World War II Generation Directors

by maxwellmcphee | created - 02 Nov 2019 | updated - 03 Jan 2022 | Public

Directors born from 1901-1927, in order of birth-date.

Some of the most notable directors on this list: 1901 (5) Ub Iwerks Clyde Geronimi Vittorio De Sica Robert Bresson Walt Disney 1902 (5) Max Ophuls William Wyler Leni Riefenstahl Norman Ferguson Emeric Pressburger 1903 (4) Vincente Minnelli Hamilton Luske Yasujiro Ozu Mikhail Kalatozov 1904 (3) Fritz Freleng Jaques Tourneur George Stevens 1905 (3) Michael Powell Robert Stevenson Otto Preminger 1906 (7) Wilfred Jackson Roberto Rosselini Billy Wilder Anthony Mann John Huston Luchino Visconti Carol Reed 1907 (4) Fred Zinnemann Laurence Olivier Jaques Tati Henri Georges Clouzot 1908 (3) Tex Avery Robert Rossen David Lean 1909 (3) Joseph L. Mankiewicz Wolfgang Reitherman Elia Kazan 1910 (3) John Sturges Akira Kurosawa William Hanna 1911 (4) Joseph Barbera Ishiro Honda Nicholas Ray Jules Dassin 1912 (8) Richard Brooks James Algar Samuel Fuller Gene Kelly Alexander Mackendrick Chuck Jones Michelangelo Antonioni Don Siegel 1913 (3) Robert Clampett Frank Tashlin Stanley Kramer 1914 (5) Martin Ritt William Castle Mario Bava J. Lee Thompson Robert Wise 1915 (3) Art Stevens Orson Welles Terence Young 1916 (3) Masaki Kobayashi Bill Melendez Richard Fleischer 1917 (2) Maya Deren Jean-Pierre Melville 1918 (3) Ted Post Ingmar Bergman Robert Aldrich 1919 (1) Ted Berman 1920 (5) Frederico Fellini Michael Anderson Lewis Gilbert Éric Rohmer Franklin J. Schaffner 1921 (2) Satyajit Ray George Roy Hill 1922 (8) Ken Hughes Pier Paolo Pasolini Carl Reiner Russ Meyer Alain Resnais Blake Edwards Guy Hamilton Arthur Penn 1923 (6) Franco Zeffirelli Jun Fukuda Irvin Kershner Mrinal Sen Richard Attenborough Arthur Hiller 1924 (4) Stanley Donen Sidney Lumet Arthur Rankin Jr. Edward D. Wood Jr. 1925 (4) Robert Altman Sam Peckinpah Joseph Sargent John Guillermin 1926 (6) John Schlesinger Andrzej Wajda Jerry Lewis Roger Corman Mel Brooks Norman Jewison 1927 (7) Hiroshi Teshigahara Kenneth Anger Herbert Ross Bob Fosse Ken Russel Stuart Rosenberg Jimmy Sangster

101. Gunnar Fischer

Cinematographer | Smultronstället

Gunnar Fischer was born on November 18, 1910 in Ljungby, Sweden. He was a cinematographer and director, known for Wild Strawberries (1957), The Seventh Seal (1957) and Smiles of a Summer Night (1955). He was married to Gull Söderblom. He died on June 11, 2011 in Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden.

102. Roy Rowland

Director | Meet Me in Las Vegas

Roy Rowland studied law at the University of Southern California, then joined MGM as a script clerk. As if getting that job wasn't enough good luck in the middle of the Depression, he also married the niece of MGM chief Louis B. Mayer.

He sharpened his directing chops at MGM with a series of shorts ...

103. Kimiyoshi Yasuda

Director | Shin Zatôichi: Yabure! Tôjin-ken

Born in Tokyo in 1911 Yasuda Kimiyoshi died in the capital city in 1983. In-between, however, the director was in charge of 88 films most of which were of the jidaigeki genre. Kimiyoshi's first film was 1944's Ouma Wa Nanajyunana Mangoku. Beginning with 1964 the director began working on TV movies ...

104. L. Ron Hubbard

Writer | Battlefield Earth

L. Ron Hubbard was born on March 13, 1911 in Tilden, Nebraska, USA. He was a writer and director, known for Battlefield Earth (2000), The Secret of Treasure Island (1938) and How the E-Meter Works (1976). He was married to Mary Sue Whipp, Sara Northrup and Margaret Louise Grubb. He died on January ...

105. Joseph Barbera

Producer | ABC Afterschool Specials

Joseph Roland Barbera was an American animator, film director, and television producer. He was the co-founder of the company Hanna-Barbera, with his longtime partner William Hanna.

Barbera was born in an Italian-American family. His parents were barbershop-owner Vincent Barbera (1889-1965) and ...

106. Ronald Neame

Producer | Great Expectations

A British filmmaker who, over the years, worked as assistant director, cinematographer, producer, writer and ultimately director, Ronald Neame was born on April 23, 1911. His father, Elwin Neame, was a film director and his mother, Ivy Close, was a film star. During the 1920s, he started working at...

107. Ishirô Honda

Director | Gojira

Influential Japanese film director born May 7th, 1911, often credited as being the father of Godzilla. His name is a combination of "I" (or Ino), meaning "boar", and "shirô," meaning fourth son in the family. Originally, the young Honda had aspirations of becoming an artist; however, as he entered ...

108. 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 ...

109. Charles Walters

Director | Lili

Charles Walters was born on November 17, 1911 in Pasadena, California, USA. He was a director and actor, known for Lili (1953), The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) and Ask Any Girl (1959). He died on August 13, 1982 in Malibu, California, USA.

110. Val Guest

Writer | The Day the Earth Caught Fire

Val Guest began his career as an actor on the British stage and in early sound films. He ran the one-man London office of "The Hollywood Reporter" until an encounter with director Marcel Varnel led to a screen writing job at Gainsborough Studios. Guest's directing career began in the early 1940s ...

111. Jules Dassin

Director | Du rififi chez les hommes

Jules Dassin was an Academy Award-nominated director, screenwriter and actor best known for his films Rififi (1955), Never on Sunday (1960), and Topkapi (1964).

He was born Julius Samuel Dassin on 18 December 1911, in Middletown, Connecticut, USA. He was one of eight children of Russian-Jewish ...

112. Georges Franju

Director | Les yeux sans visage

Georges Franju is a figure of immense importance in the history of French cinema, not primarily for his films (exceptional though many of these are) but for being the co-founder, with Henri Langlois, of the Cinematheque Française in 1937--France's most famous and important film archive.

He worked ...

113. Marcel Camus

Director | Orfeu Negro

The work of Marcel Camus is characterized by a lyricism which, although central to his fine films of the 1950s and 60s - Fugitive in Saigon (1957), Black Orpheus (1959) and Love in the Night (1968) - later deteriorated into superficial sentimentality. Camus was a professor of painting and sculpture...

114. Kaneto Shindô

Writer | Ichimai no hagaki

Kaneto Shindô was born on April 22, 1912 in Hiroshima, Japan. He was a writer and director, known for Postcard (2010), The Naked Island (1960) and A Last Note (1995). He was married to Nobuko Otowa and Miyo Shindo. He died on May 29, 2012 in Hiroshima, Japan.

115. Kaneto Shindô

Writer | Ichimai no hagaki

116. Richard Brooks

Writer | In Cold Blood

Richard Brooks was an Academy Award-winning film writer who also earned six Oscar nominations and achieved success as a film director and producer.

He was born Reuben Sax on May 18, 1912, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants. He graduated from West Philadelphia ...

117. James Algar

Director | The African Lion

James Algar studied at Stanford where he developed his skills as a cartoonist by drawing for the university's satirical magazine, The Chaparral. He joined the Disney Organisation in 1934, initially as animator. He directed the classic "Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment of Fantasia (1940), as well as ...

118. Samuel Fuller

Writer | Shock Corridor

At age 17, Samuel Fuller was the youngest reporter ever to be in charge of the events section of the New York Journal. After having participated in the European battle theater in World War II, he directed some minor action productions for which he mostly wrote the scripts himself and which he also ...

119. Gene Kelly

Soundtrack | Singin' in the Rain

Eugene Curran Kelly was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the third son of Harriet Catherine (Curran) and James Patrick Joseph Kelly, a phonograph salesman. His father was of Irish descent and his mother was of Irish and German ancestry.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was the largest and most powerful studio in...

120. Alexander Mackendrick

Writer | The Man in the White Suit

One of the most distinguished (if frequently overlooked) directors ever to emerge from the British film industry, Alexander Mackendrick, was in fact born in the US (to Scottish parents), but grew up in his native Scotland, where he studied at the Glasgow School of Art. He started out as a ...

121. 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,...

122. Michelangelo Antonioni

Writer | Blow-Up

Together with Fellini, Bergman and Kurosawa, Michelangelo Antonioni is credited with defining the modern art film. And yet Antonioni's cinema is also recognized today for defying any easy categorization, with his films ultimately seeming to belong to their own distinctive genre. Indeed, the ...

123. Cornel Wilde

Actor | The Greatest Show on Earth

Cornel Wilde was born Kornel Lajos Weisz on October 13, 1912 in Prievidza, Hungary (now part of Slovakia) to a Jewish family. In 1920, he immigrated to New York City with his parents, Rayna (Vid) and Vojtech Béla Weisz, and elder sister, Edith. His family Anglicized their names. Kornel took the ...

124. Peer Guldbrandsen

Writer | Løgn og løvebrøl

Peer Guldbrandsen was born on October 22, 1912 in Odense, Denmark. He was a writer and actor, known for Løgn og løvebrøl (1961), Premiere i helvede (1964) and Skibet er ladet med (1960). He was married to Svea Hedvig Erika Branner and Karen Margrethe Jønsson. He died on March ...

125. Don Siegel

Director | Dirty Harry

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 ...

126. David Swift

Writer | How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

David Swift was born on July 27, 1919 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. He was a writer and director, known for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967), The Parent Trap (1961) and Camp Runamuck (1965). He was married to Micheline Swift and Maggie McNamara. He died on December 31, 2001...

127. Garson Kanin

Writer | Adam's Rib

Garson Kanin has worked as an actor on stage and as a director on Broadway and in Hollywood, but his best-known work is as a writer. During the Great Depression, he dropped out of high school to help support his family by working as a musician and later as a comedian. He attended the American ...

128. Gordon Parks

Director | The Learning Tree

The pre-eminent American photojournalist of sub-Saharan descent. An acclaimed photographer for Life magazine from the late 40s through late 60s, he turned to directing films, his second of which, the blaxploitation movie Shaft (1971), achieved success at the box office. In 1989 his first film ...

129. Frank Tashlin

Director | Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?

Frank Tashlin was born on February 19, 1913 in Weehawken, New Jersey, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957), The Girl Can't Help It (1956) and Rock-a-Bye Baby (1958). He was married to Jean Deines, Mary Costa and Dorothy Marguerite Hill. He died on May ...

130. René Clément

Director | Jeux interdits

René Clément was one of the leading French directors of the post-World War II era. He directed what are regarded as some of the greatest films of the time, such as The Battle of the Rails (1946), Forbidden Games (1952) and The Day and the Hour (1963). He was later almost forgotten as a director. He...

131. 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 ...

132. André De Toth

Writer | The Gunfighter

Although he obtained a law degree from the Royal Hungarian University, Andre De Toth decided to become an actor, and spent several years on the stage. He then entered the Hungarian film industry, obtaining work as a writer, editor, second unit director and actor before finally becoming a director. ...

133. Lee Sholem

Director | Superman and the Mole-Men

If only one Hollywood name is synonymous with speed and efficiency, it has to be Lee "Roll 'Em" Sholem. In a 40-year career, he directed upwards of 1300 shows, both features and TV episodes, without once going over schedule--a feat probably unparalleled in Hollywood history. Sholem started out in ...

134. Fred F. Sears

Director | The Giant Claw

A graduate of Boston College, Fred F. Sears got his show-business start in regional theater, where he was an actor, director and producer. He started "little theater" groups and was a drama instructor at Southwestern University when Columbia Pictures hired him as a dialogue director. He also worked...

135. Christian Nyby

Editor | Red River

Christian Nyby, the television and movie director who achieved acclaim as a film editor before moving into the director's chair, was born on September 1, 1913, in Los Angeles, California. He made his reputation as a cutter during the 1940s, when he worked with the great helmer Howard Hawks, winning...

136. Stanley Kramer

Producer | Judgment at Nuremberg

Stanley Kramer was born on September 29, 1913 in Hell's Kitchen [now Clinton], Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and director, known for Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) and Inherit the Wind (1960). He was married to Karen Sharpe, Anne P. ...

137. Anthony Mithradas

Director | Dayalan

Anthony Mithradas was born on November 3, 1913 in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, British India. He was a director, known for Dayalan (1941), Pizhaikkum Vazhi (1948) and Duppathage Duka (1956). He died on February 20, 2017 in Chennai, India.

138. Guy Green

Cinematographer | Great Expectations

Guy Green is well known to film audiences. Formerly a cinematographer, he was the first British D.P. to receive an Academy Award for his black-and-white photography on David Lean's Great Expectations (1946). He founded the British Society of Cinematographers together with Freddie Young and Jack ...

139. Mark Robson

Director | Peyton Place

Mark Robson studied political science and economics at the University of California. He then took a law course at Pacific Coast University, and, at one time, also attended the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. Ultimately, his interests led him elsewhere, since he ended up in the movie business as a ...

140. George Reeves

Actor | Adventures of Superman

George Reeves was born George Keefer Brewer in Woolstock, Iowa, to Helen Roberta (Lescher) and Donald C. Brewer. He was of German, English, and Scottish descent. Following his parents' divorce and his mother's remarriage to Frank J. Bessolo, Reeves was raised in Pasadena, California, and educated ...

141. Martin Ritt

Director | Hud

Martin Ritt, one of the best and most sensitive American filmmakers of all time, was a director, actor and playwright who worked in both film and theater. He was born in New York City. His films reflect, like almost none other, a profound and intimate humane vision of his characters.

He originally ...

142. Marguerite Duras

Writer | Le camion

Ms. Duras was born in southern Vietnam and lost her father at age 4. The family savings of 20 years bought the family a small plot in Cambodia, but everything was lost in a single season's flooding. The disaster killed her mother as a result. After high school in Saigon, Ms. Duras left Indochina to...

143. William Castle

Director | Homicidal

William Castle was born on April 24, 1914 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Homicidal (1961), House on Haunted Hill (1959) and The Lady from Shanghai (1947). He was married to Ellen. He died on May 31, 1977 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

144. Armando Bo

Producer | Furia infernal

Armando Bo was born on May 3, 1914 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was an actor and producer, known for Ardent Summer (1973), La señora del intendente (1967) and Los días calientes (1966). He died on October 8, 1981 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

145. Khwaja Ahmad Abbas

Writer | Shehar Aur Sapna

Producer, director, and writer of Indian cinema. Born on 7 June 1914 in Panipat, he graduated with a degree in literature. He was the author of about twenty books, some of which have been translated into various languages, and was a founding member of the Progressive Writers' Association. From 1938...

146. Mario Bava

Cinematographer | Ecologia del delitto

Italian director Mario Bava was born on July 31, 1914 in the coastal northern Italian town of Sanremo. His father, Eugenio Bava (1886-1966), was a cinematographer in the early days of the Italian film industry. Bava was trained as a painter, and when he eventually followed his father into film ...

147. J. Lee Thompson

Director | The Guns of Navarone

J. Lee Thompson was born on August 1, 1914 in Bristol, England, UK. He was a director and writer, known for The Guns of Navarone (1961), Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957) and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972). He was married to Penny Thompson, Florence (Bill) Bailey, Lucille Kelly and Joan ...

148. Ken Annakin

Director | The Longest Day

A former salesman and journalist, Ken Annakin got into the film industry making documentary shorts. His feature debut, Holiday Camp (1947), was a comedy about a Cockney family on vacation. It was made for the Rank Organization and was a modest success, spawning three sequels, all of which he ...

149. 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 ...

150. Pietro Germi

Writer | Il ferroviere

Pietro Germi was born on September 14, 1914 in Genoa, Liguria, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for The Railroad Man (1956), Divorce Italian Style (1961) and The Birds, the Bees and the Italians (1966). He was married to Olga D'Aiello and Anna Bancio. He died on December 5, 1974 in Rome, ...

151. Jack Cardiff

Cinematographer | Black Narcissus

Almost universally considered one of the greatest cinematographers of all time, Jack Cardiff was also a notable director. He described his childhood as very happy and his parents as quite loving. They performed in music hall as comedians, so he grew up with the fun that came with their theatrical ...

152. William F. Claxton

Director | Half Past Midnight

William F. Claxton was born on October 22, 1914 in Los Angeles County, California, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Half Past Midnight (1948), Desire in the Dust (1960) and Night of the Lepus (1972). He died on February 11, 1996 in Santa Monica, California, USA.

153. Norman Lloyd

Actor | Dead Poets Society

Norman Lloyd was born Norman Perlmutter in Jersey City, New Jersey, to Sadie (Horowitz), a housewife and singer, and Max Perlmutter, a furniture store manager. His family was Jewish (from Hungary and Russia). He began his acting career in the theater, first "treading the boards" at Eva Le Gallienne...

154. Cy Endfield

Director | Zulu

The son of a struggling businessman, Cy Endfield--born Cyril Raker Endfield--worked hard to be admitted to Yale University in 1933. While completing his education he became enamored with progressive theatre and appeared in a New Haven production of a minor Russian play in 1934. He was also ...

155. Alberto Lattuada

Writer | Guendalina

Alberto Lattuada was born on November 13, 1914 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Guendalina (1957), Flesh Will Surrender (1947) and Bambina (1974). He was married to Carla Del Poggio. He died on July 3, 2005 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

156. Jack Bernhard

Director | Decoy

Jack Bernhard was born on November 28, 1914 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Decoy (1946), Unknown Island (1948) and Man Made Monster (1941). He was married to Jean Gillie. He died on March 30, 1997 in Beverly Hills, California, USA.

157. Leslie H. Martinson

Director | Batman: The Movie

Leslie H. Martinson was born on January 16, 1915 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was a director and assistant director, known for Batman: The Movie (1966), Mission: Impossible (1966) and Hot Rod Girl (1956). He was married to Connie Martinson. He died on September 3, 2016 in Los Angeles, ...

158. Art Stevens

Director | The Fox and the Hound

Art Stevens was born on May 1, 1915 in Roy, Montana, USA. He was a director, known for The Fox and the Hound (1981), The Andromeda Strain (1971) and The Rescuers (1977). He was married to Penny Stevens. He died on May 22, 2007 in Studio City, California, USA.

159. William Witney

Director | The Crimson Ghost

Born in Oklahoma in 1915, Witney broke into the business in 1933, working at Mascot, the leading producer of low-budget serials. After Mascot and other small companies merged in 1935 to form Republic, Witney graduated to director (at 21, he was Hollywood's youngest). Witney teamed with director ...

160. 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 ...

161. Mario Monicelli

Writer | I compagni

Mario Monicelli was born on May 16, 1915 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for The Organizer (1963), Speriamo che sia femmina (1986) and Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958). He was married to Chiara Rapaccini and Antonella Salerni. He died on November 29, 2010 in Rome, Lazio,...

162. Terence Young

Director | Dr. No

Born in Shanghai and Cambridge-educated, Terence Young began in the industry as a scriptwriter. In the 1940s he worked on a variety of subjects, including the hugely popular wartime romance Suicide Squadron (1941), set to Richard Addinsell's rousing "Warsaw Concerto". His original story was devised...

163. Kon Ichikawa

Director | Inugami-ke no ichizoku

Kon Ichikawa has been influenced by artists as diverse as Walt Disney and Jean Renoir, and his films cover a wide spectrum of moods, from the comic to the overwhelmingly ironic and even the perverse. Ichikawa began his career as a cartoonist, and this influence is apparent in his skillful use of ...

164. Frank Sinatra

Actor | From Here to Eternity

Frank Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, to Italian immigrants Natalina Della (Garaventa), from Northern Italy, and Saverio Antonino Martino Sinatra, a Sicilian boxer, fireman, and bar owner. Growing up on the gritty streets of Hoboken made Sinatra determined to work hard to get ahead. ...

165. Robert Parrish

Director | Casino Royale

Robert Parrish was an Academy Award-winning film editor who also directed and acted in movies. As a child he appeared in films during the early 1930s, such as City Lights (1931) by Charles Chaplin and Lewis Milestone's All Quiet on the Western Front (1930). As an editor he won an Academy Award for ...

166. Masaki Kobayashi

Director | Seppuku

Masaki Kobayashi was born on February 14, 1916 in Hokkaido, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Harakiri (1962), Samurai Rebellion (1967) and The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961). He died on October 4, 1996 in Tokyo, Japan.

167. Jack Arnold

Director | Creature from the Black Lagoon

Jack Arnold reigns supreme as one of the great directors of 1950s science-fiction features. His films are distinguished by moody black and white cinematography, solid acting, smart, thoughtful scripts, snappy pacing, a genuine heartfelt enthusiasm for the genre and plenty of eerie atmosphere.

Arnold...

168. Luigi Comencini

Writer | Voltati Eugenio

Luigi Comencini was born on June 8, 1916 in Salò, Lombardy, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Voltati Eugenio (1980), Everybody Go Home! (1960) and Bread, Love and Dreams (1953). He was married to Giulia Grifeo. He died on April 6, 2007 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

169. Irwin Allen

Producer | The Towering Inferno

A graduate of New York's Columbia School of Journalism, Irwin Allen was a magazine editor, the producer/director of a radio show and the owner of an advertising agency before entering film production in the 1950s. His documentary, The Sea Around Us (1953), won an Academy Award. A successful TV ...

170. Ralph Nelson

Director | Lilies of the Field

In 1959, Emmy Award-winning television director Ralph Nelson directed a 90-minute adaptation of Shakespeare's "Hamlet," with John Neville as the Dane, for the DuPont Show of the Month. Nelson himself adapted the 1601 Quatro (the "pirated" version considered corrupt) in order to make a coherent ...

171. George Sidney

Director | Scaramouche

The son of Louis K. Sidney the vice president of M.G.M. and Hazel Mooney of The Mooney Sisters. In his teens he worked as studio messenger going through every department learning the techniques and secrets of the trade. In 1933 he was assigned to direct screen tests of Judy Garland, Robert Taylor ...

172. Bill Melendez

Producer | A Boy Named Charlie Brown

Bill Melendez was born on November 15, 1916 in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. He was a producer and actor, known for A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969), A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) and He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown (1968). He was married to Helen Antionette Huhn. He died on September 2, 2008 in ...

173. Richard Fleischer

Director | Soylent Green

Richard firmly established his credentials with such epics as The Vikings (1958) , 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) and Barabbas (1961) and also proved to be a master of intimate drama with Compulsion (1959) , which won Cannes Festival awards for the male stars. He won an Academy Award for one ...

174. Roy Ward Baker

Director | A Night to Remember

Roy Ward Baker's first job in films was as a teaboy at the Gainsborough Studios in London, England, but within three years he was working as an assistant director. During World War II, he worked in the Army Kinematograph Unit under Eric Ambler, a writer and film producer, who, after the war, gave ...

175. Kirk Douglas

Actor | The Final Countdown

Cleft-chinned, steely-eyed and virile star of international cinema who rose from being "the ragman's son" (the name of his best-selling 1988 autobiography) to become a bona fide superstar, Kirk Douglas, also known as Issur Danielovitch Demsky, was born on December 9, 1916 in Amsterdam, New York. ...

176. Dino Risi

Director | Il sorpasso

Dino Risi became a movie director by chance. In 1940 he met Alberto Lattuada at a friend's boutique. Lattuada told him they needed an assistant director for the movie Piccolo mondo antico (1941). Risi accepted just for fun, not for work. Later, he became a psychiatrist and wrote some articles for a...

177. Giuseppe De Santis

Writer | Caccia tragica

Giuseppe De Santis was born on February 11, 1917 in Fondi, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Tragic Hunt (1947), Giorni d'amore (1954) and Bitter Rice (1949). He was married to Gordana Miletic. He died on May 16, 1997 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

178. Montgomery Pittman

Writer | The Twilight Zone

Born in Louisiana and raised in Oklahoma, Pittman was a talented writer/director in Hollywood in the 1950s and early 60s before his death, from cancer, at a very young age. He came to Hollywood as an actor from Broadway, but turned to writing and directing soon thereafter. Pittman's career is ...

179. Maya Deren

Director | Meshes of the Afternoon

Maya Deren came to the USA in 1922 as Eleanora Derenkowsky. Together with her father Solomon Derenkowsky, a psychiatrist, and her mother Maria Fidler, an artist, she fled the pogroms organized by the Bolsheviks against the Jews. She studied journalism and political science at the Syracuse ...

180. Jean Rouch

Director | Moi, un noir

Jean Rouch was born on May 31, 1917 in Paris, France. He was a director and cinematographer, known for Moi, un noir (1958), Madame L'Eau (1993) and Six in Paris (1965). He was married to Joselyne Lamothe. He died on February 18, 2004 in Birni N'Konni, Niger.

181. Mel Ferrer

Actor | Lili

Actor/director/producer Mel Ferrer was born Melchor Gaston Ferrer on August 25, 1917, in Elberon, New Jersey. The son of a Cuban-born surgeon and a Manhattan socialite, he went to prep school and attended Princeton University. From the age of 15 he worked in summer stock. After Princeton he became ...

182. Ib Melchior

Writer | Death Race

The son of the Wagnerian tenor and film star Lauritz Melchior, Ib Melchior was born and educated in Denmark. After graduating from the University of Copenhagen, he joined the English Players, a British theatrical company, and toured Europe with the troupe, first as an actor and later as stage ...

183. Zoltán Fábri

Director | Húsz óra

He was born in 1917 and between the two World War he finished his primary and secondary school. After them he graduated in the College of Fine Arts, which helped him later to be a production-designer. He liked to learn and joined the Academy of Theatre and Film Arts. He bacame a director and actor....

184. Jean-Pierre Melville

Writer | Le samouraï

The name "Melville" is not immediately associated with film. It conjures up images of white whales and crackbrained captains, of naysaying notaries and soup-spilling sailors. It is the countersign to a realm of men and their deeds, both heroic and villainous. It is the American novel, with its ...

185. Ossie Davis

Actor | Do the Right Thing

Ossie Davis was born on December 18, 1917 in Cogdell, Georgia, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Do the Right Thing (1989), Bubba Ho-Tep (2002) and Grumpy Old Men (1993). He was married to Ruby Dee. He died on February 4, 2005 in Miami Beach, Florida, USA.

186. Freddie Francis

Cinematographer | The Straight Story

During his last years at school he spent most of his time writing a thesis on 'the future of film' On leaving school he joined Gaumont British Studios at Lime Grove as an apprentice to a stills photographer for a year. He claimed this taught him more about the art of photography than any other form...

187. Ida Lupino

Actress | High Sierra

Ida was born in London to a show business family. In 1932, her mother took Ida with her to an audition and Ida got the part her mother wanted. The picture was Her First Affaire (1932). Ida, a bleached blonde, went to Hollywood in 1934 playing small, insignificant parts. Peter Ibbetson (1935) was ...

188. Dennis Patrick

Actor | Joe

Dennis Patrick was born on March 14, 1918 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Joe (1970), House of Dark Shadows (1970) and Dark Shadows (1966). He was married to Barbara Cason and Amelia Honora Baines. He died on October 13, 2002 in Hollywood, California, USA.

189. Ted Post

Director | Magnum Force

Ted Post first began thinking about a career in show business in 1938, when he was working as a weekend usher at the Loew's Pitkin Theater in Brooklyn, New York, and getting so caught up in the movies that he would sometimes forget to escort the patrons to their seats. He received some acting ...

190. Gabriel Axel

Director | Babettes gæstebud

Gabriel Axel was born on April 18, 1918 in Århus, Denmark. He was a director and actor, known for Babette's Feast (1987), The Red Mantle (1967) and Christian (1989). He was married to Lucie Axel Moerch. He died on February 9, 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

191. Hal Roach Jr.

Director | One Million B.C.

Hal Roach Jr. was born on June 15, 1918 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a producer and director, known for One Million B.C. (1940), The Fabulous Joe (1947) and Captain Scarface (1953). He died on March 29, 1972 in Santa Monica, California, USA.

192. Ingmar Bergman

Writer | Smultronstället

Ernst Ingmar Bergman was born July 14, 1918, the son of a priest. The film and T.V. series, The Best Intentions (1992) is biographical and shows the early marriage of his parents. The film Sunday's Children (1992) depicts a bicycle journey with his father. In the miniseries Private Confessions (...

193. Robert Aldrich

Director | Emperor of the North Pole

Robert Aldrich entered the film industry in 1941 when he got a job as a production clerk at RKO Radio Pictures. He soon worked his way up to script clerk, then became an assistant director, a production manager and an associate producer. He began writing and directing for TV series in the early ...

194. Jerome Robbins

Writer | West Side Story

Jerome Robbins was one of the founding members of the Ballet Theatre when it was formed in 1940 portraying a variety of roles for several years before devising his own creations such as 'Fancy Free' about 3 sailors on leave in New York which marked a long association with Leonard Bernstein. With ...

195. Coleman Francis

Director | The Beast of Yucca Flats

Coleman Francis was born on January 24, 1919 in Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961), Red Zone Cuba (1966) and The Skydivers (1963). He was married to Barbara Francis. He died on January 15, 1973 in Hollywood, California, USA.

196. Lester James Peries

Director | Rekava

Lester James Peries was born on April 5, 1919 in Colombo, Ceylon [now Sri Lanka]. He was a director and writer, known for The Line of Destiny (1956), Gamperaliya (1963) and Yagunthaya (1985). He was married to Sumitra Peries. He died on April 29, 2018 in Colombo, Western Province, Sri Lanka.

197. Sam Wanamaker

Actor | Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

Actor and director Sam Wanamaker was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, Molly (Babell) and Maurice Wattenmaker, a tailor. He studied at Drake University, IA, then trained at Goodman Theatre, Chicago, worked with summer stock companies in Chicago as an actor and director, and...

198. Lawrence Dobkin

Actor | Patton

Lawrence Dobkin was born on September 16, 1919 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Patton (1970), Mike Hammer (1958) and The Ten Commandments (1956). He was married to Anne Collings, Joanna Barnes and Frances Hope Walker. He died on October 28, 2002 in Los ...

199. 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...

200. Gillo Pontecorvo

Director | La battaglia di Algeri

Gillo Pontecorvo was an Italian filmmaker. He is best known for his 1966 masterpiece, The Battle of Algiers, widely viewed as one of the finest films of its genre: realistic though fictionalized documentary. Its portrayal of the Algerian resistance during the Algerian War uses the neorealist style ...