Academy Awards, second again only to Ford's four, Wyler's reputation has unfairly suffered as the...

Dodsworth (1936) - 1990 Jezebel (1938) - 2009 Wuthering Heights (1939) - 2007 Mrs. Miniver (1942) - 2009 The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944) - 2001 The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) - 1989 The Heiress (1949) - 1996 Roman Holiday (1953) - 1999 Ben-Hur (1959) - 2004 Funny Girl (1968) - 2016

7. 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...

The Wizard of Oz (1939)(uncredited) - 1989 The Women (1939) - 2007 Gone with the Wind (1939)(uncredited) - 1989 The Philadelphia Story (1940) - 1995 Gaslight (1944) - 2019 Adam's Rib (1949) - 1992 Born Yesterday (1950) - 2012 A Star Is Born (1954) - 2000 My Fair Lady (1964) - 2018

8. Alfred Hitchcock

Director | Psycho

Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone, Essex, England. He was the son of Emma Jane (Whelan; 1863 - 1942) and East End greengrocer William Hitchcock (1862 - 1914). His parents were both of half English and half Irish ancestry. He had two older siblings, William Hitchcock (born 1890) and ...

Rebecca (1940) - 2018 Shadow of a Doubt (1943) - 1991 Notorious (1946) - 2006 Strangers on a Train (1951) - 2021 Rear Window (1954) - 1997 Vertigo (1958) - 1989 North by Northwest (1959) - 1995 Psycho (1960) - 1992 The Birds (1963) - 2016

9. Elia Kazan

Director | On the Waterfront

Known for his creative stage direction, Elia Kazan was born Elias Kazantzoglou on September 7, 1909 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey). Noted for drawing out the best dramatic performances from his actors, he directed 21 actors to Oscar nominations, resulting in nine wins. He ...

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) - 2010 Gentleman's Agreement (1947) - 2017 A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) - 1999 On the Waterfront (1954) - 1989 East of Eden (1955) - 2016 A Face in the Crowd (1957) - 2008 Wild River (1960) - 2002 America America (1963) - 2001

10. Buster Keaton

Actor | The General

Joseph Frank Keaton was born on October 4, 1895 in Piqua, Kansas, to Joe Keaton and Myra Keaton. Joe and Myra were Vaudevillian comedians with a popular, ever-changing variety act, giving Keaton an eclectic and interesting upbringing. In the earliest days on stage, they traveled with a medicine ...

One Week (1920) - 2008 Cops (1922) - 1997 Sherlock Jr. (1924) - 1991 The Navigator (1924) - 2018 The General (1926) - 1989 Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) - 2016 The Cameraman (1928) - 2005

11. Leo McCarey

Director | An Affair to Remember

Leo McCarey was born on October 3, 1896 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a director and writer, known for An Affair to Remember (1957), Going My Way (1944) and Love Affair (1939). He was married to Virginia Stella Martin. He died on July 5, 1969 in Santa Monica, California, USA.

Mighty Like a Moose (1926) - 2007 Big Business (1929) - 1992 Duck Soup (1933) - 1990 Ruggles of Red Gap (1935) - 2014 Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) - 2010 The Awful Truth (1937) - 1996 Going My Way (1944) - 2004

12. 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 ...

Double Indemnity (1944) - 1992 The Lost Weekend (1945) - 2011 Sunset Boulevard (1950) - 1989 Ace in the Hole (1951) - 2017 Sabrina (1954) - 2002 Some Like It Hot (1959) - 1989 The Apartment (1960) - 1994

13. 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, ...

Jaws (1975) - 2001 Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) - 2007 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - 1999 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) - 1994 Jurassic Park (1993) - 2018 Schindler's List (1993) - 2004 Saving Private Ryan (1998) - 2014

14. D.W. Griffith

Director | The Birth of a Nation

David Wark Griffith was born in rural Kentucky to Jacob "Roaring Jake" Griffith, a former Confederate Army colonel and Civil War veteran. Young Griffith grew up with his father's romantic war stories and melodramatic nineteenth-century literature that were to eventually shape his movies. In 1897 ...

A Corner in Wheat (1909) - 1994 Lady Helen's Escapade (1909) - 2004 The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) - 2016 The Birth of a Nation (1915) - 1992 Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916) - 1989 Broken Blossoms (1919) - 1996

15. Charles Chaplin

Writer | The Great Dictator

Considered to be one of the most pivotal stars of the early days of Hollywood, Charlie Chaplin lived an interesting life both in his films and behind the camera. He is most recognized as an icon of the silent film era, often associated with his popular character, the Little Tramp; the man with the ...

The Immigrant (1917) - 1998 The Kid (1921) - 2011 The Gold Rush (1925) - 1992 City Lights (1931) - 1991 Modern Times (1936) - 1989 The Great Dictator (1940) - 1997

16. Wilfred Jackson

Director | Cinderella

Wilfred Jackson was born on January 24, 1906 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a director, known for Cinderella (1950), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Alice in Wonderland (1951). He died on August 7, 1988 in Balboa Island, Newport Beach, California, USA.

The Old Mill (1937) - 2015 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)(sequence director) - 1989 Pinocchio (1940)(sequence director) - 1994 Fantasia (1940)(segment "Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria") - 1990 Dumbo (1941)(sequence director) - 2017 Cinderella (1950) - 2018

17. Vincente Minnelli

Director | An American in Paris

Born Lester Anthony Minnelli in Chicago on February 28 1903, his father Vincent was a musical conductor of the Minnelli Brothers' Tent Theater. Wanting to pursue an artistic career, Minelli worked in the costume department of the Chicago Theater, then on Broadway during the depression as a set ...

Cabin in the Sky (1943) - 2020 Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) - 1994 An American in Paris (1951) - 1993 The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) - 2002 The Band Wagon (1953) - 1995 Gigi (1958) - 1991

18. 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 ...

Paths of Glory (1957) - 1992 Spartacus (1960) - 2017 Dr. Strangelove (1964) - 1989 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - 1991 Clockwork Orange - 2020 The Shining (1980) - 2018

19. Ernst Lubitsch

Director | To Be or Not to Be

From Ernst Lubitsch's experiences in Sophien Gymnasium (high school) theater, he decided to leave school at the age of 16 and pursue a career on the stage. He had to compromise with his father and keep the account books for the family tailor business while he acted in cabarets and music halls at ...

Lady Windermere's Fan (1925) - 2002 Trouble in Paradise (1932) - 1991 Ninotchka (1939) - 1990 The Shop Around the Corner (1940) - 1999 To Be or Not to Be (1942) - 1996

20. Mervyn LeRoy

Director | Gypsy

The great San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 was a tragedy for Mervyn LeRoy. While he and his father managed to survive, they lost everything they had. To make money, LeRoy sold newspapers and entered talent contests as a singer. When he entered vaudeville, his act was "LeRoy and Cooper--Two...

Little Caesar (1931) - 2000 I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) - 1991 Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) - 2003 The Wizard of Oz (1939)(uncredited) - 1989 The House I Live In (1945) - 2007

21. Sidney Lumet

Director | 12 Angry Men

Sidney Lumet was a master of cinema, best known for his technical knowledge and his skill at getting first-rate performances from his actors -- and for shooting most of his films in his beloved New York. He made over 40 movies, often complex and emotional, but seldom overly sentimental. Although ...

12 Angry Men (1957) - 2007 The Pawnbroker (1964) - 2008 King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis (1970) - 1999 Dog Day Afternoon (1975) - 2009 Network (1976) - 2000

22. Stan Brakhage

Director | The Loom

Stan Brakhage was born on January 14, 1933 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. He was a director and cinematographer, known for The Loom (1986), The God of Day Had Gone Down Upon Him (2000) and Visions in Meditation (1990). He was married to Marilyn Jull and Jane Wodening. He died on March 9, 2003 in ...

Prelude: Dog Star Man (1962) - 1992 Dog Star Man: Part I (1962) - 1992 Dog Star Man: Part II (1963) - 1992 Dog Star Man: Part III (1964) - 1992 Dog Star Man: Part IV (1964) - 1992

23. 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 ...

Mean Streets (1973) - 1997 Taxi Driver (1976) - 1994 The Last Waltz (1978) - 2019 Raging Bull (1980) - 1990 Goodfellas (1990) - 2000

24. James Whale

Director | Bride of Frankenstein

James Whale was an English film director, theatre director and actor. He is best remembered for his four classic horror films: Frankenstein (1931), The Old Dark House (1932), The Invisible Man (1933) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935). He also directed films in other genres, including what is ...

Frankenstein (1931) - 1991 The Invisible Man (1933) - 2008 Bride of Frankenstein (1935) - 1998 Show Boat (1936) - 1996

25. 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...

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) - 1995 Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) - 1993 Casablanca (1942) - 1989 Mildred Pierce (1945) - 1996

26. Orson Welles

Actor | Citizen Kane

His father, Richard Head Welles, was a well-to-do inventor, his mother, Beatrice (Ives) Welles, a beautiful concert pianist; Orson Welles was gifted in many arts (magic, piano, painting) as a child. When his mother died in 1924 (when he was nine) he traveled the world with his father. He was ...

Citizen Kane (1941) - 1989 The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) - 1991 The Lady from Shanghai (1947) - 2018 Touch of Evil (1958) - 1993

27. Robert Altman

Director | Gosford Park

Robert Altman was born on February 20th, 1925 in Kansas City, Missouri, to B.C. (an insurance salesman) and Helen Altman. He entered St. Peters Catholic school at the age six, and spent a short time at a Catholic high school. From there, he went to Rockhurst High School. It was then that he started...

MASH (1970) - 1996 McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) - 2010 The Long Goodbye (1973) - 2021 Nashville (1975) - 1992

28. Francis Ford Coppola

Producer | Apocalypse Now

Francis Ford Coppola was born in 1939 in Detroit, Michigan, but grew up in a New York suburb in a creative, supportive Italian-American family. His father, Carmine Coppola, was a composer and musician. His mother, Italia Coppola (née Pennino), had been an actress. Francis Ford Coppola graduated ...

The Godfather (1972) - 1990 The Conversation (1974) - 1995 The Godfather Part II (1974) - 1993 Apocalypse Now (1979) - 2000

29. Spike Lee

Director | Do the Right Thing

Spike Lee was born Shelton Jackson Lee on March 20, 1957, in Atlanta, Georgia. At a very young age, he moved from pre-civil rights Georgia, to Brooklyn, New York. Lee came from artistic, education-grounded background; his father was a jazz musician, and his mother, a schoolteacher. He attended ...

She's Gotta Have It (1986) - 2019 Do the Right Thing (1989) - 1999 Malcolm X (1992) - 2010 4 Little Girls (1997) - 2017

30. Winsor McCay

Writer | Gertie the Dinosaur

Like many pioneers, the work of 'Winsor McCay' has been largely superseded by successors such as Walt Disney and Max Fleischer but he more than earns a place in film history for being the American cinema's first great cartoon animator. He started out as a newspaper cartoonist, achieving a national ...

"Little Nemo" (1911) - 2009 Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) - 1991 The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918) - 2017

31. Merian C. Cooper

Writer | King Kong

In 1920, Merian C. Cooper was a member of volunteer of the American Kosciuszko Squadron that supported the Polish army in the war with Soviet Russia, where he met best friend and producing partner Ernest B. Schoedsack. On 26 July 1920, his plane was shot down, and he spent nearly nine months in the...

Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life (1925) - 1997 King Kong (1933) - 1991 This Is Cinerama (1952) - 2002

32. Dave Fleischer

Director | Mr. Bug Goes to Town

Dave Fleischer was an American film producer and director of animated films. He co-founded the animation studio Fleischer Studios (1929-1942) with his brother Max Fleischer. Dave is primarily remembered for directing the studio's only two feature films: "Gulliver's Travels" (1939) and "Mr. Bug Goes...

Snow-White (1933) - 1994 Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (1936) - 2004 Let's All Go to the Lobby (1957) - 2000

33. Chuck Jones

Actor | Gremlins

Starting as a cel washer, Chuck Jones worked his way up to animator and then director at the animation division of Warner Bros. He is famous for creating such beloved cartoon characters as Wile E. Coyote, Henery Hawk, Pepé Le Pew, Marvin the Martian, Ralph Wolf, Road Runner, Sam Sheepdog, Sniffles,...

Duck Amuck (1953) - 1999 One Froggy Evening (1955) - 2003 What's Opera, Doc? (1957) - 1992

34. Blake Edwards

Writer | The Pink Panther Strikes Again

Blake Edwards' stepfather's father J. Gordon Edwards was a silent screen director, and his stepfather Jack McEdward was a stage director and movie production manager. Blake acted in a number films, beginning with Ten Gentlemen from West Point (1942) and wrote a number of others, beginning with ...

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) - 2012 Days of Wine and Roses (1962) - 2018 The Pink Panther (1963) - 2010

35. George Lucas

Writer | Star Wars

George Walton Lucas, Jr. was raised on a walnut ranch in Modesto, California. His father was a stationery store owner and he had three siblings. During his late teen years, he went to Thomas Downey High School and was very much interested in drag racing. He planned to become a professional racecar ...

Electronic Labyrinth THX 1138 4EB (1967) - 2010 American Graffiti (1973) - 1995 Star Wars (1977) - 1989

36. Mel Brooks

Actor | Spaceballs

Mel Brooks was born Melvin Kaminsky on June 28, 1926 in Brooklyn, New York. He served in WWII, and afterwards got a job playing the drums at nightclubs in the Catskills. Brooks eventually started a comedy act and also worked in radio and as Master Entertainer at Grossinger's Resort before going to ...

The Producers (1967) - 1996 Blazing Saddles (1974) - 2006 Young Frankenstein (1974) - 2003

37. John Landis

Director | The Blues Brothers

John Landis began his career in the mail room of 20th Century-Fox. A high-school dropout, 18-year-old Landis made his way to Yugoslavia to work as a production assistant on Kelly's Heroes (1970). Remaining in Europe, Landis found work as an actor, extra and stuntman in many of the Spanish/Italian "...

National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) - 2001 The Blues Brothers - 2020 Michael Jackson: Thriller (1983) - 2009

38. 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 ...

Alien (1979) - 2002 Blade Runner (1982) - 1993 Thelma & Louise (1991) - 2016

39. Robert Zemeckis

Writer | Back to the Future

A whiz-kid with special effects, Robert is from the Spielberg camp of film-making (Steven Spielberg produced many of his films). Usually working with writing partner Bob Gale, Robert's earlier films show he has a talent for zany comedy (Romancing the Stone (1984), 1941 (1979)) and special effect ...

Back to the Future (1985) - 2007 Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) - 2016 Forrest Gump (1994) - 2011

40. John Lasseter

Writer | Toy Story 2

Although born in Hollywood, John and his twin sister Johanna were raised in Whittier near Los Angeles. His parents were Jewell Mae (Risley), an art teacher, and Paul Eual Lasseter, a parts manager at a Chevrolet dealership. His mother's profession contributed to his interest in animation and ...

Luxo Jr. (1986) - 2014 Tin Toy (1988) - 2003 Toy Story (1995) - 2005

41. 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. ...

Fury (1936) - 1995 The Big Heat (1953) - 2011

42. 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 ...

Ride the High Country (1962) - 1992 The Wild Bunch (1969) - 1999

43. Shirley Clarke

Director | The Cool World

Shirley Clarke is an important figure in the history of mid-20th century independent cinema. Born Shirley Marion Brimberg to Samuel Nathan and Florence (Rosenberg) Brimberg, she was the eldest of their three daughters. She grew up in a wealthy family. Her father, who was born in present-day Belarus...

The Cool World (1963) - 1994 Portrait of Jason (1967) - 2015

44. Mike Nichols

Director | The Graduate

He, along with the other members of the "Compass Players" including Elaine May, Paul Sills, Byrne Piven, Joyce Hiller Piven and Edward Asner helped start the famed "Second City Improv" company. They used the games taught to them by fellow cast mate, Paul Sills 's mother, Viola Spolin. He later ...

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) - 2013 The Graduate (1967) - 1996

45. William Friedkin

Director | To Live and Die in L.A.

Friedkin's mother was an operating room nurse. His father was a merchant seaman, semi-pro softball player and ultimately sold clothes in a men's discount chain. Ultimately, his father never earned more than $50/week in his whole life and died indigent. Eventually young Will became infatuated with ...

The French Connection (1971) - 2005 The Exorcist (1973) - 2010

46. Clint Eastwood

Actor | Million Dollar Baby

Clint Eastwood was born May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, to Clinton Eastwood Sr., a bond salesman and later manufacturing executive for Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and Ruth Wood (née Margret Ruth Runner), a housewife turned IBM clerk. He grew up in nearby Piedmont. At school Clint took interest in ...

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) - 1996 Unforgiven (1992) - 2004

47. Woody Allen

Writer | Annie Hall

Woody Allen was born on November 30, 1935, as Allen Konigsberg, in The Bronx, NY, the son of Martin Konigsberg and Nettie Konigsberg. He has one younger sister, Letty Aronson. As a young boy, he became intrigued with magic tricks and playing the clarinet, two hobbies that he continues today.

Allen ...

Annie Hall (1977) - 1992 Manhattan (1979) - 2001

48. 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, ...

Superman (1978) - 2017 The Goonies (1985) - 2017

49. Julie Dash

Director | Reasonable Doubt

Thirty-one years ago, filmmaker Julie Dash broke racial and gender boundaries with her Sundance award-winning film (Best Cinematography) Daughters of the Dust. She became the first African American woman to have a wide theatrical release of her feature film. The Library of Congress placed Daughters...

Illusions (1982) - 2020 Daughters of the Dust (1991) - 2004

50. Rob Reiner

Actor | All in the Family

Robert Reiner was born in New York City, to Estelle Reiner (née Lebost) and Emmy-winning actor, comedian, writer, and producer Carl Reiner.

As a child, his father was his role model, as Carl Reiner created and starred in The Dick Van Dyke Show. Estelle was also an inspiration for him to become a ...

This Is Spinal Tap (1984) - 2002 The Princess Bride (1987) - 2016

51. James Cameron

Writer | Avatar: The Way of Water

James Francis Cameron was born on August 16, 1954 in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada. He moved to the United States in 1971. The son of an engineer, he majored in physics at California State University before switching to English, and eventually dropping out. He then drove a truck to support his ...

The Terminator (1984) - 2008 Titanic (1997) - 2017

52. John Hughes

Writer | Planes, Trains & Automobiles

John Hughes was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter. He was credited for creating some of the most memorable comedy films of the 1980s and the 1990s, when he was at the height of his career. He had a talent for writing coming-of-age stories, and for depicting fairly realistic...

The Breakfast Club (1985) - 2016 Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) - 2014

53. Errol Morris

Director | The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara

His documentaries helped spur a rebirth of non-fiction film in the 80s & garnered wide critical success. But until 2003's "The Fog of War," Morris was shunned by the Academy Awards.

Morris' first two films won much acclaim (Gates of Heaven (1978) and Vernon, Florida (1981)). In the second movie, ...

The Thin Blue Line (1988) - 2001 The Fog of War (2003) - 2019

54. Joel Coen

Producer | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Joel Daniel Coen is an American filmmaker who regularly collaborates with his younger brother Ethan. They made Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, True Grit, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, Inside Llewyn Davis, Hail Caesar and other projects. Joel ...

Fargo (1996) - 2006 The Big Lebowski (1998) - 2014

55. Ethan Coen

Producer | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

The younger brother of Joel, Ethan Coen is an Academy Award and Golden Globe winning writer, producer and director coming from small independent films to big profile Hollywood films. He was born on September 21, 1957 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In some films of the brothers- Ethan & Joel wrote, Joel...

Fargo (1996) - 2006 The Big Lebowski (1998) - 2014

56. Christopher Nolan

Writer | Tenet

Best known for his cerebral, often nonlinear, storytelling, acclaimed Academy Award winner writer/director/producer Sir Christopher Nolan CBE was born in London, England. Over the course of more than 25 years of filmmaking, Nolan has gone from low-budget independent films to working on some of the ...

Memento (2000) - 2017 The Dark Knight (2008) - 2020

57. Ub Iwerks

Visual_effects | The Birds

Ub Iwerks worked as a commercial artist in Kansas City in 1919 when he met Walt Disney who was in the same profession. When Disney decided to form an animation company, Ub Iwerks was the first employee he had due to his skill at fast drawing as well as being a personal friend.

When Charles Mintz ...

Steamboat Willie (1928) - 1998

58. Walt Disney

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Flora Disney (née Call) and Elias Disney, a Canadian-born farmer and businessperson. He had Irish, German, and English ancestry. Walt moved with his parents to Kansas City at age seven, where he spent the majority of ...

Steamboat Willie (1928) - 1998

59. Roland Crandall

Animation_department | Gulliver's Travels

Roland Crandall was born on August 29, 1892. He was a director and actor, known for Gulliver's Travels (1939), Professor B. Flat (1920) and Dancing on the Moon (1935). He died on August 14, 1972 in Greenwich, Connecticut, USA.

Snow-White (1933) - 1994

60. Willard Bowsky

Animation_department | Gulliver's Travels

Motion picture animator best known for his contributions to the Popeye the Sailor cartoons of the 1930s. Born in New York City, Bowsky joined the Fleischer Studios in the late 1920s and quickly became one of its star artists, winning promotion to animator at age 23. His drawing skills and ...

Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (1936) - 2004

61. Robert Clampett

Director | Time for Beany

Born in San Diego, California, the young Robert Clampett was monumentally moved as a child by the film The Lost World (1925), inspiring him to create a sea-serpent sock-puppet that he used in puppet shows to entertain the neighborhood kids. This led him to create a stuffed Mickey Mouse toy, which ...

Porky in Wackyland (1938) - 2000

62. Tex Avery

Director | I Love to Singa

Tex Avery was a descendant of Judge Roy Bean and Daniel Boone, but all his grandma ever told him about it was "Don't ever mention you are kin to Roy Bean. He's a no good skunk!!" After graduating from North Dallas High School in 1927, Avery moved to Southern California in 1929 and got a job in the ...

Magical Maestro (1952) - 1993

63. Kenneth Anger

Director | Fireworks

Kenneth Anger grew up in Hollywood and started out as a child actor, but his interest in filmmaking was evident at an early age: he made his first film, Who Has Been Rocking My Dreamboat (1941) , at age 14.

Anger developed into one of the pioneers of the American underground film movement. His ...

Eaux d'artifice (1953) - 1993

64. Charles Laughton

Actor | Witness for the Prosecution

Charles Laughton was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, to Eliza (Conlon) and Robert Laughton, hotel keepers of Irish and English descent, respectively. He was educated at Stonyhurst (a highly esteemed Jesuit college in England) and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (received gold medal). ...

The Night of the Hunter (1955) - 1992

65. Marlon Brando

Actor | Apocalypse Now

Marlon Brando is widely considered the greatest movie actor of all time, rivaled only by the more theatrically oriented Laurence Olivier in terms of esteem. Unlike Olivier, who preferred the stage to the screen, Brando concentrated his talents on movies after bidding the Broadway stage adieu in ...

One-Eyed Jacks (1961) - 2018

66. Jerry Lewis

Actor | The Nutty Professor

Jerry Lewis (born March 16, 1926 - August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team ...

The Nutty Professor (1963) - 2004

67. Andy Warhol

Director | Blue Movie

Andrew Warhol's father, Ondrej, came from the Austria-Hungary Empire (now Slovakia) in 1912, and sent for his mother, Julia Zavackyová Warholová, in 1921. His father worked as a construction worker and later as a coal miner. Around some time, the family moved to Pittsburgh. During his teenage years...

Empire (1964) - 2004

68. George A. Romero

Writer | Land of the Dead

George A. Romero never set out to become a Hollywood figure; by all indications, though, he was very successful. The director of the groundbreaking "Living Dead" films was born February 4, 1940 ,in New York City to Ann (Dvorsky) and Jorge Romero. His father was born in Spain and raised in Cuba, and...

Night of the Living Dead (1968) - 1999

69. Sergio Leone

Writer | Once Upon a Time in America

Sergio Leone was virtually born into the cinema - he was the son of Roberto Roberti (A.K.A. Vincenzo Leone), one of Italy's cinema pioneers, and actress Bice Valerian. Leone entered films in his late teens, working as an assistant director to both Italian directors and U.S. directors working in ...

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) - 2009

70. Dennis Hopper

Actor | Easy Rider

Multi-talented and unconventional actor/director regarded by many as one of the true "enfant terribles" of Hollywood who led an amazing cinematic career for more than five decades, Dennis Hopper was born on May 17, 1936, in Dodge City, Kansas. The young Hopper expressed interest in acting from a ...

Easy Rider (1969) - 1998

71. Elaine May

Actress | Small Time Crooks

Elaine May (born under the name Elaine Iva Berlin) is an American actress, comedian, film director, playwright, and screenwriter from Philadelphia. Her professional career started in the 1950s and is still ongoing. She has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. She ...

A New Leaf (1971) - 2019

72. Alan J. Pakula

Producer | Sophie's Choice

Alan J. Pakula was an American film director, writer and producer. He was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Picture for To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Best Director for All the President's Men (1976) and Best Adapted Screenplay for Sophie's Choice (1982).

He also directed Presumed Innocent (...

All the President's Men (1976) - 2010

73. David Lynch

Writer | Twin Peaks

Born in precisely the kind of small-town American setting so familiar from his films, David Lynch spent his childhood being shunted from one state to another as his research scientist father kept getting relocated. He attended various art schools, married Peggy Lynch and then fathered future ...

Eraserhead (1977) - 2004

74. John Carpenter

Writer | The Fog

John Howard Carpenter was born in Carthage, New York, to mother Milton Jean (Carter) and father Howard Ralph Carpenter. His family moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where his father, a professor, was head of the music department at Western Kentucky University. He attended Western Kentucky ...

Halloween (1978) - 2006

75. Jim Abrahams

Writer | Airplane!

Jim Abrahams was born on May 10, 1944 in Shorewood, Wisconsin, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Airplane! (1980), Top Secret! (1984) and Hot Shots! (1991). He is married to Nancy Cocuzzo.

Airplane! (1980) - 2010

76. David Zucker

Writer | Airplane!

Born on October 16, 1947 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, director/writer/producer David Zucker, along with brother Jerry (Ghost, 1990) Zucker and longtime friend, Jim (Hot Shots, 1991) Abrahams, has established himself among Hollywood's (or at least Wisconsin's) most successful filmmakers.

Starting ...

Airplane! (1980) - 2010

77. Jerry Zucker

Producer | Airplane!

Jerry Zucker was born on March 11, 1950 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for Airplane! (1980), Ghost (1990) and Top Secret! (1984). He has been married to Janet Zucker since May 1987. They have two children.

Airplane! (1980) - 2010

78. Louis Malle

Director | Au revoir les enfants

Louis Malle, the descendant of a French nobleman who made a fortune in beet sugar during the Napoleonic Wars, created films that explored life and its meaning. Malle's family discouraged his early interest in film but, in 1950, allowed him to enter the Institute of Advanced Cinematographic Studies ...

Atlantic City (1980) - 2003

79. Amy Heckerling

Writer | Clueless

Amy Heckerling studied Film and TV at New York University and got a Masters Degree in Film from The American Film Institute. Despite this education she couldn't get a break in Hollywood. However, in 1982, she made Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), and people started to take notice. In 1985, ...

Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) - 2005

80. Sydney Pollack

Director | Tootsie

Sydney Pollack was an Academy Award-winning director, producer, actor, writer and public figure, who directed and produced over 40 films.

Sydney Irwin Pollack was born July 1, 1934 in Lafayette, Indiana, USA, to Rebecca (Miller), a homemaker, and David Pollack, a professional boxer turned pharmacist...

Tootsie (1982) - 1998

81. Wes Craven

Writer | A Nightmare on Elm Street

Wes Craven has become synonymous with genre bending and innovative horror, challenging audiences with his bold vision.

Wesley Earl Craven was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Caroline (Miller) and Paul Eugene Craven. He had a midwestern suburban upbringing. His first feature film was The Last House on ...

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) - 2021

82. Jim Jarmusch

Director | Paterson

Moved to New York City at the age of seventeen from Akron, Ohio. Graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in English, class of '75. Without any prior film experience, he was accepted into the Tisch School of the Arts, New York.

Stranger Than Paradise (1984) - 2002

83. Tony Scott

Producer | Domino

Tony Scott was a British-born film director and producer. He was the youngest of three brothers, one of whom is fellow film director Ridley Scott. He was born in North Shields, Northumberland, England to parents Jean and Colonel Francis Percy Scott. As a result of his father's career in the British...

Top Gun (1986) - 2015

84. John McTiernan

Director | Die Hard

John McTiernan was born on January 8, 1951 in Albany, New York, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Die Hard (1988), Rollerball (2002) and Last Action Hero (1993). He has been married to Gail Sistrunk since 2012. He was previously married to Kate Harrington, Donna Dubrow and Carol Land.

Die Hard (1988) - 2017

85. Steven Soderbergh

Director | Sex, Lies, and Videotape

Steven Andrew Soderbergh was born on January 14, 1963 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, the second of six children of Mary Ann (Bernard) and Peter Soderbergh. His father was of Swedish and Irish descent, and his mother was of Italian ancestry. While he was still at a very young age, his family moved to ...

Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) - 2006

86. Kevin Costner

Actor | The Postman

Kevin Michael Costner was born on January 18, 1955 in Lynwood, California, the third child of Bill Costner, a ditch digger and ultimately an electric line servicer for Southern California Edison, and Sharon Costner (née Tedrick), a welfare worker. His older brother, Dan, was born in 1950. A middle ...

Dances with Wolves (1990) - 2007

87. Robert Rodriguez

Producer | El mariachi

Robert Anthony Rodriguez was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, USA, to Rebecca (Villegas), a nurse, and Cecilio G. Rodríguez, a salesman. His family is of Mexican descent.

Of all the people to be amazed by the images of John Carpenter's 1981 sci-fi parable, Escape from New York (1981), none ...

El Mariachi (1992) - 2011

88. Penny Marshall

Actress | Laverne & Shirley

Penny Marshall was born Carole Penny Marshall on October 15, 1943 in Manhattan. The Libra was 5' 6 1/2", with brown hair and green eyes. She was the daughter of Marjorie (Ward), a tap dance teacher, and Anthony "Tony" Marshall, an industrial film director. She was the younger sister of filmmakers ...

A League of Their Own (1992) - 2012

89. Kevin Smith

Producer | Clerks

Kevin Patrick Smith was born in Red Bank but grew up in Highlands, New Jersey, the son of Grace (Schultz) and Donald E. Smith, a postal worker. He is very proud of his native state; this fact can be seen in all of his movies. Kevin is of mostly German, with some Irish and English, ancestry.

His ...

Clerks (1994) - 2019

90. Frank Darabont

Writer | The Shawshank Redemption

Three-time Oscar nominee Frank Darabont was born in a refugee camp in 1959 in Montbeliard, France, the son of Hungarian parents who had fled Budapest during the failed 1956 Hungarian revolution. Brought to America as an infant, he settled with his family in Los Angeles and attended Hollywood High ...

The Shawshank Redemption (1994) - 2015

91. Kasi Lemmons

Director | Harriet

Kasi Lemmons was born on February 24, 1961 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. She is an actress and director, known for Harriet (2019), The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Candyman (1992). She has been married to Vondie Curtis-Hall since August 19, 1995. They have two children.

Eve's Bayou (1997) - 2018

92. Wes Anderson

Director | Fantastic Mr. Fox

Wesley Wales Anderson was born in Houston, Texas. His mother, Texas Ann (Burroughs), is an archaeologist turned real estate agent, and his father, Melver Leonard Anderson, worked in advertising and PR. He has two brothers, Eric and Mel. Anderson's parents divorced when he was a young child, an ...

Rushmore (1998) - 2016

93. Lana Wachowski

Writer | The Matrix

Lana Wachowski and her sister Lilly Wachowski, also known as the Wachowskis, are the duo behind such ground-breaking movies as The Matrix (1999) and Cloud Atlas (2012). Born to mother Lynne, a nurse, and father Ron, a businessman of Polish descent, Wachowski grew up in Chicago and formed a tight ...

The Matrix (1999) - 2012

94. Lilly Wachowski

Writer | The Matrix

Director, writer, and producer Lilly Wachowski was born in 1967 in Chicago, the daughter of Lynne, a nurse and painter, and Ron, a businessman. Lilly was educated at Kellogg Elementary School in Chicago, before moving on to Whitney M. Young High School. After graduating from high school, she ...

The Matrix (1999) - 2012

95. Wim Wenders

Director | Der Himmel über Berlin

Wim Wenders is an Oscar-nominated German filmmaker who was born Ernst Wilhelm Wenders on August 14, 1945 in Düsseldorf, which then was located in the British Occupation Zone of what became the Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany, known colloquially as West Germany until ...

Buena Vista Social Club (1999) - 2020

96. Kimberly Peirce

Director | Boys Don't Cry

Kimberly Peirce was born on September 8, 1967 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA. She is a director and producer, known for Boys Don't Cry (1999), Stop-Loss (2008) and Carrie (2013).

Boys Don't Cry (1999) - 2019

97. Andrew Adamson

Director | Shrek 2

Andrew Adamson was born on December 1, 1966 in Auckland, New Zealand. He is a producer and director, known for Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek (2001) and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005). He has been married to Michelle Jonas since 2018. He was previously married to ...

Shrek (2001) - 2020

98. Peter Jackson

Producer | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Sir Peter Jackson made history with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, becoming the first person to direct three major feature films simultaneously. The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King were nominated for and collected a slew of awards from around the globe, with The ...

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) - 2021

99. Vicky Jenson

Director | Shrek

Vicky Jenson's career spans more than two decades in both animation and live action, and crosses the spectrum from TV to feature films to shorts including a commercial campaign for Old Navy of more than 40 spots with Anonymous Content and was at that time the only female feature film director they ...

Shrek (2001) - 2020

100. 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, ...

Brokeback Mountain (2005) - 2018