Favourite Film Directors

1. 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 ...

Greatest Films: Vertigo (1958), Foreign Correspondent (1940), North By Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), Shadow Of A Doubt (1943), The Lady Vanishes (1938), Strangers On A Train (1951), I Confess (1953), The 39 Steps (1935), Rear Window (1954), Secret Agent (1936), Notorious (1946), Marnie (1964), The Birds (1963), Rebecca (1940), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), Murder!(1930), The Trouble With Harry (1955), Suspicion (1941), The Wrong Man (1956), Dial M For Murder (1954), Lifeboat (1944), To Catch A Thief (1955), Saboteur (1942), Sabotage (1936), Spellbound (1945), Family Plot (1976), Stage Fright (1959).

2. 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...

Greatest Films: Red River (1948), The Big Sleep (1946), El Dorado (1966), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Road To Glory (1936), El Dorado (1966), Air Force (1943), Rio Bravo (1959), Scarface (1932), His Girl Friday (1940), I Was A Male War Bride (1949), Man's Favorite Sport? (1964), Monkey Business (1952), Scarface (1932), Man's Favorite Sport? (1964), To Have And Have Not (1944), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

3. 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 ...

Greatest Films: The Apartment (1960), Avanti! (1972), Sabrina (1954), Witness For The Prosecution (1957), Stalag 17 (1953), Some Like It Hot (1959), Double Indemnity (1944), Irma La Douce (1963), Sunset Blvd (1950), The Front Page (1974), The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes (1970), One Two Three (1961), The Fortune Cookie (1966), Ace In The Hole (1951)

4. 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...

Greatest Films: Casablanca (1942), The Kennel Murder Case (1933), Mildred Pierce (1945), The Adventures Of Robin Hood (1938), Passage To Marseille (1944), Mystery Of The Wax Museum (1933), Angels With Dirty Faces (1938), The Unsuspected (1947), The Comancheros (1961), The Sea Hawk (1940), Doctor X (1932), Four Daughters (1938), The Sea Wolf (1941), Santa Fe Trail (1940), Private Detective 62 (1933), Trouble Along The Way (1953), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Captain Blood (1935), Virginia City (1940), The Breaking Point (1950), Captains Of The Clouds (1942), The Mad Genius (1931), Flamingo Road (1949), White Christmas (1954), The Walking Dead (1936), Night And Day (1946)

5. Fred Zinnemann

Director | A Man for All Seasons

Initially grew up wanting to be a violinist, but while at the University of Vienna decided to study law. While doing so, he became increasingly interested in American film and decided that was what he wanted to do. He became involved in European filmaking for a short time before going to America to...

Greatest Films: From Here To Eternity (1953), Act Of Violence (1948), The Search (1948), A Man For All Seasons (1966), High Noon (1952), Behold A Pale Horse (1964), Kid Glove Killer (1942), Eyes In The Night (1942), The Day Of The Jackal (1973), The Nun's Story (1959), Julia (1977)

6. 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 (...

Greatest Films: The Virgin Spring (1960), Through A Glass Darkly (1961), The Seventh Seal (1957), The Magician (1958), Winter Light (1963), Hour Of The Wolf (1968), Shame (1968), Sawdust & Tinsel (1953), Cries & Whispers (1972), Wild Strawberries (1957), Autumn Sonata (1978), The Silence (1963), Summer With Monika (1953), The Passion Of Anna (1969), Persona (1966), Smiles Of A Summer Night (1955)

7. 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 ...

Greatest Films: Murder On The Orient Express (1974), 12 Angry Men (1957), The Hill (1965), Serpico (1973), Before The Devil Knows You're Dead (2007), Deathtrap (1982), Child's Play (1972), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Family Business (1989), The Offence (1973), The Deadly Affair (1966), Fail Safe (1964), The Group (1966), The Anderson Tapes (1971), Find Me Guilty (2006)

8. 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...

Greatest Films: The Heiress (1949), The Children's Hour (1961), Detective Story (1951), Mrs. Miniver (1942), The Desperate Hours (1955), Jezebel (1938), Wuthering Heights (1939), Dead End (1937), How To Steal A Million (1966), The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946), The Little Foxes (1941), Dodsworth (1936), Raffles (1939), The Westerner (1940), Roman Holiday (1953), The Good Fairy (1935), Counsellor At Law (1933)

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, ...

Greatest Films: Jaws (1975), Duel (1971), Minority Report (2002), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977), Ready Player One (2018), E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (1989), The Fabelmans (2022), Schindler's List (1993), The Color Purple (1985), The Post (2017), War Horse (2011), The Terminal (2004), Lincoln (2012)

10. John Frankenheimer

Director | The Manchurian Candidate

Born in New York and raised in Queens, John Frankenheimer wanted to become a professional tennis player. He loved movies and his favorite actor was Robert Mitchum. He decided he wanted to be an actor but then he applied for and was accepted in the Motion Picture Squadron of the Air Force where he ...

Greatest Films: The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Seven Days In May (1964), The Train (1964), Seconds (1966), Ronin (1998), Grand Prix (1966), The Iceman Cometh (1973), The Gypsy Moths (1969), Reindeer Games (2000), Birdman Of Alcatraz (1962), Black Sunday (1977), I Walk The Line (1970), Year Of The Gun (1991)

11. John Huston

Director | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

An eccentric rebel of epic proportions, this Hollywood titan reigned supreme as director, screenwriter and character actor in a career that endured over five decades. The ten-time Oscar-nominated legend was born John Marcellus Huston in Nevada, Missouri, on August 5, 1906. His ancestry was English,...

Greatest Films: The Maltese Falcon (1941), Across The Pacific (1942), The Mackintosh Man (1973), The List Of Adrian Messenger (1963), The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (1948), Key Largo (1948), The Misfits (1961), Freud (1962), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), In This Our Life (1942), The African Queen (1951), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), Escape To Victory (1981), The Unforgiven (1960), We Were Strangers (1949)

12. David Lean

Director | Lawrence of Arabia

An important British filmmaker, David Lean was born in Croydon on March 25, 1908 and brought up in a strict Quaker family (ironically, as a child he wasn't allowed to go to the movies). During the 1920s, he briefly considered the possibility of becoming an accountant like his father before finding ...

Greatest Films: Lawrence Of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965), The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957), In Which We Serve (1942), Ryan's Daughter (1970), Brief Encounter (1945), Oliver Twist (1948), Great Expectations (1946), The Sound Barrier (1952), The Passionate Friends (1949)

13. John Sturges

Director | The Great Escape

John Sturges was an American film director, mostly remembered for his outstanding Western films. In 1992, Sturges was awarded a Golden Boot Award for his lifelong contribution to the Western genre.

Sturges was born in the village of Oak Park, Illinois, within the Chicago metropolitan area. By 1930, ...

Greatest Films: The Great Escape (1963), The Magnificent Seven (1960), Bad Day At Black Rock (1955), Gunfight At The O.K. Corral (1957), Ice Station Zebra (1968), The Walking Hills (1949), Last Train From Gun Hill (1959), Never So Few (1959), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Hour Of The Gun (1967), Joe Kidd (1972), Underwater! (1955)

14. 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 ...

Greatest Films: East Of Eden (1955), Wild River (1960), On The Waterfront (1954), Panic In The Streets (1950), The Arrangement (1969), Splendor In The Grass (1961), Boomerang! (1947), Pinky (1949), The Last Tycoon (1976), Man On A Tightrope (1953), Viva Zapata! (1952), A Face In The Crowd (1957)

15. 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 ...

Greatest Films: The Invisible Man (1933), Frankenstein (1931), The Old Dark House (1932), Waterloo Bridge (1931), The Bride Of Frankenstein (1935), Remember Last Night? (1935), Show Boat (1936), Wives Under Suspicion (1938), The Man In The Iron Mask (1939)

16. 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.

Greatest Films: The Awful Truth (1937), An Affair To Remember (1957), Love Affair (1939), Duck Soup (1933), The Bells Of St. Mary's (1945), Going My Way (1944), Once Upon A Honeymoon (1942), Big Business (1929), Liberty (1929), We Faw Down (1928), The Battle Of The Century (1927),

17. 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...

Greatest Films: Three Days Of The Condor (1975), The Way We Were (1973), They Shoot Horses Don't They? (1969), Jeremiah Johnson (1972), Tootsie (1982), The Swimmer (1968), The Yakuza (1974), The Firm (1993), Out Of Africa (1985), This Property Is Condemned (1966), The Scalphunters (1968)

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 ...

Greatest Films: Barry Lyndon (1975), Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (1964), Paths Of Glory (1957), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Spartacus (1960), The Shining (1980), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Full Metal Jacket (1987), The Killing (1956), A Clockwork Orange (1971)

19. Jacques Tourneur

Director | Cat People

Born in Paris in 1904, Tourneur went to Hollywood with his father, director Maurice Tourneur around 1913. He started out as a script clerk and editor for his father, then graduated to such jobs as directing shorts (often with the pseudonym Jack Turner), both in France and America. He was hired to ...

Greatest Films: The Leopard Man (1943), Berlin Express (1948), Cat People (1942), Out Of The Past (1947), I Walked With A Zombie (1943), Experiment Perilous (1944), Easy Living (1949), Curse Of The Demon (1957), Canyon Passage (1946), Nightfall (1956), Wichita (1955), The Flame And The Arrow (1950), The Comedy Of Terrors (1963)

20. Akira Kurosawa

Writer | Kakushi-toride no san-akunin

After training as a painter (he storyboards his films as full-scale paintings), Kurosawa entered the film industry in 1936 as an assistant director, eventually making his directorial debut with Sanshiro Sugata (1943). Within a few years, Kurosawa had achieved sufficient stature to allow him greater...

Greatest Films: The Hidden Fortress (1958), High And Low (1963), Stray Dog (1949), Seven Samurai (1954), Drunken Angel (1948), The Bad Sleep Well (1960), Throne Of Blood (1957), Rashomon (1950), Yojimbo (1961), Sanjuro (1962), Red Beard (1965), Ikiru (1952)

21. 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 ...

Greatest Films: The Lusty Men (1952), Rebel Without A Cause (1955), In A Lonely Place (1950), Macao (1952), They Live By Night (1949), Bitter Victory (1957), Party Girl (1958), The Racket (1951), The True Story Of Jesse James (1957), Run For Cover (1955), On Dangerous Ground (1951)

22. 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 ...

Greatest Films: The Dirty Dozen (1967), Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962), The Longest Yard (1974), The Flight Of The Phoenix (1965), Attack (1956), Ten Seconds To Hell (1959), Emperor Of The North (1973), Vera Cruz (1954), Too Late The Hero (1970), The Big Knife (1955)

23. Anthony Mann

Director | El Cid

Anthony Mann was born on June 30, 1906 in San Diego, California, USA. He was a director and writer, known for El Cid (1961), Men in War (1957) and The Glenn Miller Story (1954). He was married to Anna, Sara Montiel and Mildred Mann. He died on April 29, 1967 in London, England.

Greatest Films: The Naked Spur (1953), The Tall Target (1951), Desperate (1947), The Furies (1950), The Tin Star (1957), Winchester 73 (1950), Raw Deal (1948), Thunder Bay (1953), T-Men (1947), Bend Of The River (1952), The Man From Laramie (1955), The Heroes Of Telemark (1965), The Fall Of The Roman Empire (1964), Side Street (1949), Railroaded! (1947), Two O'Clock Courage (1945), Men In War (1957), Strange Impersonation (1946)

24. 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 ...

Greatest Films: Once Upon A Time In The West (1968), The Good The Bad And The Ugly (1966), For A Few Dollars More (1965), Once Upon A Time In America (1984), A Fistful Of Dollars (1965), Duck You Sucker (1971)

25. Jean Renoir

Writer | La règle du jeu

Son of the famous Impressionist painter Pierre Auguste, he had a happy childhood. Pierre Renoir was his brother, and Claude Renoir was his nephew. After the end of World War I, where he won the Croix de Guerre, he moved from scriptwriting to filmmaking. He married Catherine Hessling, for whom he ...

Greatest Films: La Grande Illusion (1937), This Land Is Mine (1943), La Bete Humaine (1938), Le Carrosse D'or (1952), The Southener (1945), Swamp Water (1941), The Elusive Corporal (1962), La Chienne (1931), The Rules Of The Game (1939), Boudu Saved From Drowning (1932), The Crime Of Monsieur Lange (1936)

26. Edward Dmytryk

Director | The Caine Mutiny

Edward Dmytryk grew up in San Francisco, the son of Ukrainian immigrants. After his mother died when he was 6, his strict disciplinarian father beat the boy frequently, and the child began running away while in his early teens. Eventually, juvenile authorities allowed him to live alone at the age ...

Greatest Films: Murder My Sweet (1944), The Falcon Strikes Back (1943), Mirage (1965), Raintree County (1957), The Young Lions (1958), Cornered (1945), Crossfire (1947), Warlock (1959), Eight Iron Men (1952), Counter-Espionage (1942), Til The End Of Time (1946), Confessions Of Boston Blackie (1941), Secrets Of The Lone Wolf (1941), The Left Hand Of God (1955)

27. Werner Herzog

Director | Fitzcarraldo

Director. Writer. Producer. Actor. Poet. He studied history, literature and theatre for some time, but didn't finish it and founded instead his own film production company in 1963. Later in his life, Herzog also staged several operas in Bayreuth, Germany, and at the Milan Scala in Italy. Herzog has...

Greatest Films: Grizzly Man (2005), Nosferatu The Vampire (1979), Rescue Dawn (2006), The Great Ecstasy Of Woodcarver Steiner (1974), The Fire Within: A Requiem For Katia And Maurice Krafft (2022), Little Dieter Needs To Fly (1997), Aguirre, The Wrath Of God (1972), Woyzeck (1979)

28. 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. ...

Greatest Films: Beyond A Reasonable Doubt (1956), M (1931), Ministry Of Fear (1944), You And Me (1938), The Woman In The Window (1944), Scarlet Street (1945), While The City Sleeps (1956), Man Hunt (1941), Western Union (1941), Rancho Notorious (1952), Clash By Night (1952), Fury (1936), Moontide (1942), You Only Live Once (1937), The Big Heat (1953), The Blue Gardenia (1953), Metropolis (1927), The Testament Of Dr. Mabuse (1933)

29. 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 ...

Greatest Films: Laura (1944), Where The Sidewalk Ends (1950), Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965), Carmen Jones (1954), In Harm's Way (1965), Fallen Angel (1945), The Court-Martial Of Billy Mitchell (1955), Anatomy Of A Murder (1959), Advise And Consent (1962), The Fan (1949), Daisy Kenyon (1947), The Man With The Golden Arm (1955)

30. 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 ...

Greatest Films: Army Of Shadows (1969), Leon Morin, Priest (1961), Le Doulos (1962), The Red Circle (1970), Le Samourai (1967), Le Deuxieme Souffle (1966), Les Enfants Terribles (1950), Breathless (1960), Le Silence De La Mer (1949), Orpheus (1950)

31. 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 ...

Greatest Films: A Shot In The Dark (1964), Days Of Wine And Roses (1962), Breakfast At Tiffany's (1961), The Pink Panther (1963), Experiment In Terror (1962), Victor / Victoria (1982), The Great Race (1965), The Return Of The Pink Panther (1975), The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976), The Carey Treatment (1972), Revenge Of The Pink Panther (1978), Operation Petticoat (1959)

32. Norman Foster

Director | Letter to Loretta

Norman Foster was born on December 13, 1903 in Richmond, Indiana, USA. He was a director and actor, known for The Loretta Young Show (1953), I Cover Chinatown (1936) and Mr. Moto's Last Warning (1938). He was married to Sally Blane and Claudette Colbert. He died on July 7, 1976 in Santa Monica, ...

Greatest Films: Charlie Chan At Treasure Island (1939), Mr. Moto Takes A Vacation (1939), Charlie Chan In Reno (1939), Journey Into Fear (1943), Mr. Moto's Last Warning (1938), Charlie Chan In Panama (1940), Woman On The Run (1950), Think Fast Mr. Moto (1937), Mr. Moto Takes A Chance (1938), Kiss The Blood Off My Hands (1948), Thank You Mr. Moto (1937), Mysterious Mr. Moto (1938), Fair Warning (1937)

33. Roy William Neill

Director | Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

Roy William Neill was born on September 4, 1887 in ship off Ireland. He was a director and producer, known for Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), The Scarlet Claw (1944) and Murder Will Out (1939). He was married to Betty MacLaglen. He died on December 14, 1946 in London, England, UK.

Greatest Films: The Scarlet Claw (1944), The House Of Fear (1945), Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943), The Pearl Of Death (1944), The Woman In Green (1945), Pursuit To Algiers (1945), Terror By Night (1946), American Madness (1932), The Circus Queen Murder (1933), The Spider Woman (1943), The 9th Guest (1934), Sherlock Holmes And The Secret Weapon (1942), Black Angel (1946), Sherlock Holmes In Washington (1943), Dressed To Kill (1946)

34. W.S. Van Dyke

Director | The Thin Man

For the better part of his career, Woodbridge Strong Van Dyke lived up to his sobriquet "One-Take Woody" by steadfastly adhering to his credo of shooting each scene as quickly and efficiently as possible. Over his 25-year career, he economically directed over 90 diverse entertainments, which not ...

Greatest Films: After The Thin Man (1936), The Thin Man (1934), Shadow Of The Thin Man (1941), Another Thin Man (1939), I Love You Again (1940), Manhattan Melodrama (1934), Tarzan The Ape Man (1932), The Feminine Touch (1941), It's A Wonderful World (1939)

35. Stanley Donen

Director | Charade

Inspired by Fred Astaire's dancing in Flying Down to Rio (1933), Stanley Donen (pronounced 'Dawn-en') attended dance classes from the age of ten. He later recalled that the only thing he wanted to be was a tap dancer.

He was born in Columbia, South Carolina, to Helen Pauline (Cohen) and Mordecai ...

Greatest Films: Charade (1963), It's Always Fair Weather (1955), Singin' In The Rain (1952), On The Town (1949), Arabesque (1966), Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (1954), Blame It On Rio (1984), Bedazzled (1967), Two For The Road (1967), Lucky Lady (1975)

36. Yasujirô Ozu

Writer | Tôkyô monogatari

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

Greatest Films: Tokyo Story (1953), Early Summer (1951), Late Autumn (1960), Tokyo Twilight (1957), Late Spring (1949), I Was Born, But...(1932), The Brothers And Sisters Of The Toda Family (1941), Early Spring (1956), An Inn In Tokyo (1935), Woman Of Tokyo (1933), Good Morning (1959)

37. 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...

Greatest Films: Short Cuts (1993), Gosford Park (2001), Come Back To The 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982), The Player (1992), 3 Women (1977), MASH (1970), California Split (1974), Kansas City (1996), Popeye (1980), Aria (1987), Images (1972), A Wedding (1978)

38. Jean Negulesco

Director | Boy on a Dolphin

Jean Negulesco made his reputation as a director of both polished, popular entertainments as well as critically acclaimed dramatic pictures in the 1940s and 1950s. Born in Craiova, Romania, he left home at age 12, ending up in Paris. He earned some money washing dishes, which paid for his art ...

Greatest Films: The Mask Of Dimitrios (1944), Woman's World (1954), City For Conquest (1940), Humoresque (1946), Three Came Home (1950), The Conspirators (1944), Three Strangers (1946), Titanic (1953), Nobody Lives Forever (1946), Three Coins In The Fountain (1954), How To Marry A Millionaire (1953), Under My Skin (1950), Road House (1948), The Best Of Everything (1959)

39. 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 ...

Greatest Films: F For Fake (1973), Journey Into Fear (1943), Touch Of Evil (1958), The Stranger (1946), Chimes At Midnight (1965), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Macbeth (1948), The Trial (1962), The Lady From Shanghai (1947), Citizen Kane (1941)

40. H. Bruce Humberstone

Director | Wonder Man

A juvenile actor, Bruce Humberstone started his career as a script clerk, later serving as assistant director for the likes of King Vidor, Edmund Goulding and Allan Dwan. One of the 28 founders of the Directors Guild of America, Humberstone worked in a number of capacities on several silent films. ...

Greatest Films: I Wake Up Screaming (1941), Charlie Chan At The Opera (1936), Charlie Chan At The Race Track (1938), Charlie Chan In Honolulu (1938), The Dragon Murder Case (1934), Charlie Chan At The Olympics (1937), If I Had A Million (1932), To The Shores Of Tripoli (1942), Wonder Man (1945)

41. 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 ...

Greatest Films: A Place In The Sun (1951), Penny Serenade (1941), The Talk Of The Town (1942), The More The Merrier (1943), Gunga Din (1939), Woman Of The Year (1942), The Diary Of Anne Frank (1959), Nazi Concentration And Prison Camps (1945), Shane (1953), Giant (1956), Swing Time (1936)

42. Peter Weir

Director | Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Peter Weir was born on August 21, 1944 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is a director and writer, known for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), The Way Back (2010) and Witness (1985). He has been married to Wendy Stites since 1966. They have two children.

Greatest Films: Dead Poets Society (1989), Witness (1985), Gallipoli (1981), Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975), Fearless (1993), The Truman Show (1998), The Year Of Living Dangerously (1982), The Way Back (2010)

43. Edgar Wright

Director | Shaun of the Dead

Edgar Howard Wright (born 18 April 1974) is an English director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. He is best known for his comedic Three Flavours Cornetto film trilogy consisting of Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), and The World's End (2013), made with recurrent collaborators Simon Pegg...

Greatest Films: Hot Fuzz (2007), Baby Driver (2017), Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010), Shaun Of The Dead (2004), Last Night In Soho (2021), The World's End (2013)

44. 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 ...

Greatest Films: The Prestige (2006), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Interstellar (2014), Insomnia (2002), Inception (2010), Memento (2000), Following (1998), The Dark Knight (2008), Batman Begins (2005)

45. William Dieterle

Actor | Faust: Eine deutsche Volkssage

Born in Ludwigshafen, Germany, Wilhelm Dieterle was the youngest of nine children of parents Jacob and Berthe Dieterle. They lived in poverty, and when he was old enough to work, young Wilhelm earned money as a carpenter and a scrap dealer. He dreamed of better things, though, and theater caught ...

Greatest Films: The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (1939), Jewel Robbery (1932), I'll Be Seeing You (1944), Portrait Of Jennie (1948), Dark City (1950), From Headquarters (1933), The Story Of Louis Pasteur (1936), The Turning Point (1952), Love Letters (1945), Lawyer Man (1932), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), The Life Of Emile Zola (1937), Fog Over Frisco (1934)

46. Eugene Forde

Director | The Big Diamond Robbery

Born in Providence, Rhode Island, on November 8, 1896, director Eugene Forde began his industry career as a child actor on the legitimate stage. He left the business in the early 1920s, but in 1926 came back as a writer/director. He was one of the mainstays at the 20th Century-Fox "B" unit starting...

Greatest Films: Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise (1940), Charlie Chan On Broadway (1937), Charlie Chan In London (1934), Michael Shayne Private Detective (1940), Sleepers West (1941), Inspector Hornleigh (1939), The Crime Doctor's Strangest Case (1943), Berlin Correspondent (1942), Charlie Chan At Monte Carlo (1937), Dressed To Kill (1941), Shadows In The Night (1944), The Great Hotel Murder (1935)

47. Robert Siodmak

Director | Nachts wenn der Teufel kam

Robert Siodmak (8 August 1900 - 10 March 1973) was a German-born, American film director. He is best remembered as a thriller specialist and for a series of stylish, unpretentious Hollywood films noirs he made in the 1940s.

Siodmak (pronounced SEE-ODD-MACK) was born in Dresden, Germany, the son of ...

Greatest Films: The Killers (1946), The Spiral Staircase (1946), Cry Of The City (1948), The Strange Affair Of Uncle Harry (1945), Phantom Lady (1944), The Devil Strikes At Night (1957), The Suspect (1944), The Dark Mirror (1946), Hatred (1938), People On Sunday (1930), Son Of Dracula (1943), Criss Cross (1949)

48. Sidney Gilliat

Writer | State Secret

Sidney Gilliat, the English director, screenwriter, and producer, was born on February 15, 1908 in Edgely, Cheshire, England. He began his screen-writing career in the silent movie era, writing inter-titles, going uncredited for his contributions to Honeymoon Abroad (1928), Champagne (1928), and ...

Greatest Films: Green For Danger (1946), London Belongs To Me (1948), Left Right And Centre (1959), Millions Like Us (1943), Only Two Can Play (1962), State Street (1950), She Played With Fire (1957)

49. Josef von Sternberg

Director | The Devil Is a Woman

Josef von Sternberg split his childhood between Vienna and New York City. His father, a former soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army, could not support his family in either city; Sternberg remembered him only as "an enormously strong man who often used his strength on me." Forced by poverty to drop ...

Greatest Films: Macao (1952), Morocco (1930), Dishonored (1931), Shanghai Express (1932), The Docks Of New York (1928), The Devil Is A Woman (1935), Crime And Punishment (1935), Underworld (1927), Blonde Venus (1932), The Last Command (1928), The Blue Angel (1930)

50. George Marshall

Director | How the West Was Won

George Marshall was a versatile American director who came to Hollywood to visit his mother and "have a bit of fun". Expelled from Chicago University in 1912, he was an unsettled young man, drifting from job to job, variously employed as a mechanic, newspaper reporter and lumberjack with a logging ...

Greatest Films: The Ghost Breakers (1940), Murder He Says (1945), The Blue Dahlia (1946), Destry Rides Again (1939), How The West Was Won (1962), Show Them No Mercy (1935), Tap Roots (1948), Scared Stiff (1953), The Sheepman (1958), Destry (1954), Texas (1941)

51. Robert Stevenson

Director | Mary Poppins

Robert Stevenson was born on March 31, 1905 in Buxton, Derbyshire, England, UK. He was a director and writer, known for Mary Poppins (1964), Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) and Nine Days a Queen (1936). He was married to Ursula Henderson, Frances Holyoke Howard, Anna Lee and Cecilie L Leslie. He ...

Greatest Films: Mary Poppins (1964), Back Street (1941), Bedknobs And Broomsticks (1971), In Search Of The Castaways (1962), The Love Bug (1969), The Las Vegas Story (1952), Walk Softly Stranger (1950), The Man Who Lived Again (1936), Forever And A Day (1943), Tom Brown's School Days (1940), The Island At The Top Of The World (1974), Herbie Rides Again (1974), Dishonored Lady (1947), Jane Eyre (1943)

52. George Pollock

Assistant_director | Great Expectations

George Pollock was born on March 27, 1907 in Leicester, Leicestershire, England, UK. He was an assistant director and director, known for Great Expectations (1946), Brief Encounter (1945) and Ten Little Indians (1965). He died on December 22, 1979 in Thanet, Kent, England, UK.

Greatest Films: Murder Most Foul (1964), Murder She Said (1961), Murder Ahoy (1964), Murder At The Gallop (1963), Ten Little Indians (1965), Kill Or Cure (1962), Stranger In Town (1957)

53. 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...

Greatest Films: 23 Paces To Baker Street (1956), The Dark Corner (1946), 5 Card Stud (1968), The Sons Of Katie Elder (1965), Fourteen Hours (1951), Nevada Smith (1966), 13 Rue Madeleine (1947), Seven Thieves (1960), Kiss Of Death (1947), True Grit (1969), Call Northside 777 (1948), Airport (1970), Johnny Apollo (1940), Circus World (1964), How The West Was Won (1962), Niagara (1953), Wing And A Prayer (1944), Woman Obsessed (1959)

54. Quentin Tarantino

Writer | Reservoir Dogs

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

In January of...

Greatest Films: Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019), Sin City (2005), Inglourious Basterds (2009), The Hateful Eight (2015), Pulp Fiction (1994), Django Unchained (2012), Reservoir Dogs (1992), Jackie Brown (1997)

55. Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Writer | All About Eve

Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on February 11, 1909, Joseph Leo Mankiewicz first worked for the movies as a translator of intertitles, employed by Paramount in Berlin, the UFA's American distributor at the time (1928). He became a dialoguist, then a screenwriter on numerous Paramount ...

Greatest Films: Sleuth (1972), A Letter To Three Wives (1949), Suddenly Last Summer (1959), Julius Caesar (1953), House Of Strangers (1949), The Honey Pot (1967), The Late George Apley (1947), All About Eve (1950), 5 Fingers (1952), No Way Out (1950), The Quiet American (1958)

56. Richard Linklater

Director | Waking Life

Self-taught writer-director Richard Stuart Linklater was born in Houston, Texas, to Diane Margaret (Krieger), who taught at a university, and Charles W. Linklater III. Richard was among the first and most successful talents to emerge during the American independent film renaissance of the 1990s. ...

Greatest Films: Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), Before Midnight (2013), Boyhood (2014), Waking Life (2001), Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood (2022), Bernie (2011), Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2019)

57. Roman Polanski

Director | Chinatown

Roman Polanski is a Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few truly international filmmakers. Roman Polanski was born in Paris in 1933.

His parents returned to Poland from France in 1936, three years ...

Greatest Films: Chinatown (1974), The Ghost Writer (2010), Rosemary's Baby (1968), The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967), Repulsion (1965), The Pianist (2002), The Tenant (1976), Knife In The Water (1962), Tess (1979)

58. 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 ...

Greatest Films: No Sudden Move (2021), The Limey (1999), Contagion (2011), Out Of Sight (1998), Side Effects (2013), Logan Lucky (2017), Ocean's Eleven (2001), Ocean's Twelve (2004), Ocean's Thirteen (2007), Haywire (2011), Erin Brockovich (2000), Solaris (2002), Behind The Candelabra (2013)

59. 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...

Greatest Films: Waterloo Bridge (1940), I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang (1932), East Side West Side (1949), Random Harvest (1942), Little Caesar (1931), Little Women (1949), Mister Roberts (1955), Without Reservations (1946), Johnny Eager (1941), Hard To Handle (1933), Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), The Bad Seed (1956),

60. 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 ...

Greatest Films: Arsenic And Old Lace (1944), It's A Wonderful Life (1946), It Happened One Night (1934), American Madness (1932), Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939), Lost Horizon (1937), You Can't Take It With You (1938), Forbidden (1932), Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (1936), Meet John Doe (1941)

61. Rouben Mamoulian

Director | Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Rouben Mamoulian was born on October 8, 1897 in Tiflis, Russian Empire [now Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia]. He was a director and writer, known for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), Applause (1929) and Becky Sharp (1935). He was married to Catharine Azadia Newman. He died on December 4, 1987 in ...

Greatest Films: Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1931), Queen Christina (1933), The Mark Of Zorro (1940), Love Me Tonight (1932), Silk Stockings (1957), City Streets (1931), Applause (1929), Becky Sharp (1935), Rings On Her Fingers (1942)

62. Clint Eastwood

Actor | Million Dollar Baby

Clinton Eastwood Jr. 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 Margaret Ruth Runner), a housewife turned IBM clerk. He grew up in nearby Piedmont. At school Clint took ...

Greatest Films: Unforgiven (1992), Million Dollar Baby (2004), Play Misty For Me (1971), The Bridges Of Madison County (1995), Mystic River (2003), The Eiger Sanction (1975), Space Cowboys (2000), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Pale Rider (1985), Sully (2016), Richard Jewell (2019), The Mule (2018), Heartbreak Ridge (1986)

63. 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 ...

Greatest Films: Ride The High Country (1962), Junior Bonner (1972), The Getaway (1972), Cross Of Iron (1977), Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid (1973), Straw Dogs (1971), The Deadly Companions (1961), Convoy (1978), Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia (1974), The Ballad Of Cable Hogue (1970)

64. 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 ...

Greatest Films: The Andromeda Strain (1971), The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951), The Sand Pebbles (1966), The Set-Up (1949), The Body Snatcher (1945), Run Silent Run Deep (1958), The Haunting (1963), Executive Suite (1954), The Curse Of The Cat People (1944), The Sound Of Music (1965), Two Flags West (1950), Criminal Court (1946), Tribute To A Bad Man (1956), The Captive City (1952)

65. Sam Raimi

Director | Spider-Man

Highly inventive U.S. film director/producer/writer/actor Sam Raimi first came to the attention of film fans with the savage, yet darkly humorous, low-budget horror film, The Evil Dead (1981). From his childhood, Raimi was a fan of the cinema and, before he was ten-years-old, he was out making ...

Greatest Films: The Evil Dead (1982), Spider-Man (2002), Drag Me To Hell (2009), The Gift (2000), Oz The Great And Powerful (2013), Spider-Man 2 (2006), Evil Dead II (1987), Spider-Man 3 (2007), Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (2022), Army Of Darkness (1992)

66. Luis Buñuel

Writer | Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie

The father of cinematic Surrealism and one of the most original directors in the history of the film medium, Luis Buñuel was given a strict Jesuit education (which sowed the seeds of his obsession with both religion and subversive behavior), and subsequently moved to Madrid to study at the ...

Greatest Films: Viridiana (1961), Tristana (1970), The Young One (1960), The Exterminating Angel (1962), That Obscure Object Of Desire (1977), Belle De Jour (1967), The Young And The Damned (1950), The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie (1972), The Golden Age (1930), El (1953), Nazarin (1959)

67. 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 ...

Greatest Films: The Clock (1945), The Bad And The Beautiful (1952), Lust For Life (1956), Madame Bovary (1949), Father Of The Bride (1950), Meet Me In St. Louis (1944), Two Weeks In Another Town (1962), The Pirate (1948), The Sandpiper (1965),The Story Of Three Loves (1953), Undercurrent (1946), Home From The Hill (1960), Some Came Running (1958), Brigadoon (1954)

68. 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 ...

Greatest Films: Desperate Journey (1942), White Heat (1949), The Bowery (1933), The Roaring Twenties (1939), They Drive By Night (1940), Background To Danger (1943), In This Our Life (1942), Objective Burma! (1945), High Sierra (1940), Manpower (1941), Action In The North Atlantic (1943), Northern Pursuit (1943), Uncertain Glory (1944), The Enforcer (1951), The Tall Men (1955), Pursued (1947), They Died With Their Boots On (1941), Along The Great Divide (1951), Gentleman Jim (1942), Cheyenne (1947)

69. Joseph Losey

Director | The Servant

Belonging to an important family clan in Wisconsin, Joseph Losey studied philosophy but was always interested in theater and thus worked together with Bertolt Brecht. After directing some shorts for MGM, he made his first important film, The Boy with Green Hair (1948), for RKO. While he was filming ...

Greatest Films: The Prowler (1951), Accident (1967), The Criminal (1960), Blind Date (1959), Eva (1962), King & Country (1964), The Go-Between (1971), The Damned (1962), Time Without Pity (1957), Secret Ceremony (1968)

70. Federico Fellini

Writer | Le notti di Cabiria

The women who both attracted and frightened him and an Italy dominated in his youth by Mussolini and Pope Pius XII - inspired the dreams that Fellini started recording in notebooks in the 1960s. Life and dreams were raw material for his films. His native Rimini and characters like Saraghina (the ...

Greatest Films: La Strada (1954), Nights Of Cabiria (1957), I Vitelloni (1953), 8 1/2 (1963), La Dolce Vita (1960), The White Sheik (1952), Amarcord (1973), L'amore In Citta (1953), Ginger & Fred (1986), Fellini's Casanova (1976)

71. 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, ...

Greatest Films: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), The Prisoner Of Shark Island (1936), The Grapes Of Wrath (1940), Stagecoach (1939), My Darling Clementine (1946), The Searchers (1956), Mister Roberts (1955), The Quiet Man (1952), The Lost Patrol (1934), Drums Along The Mohawk (1939), Sergeant Rutledge (1960), Donovan's Reef (1963), How The West Was Won (1962), Cheyenne Autumn (1964), Pinky (1949), The Whole Town's Talking (1935), Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), Air Mail (1932), The Hurricane (1937), Fort Apache (1948), Rio Grande (1950)

72. François Truffaut

Writer | La nuit américaine

French director François Truffaut began to assiduously go to the movies at age seven. He was also a great reader but not a good pupil. He left school at 14 and started working. In 1947, aged 15, he founded a film club and met André Bazin, a French critic, who became his protector. Bazin helped the ...

Greatest Films: The Soft Skin (1964), The Bride Wore Black (1968), Jules Et Jim (1962), Shoot The Piano Player (1960), Fahrenheit 451 (1966), The Last Metro (1980), The 400 Blows (1959), Day For Night (1973), The Story Of Adele H (1975)

73. Preston Sturges

Writer | Sullivan's Travels

Preston Sturges' own life is as unlikely as some of the plots of his best work. He was born into a wealthy family. As a boy he helped out on stage productions for his mother's friend, Isadora Duncan (the scarf that strangled her was made by his mother's company, Maison Desti). He served in the U.S....

Greatest Films: The Lady Eve (1941), Unfaithfully Yours (1948), Sullivan's Travels (1941), The Palm Beach Story (1942), The Great McGinty (1940), Christmas In July (1940), Hail The Conquering Hero (1944), The Miracle Of Morgan's Creek (1943), The Great Moment (1944)

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 ...

Greatest Films: Halloween (1978), The Thing (1982), Assault On Precinct 13 (1976), They Live (1988), Memoirs Of An Invisible Man (1992), Escape From New York (1981), Dark Star (1974), The Fog (1980), Starman (1984), Village Of The Damned (1995)

75. 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. ...

Greatest Films: Judgment At Nuremberg (1961), Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (1967), The Defiant Ones (1958), Inherit The Wind (1963), It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), Ship Of Fools (1965), Not As A Stranger (1955), The Secret Of Santa Vittoria (1969)

76. Douglas Sirk

Director | Schlußakkord

Film director Douglas Sirk, whose reputation blossomed in the generation after his 1959 retirement from Hollywood filmmaking, was born Hans Detlef Sierck on April 26, 1897, in Hamburg, Germany, to a journalist. Both of his parents were Danish, and the future director would make movies in German, ...

Greatest Films: Lured (1947), Magnificent Obsession (1954), All That Heaven Allows (1955), Has Anybody Seen My Gal (1952), A Time To Love And A Time To Die (1958), Thunder On The Hill (1951), Sleep, My Love (1948), Written On The Wind (1956), There's Always Tomorrow (1956), The Tarnished Angels (1957), Imitation Of Life (1959), All I Desire (1953)

77. René Clair

Writer | Le silence est d'or

René Clair was born on November 11, 1898 in Paris, France. He was a writer and director, known for Man About Town (1947), Beauties of the Night (1952) and The Grand Maneuver (1955). He was married to Bronia Clair. He died on March 15, 1981 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France.

Greatest Films: And Then There Were None (1945), A Nous La Liberte (1931), It Happened Tomorrow (1944), I Married A Witch (1942), Under The Roofs Of Paris (1930), Le Million (1931), The Ghost Goes West (1935), Le Silence Est D'or (1947), Paris Qui Dort (1925), Le Voyage Imaginaire (1926)

78. 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...

Greatest Films: Gaslight (1944), Camille (1936), I'll Be Seeing You (1944), Little Women (1933), The Women (1939), David Copperfield (1935), Dinner At Eight (1933), Adam's Rib (1949), The Philadelphia Story (1940), Holiday (1938), Born Yesterday (1950), It Should Happen To You (1954)

79. David Fincher

Director | Se7en

David Fincher was born in 1962 in Denver, Colorado, and was raised in Marin County, California. When he was 18 years old he went to work for John Korty at Korty Films in Mill Valley. He subsequently worked at ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) from 1981-1983. Fincher left ILM to direct TV commercials...

Greatest Films: Zodiac (2007), Se7en (1995), The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011), Fight Club (1999), The Social Network (2010), The Killer (2023), The Game (1997), Gone Girl (2014), Mank (2020), Panic Room (2002)

80. William Clemens

Director | Missing Witnesses

William Clemens was born on September 10, 1905 in Saginaw, Michigan, USA. He was a director and editor, known for Missing Witnesses (1937), Talent Scout (1937) and The Night of January 16th (1941). He died on April 29, 1980 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.

Greatest Films: The Falcon In Danger (1943), The Falcon Out West (1944), The Falcon And The Co-eds (1943), Nancy Drew: Detective (1938), The Case Of The Velvet Claws (1936), Crime By Night (1944), The Thirteenth Hour (1947), The Night Of January 16th (1941), Calling Phil Vance (1940)

81. Hayao Miyazaki

Writer | Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi

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

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

Greatest Films: Porco Rosso (1992), Ponyo (2008), Howl's Moving Castle (2004), Spirited Away (2001), Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), Castle In The Sky (1986), Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind (1984), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Princess Mononoke (1997), The Wind Rises (2013), Lupin III: The Castle Of Cagliostro (1979)

82. Tay Garnett

Director | China Seas

Following his service as a naval aviator in WW I, Tay Garnett entered films in 1920 as a screenwriter. After a stint as a gag writer for Mack Sennett and Hal Roach he joined Pathe, then the distributor for both competing comedy producers, and in 1928 began directing for that company. Garnett ...

Greatest Films: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), One Way Passage (1932), Bataan (1943), Since You Went Away (1944), The Valley Of Decision (1945), Eternally Yours (1939), The Racket (1951), Cause For Alarm! (1951), Seven Sinners (1940), Her Man (1930)

83. Oliver Stone

Director | JFK

Oliver Stone has become known as a master of controversial subjects and a legendary film maker. His films are filled with a variety of film angles and styles, he pushes his actors to give Oscar-worthy performances, and despite his failures, has always returned to success.

William Oliver Stone was ...

Greatest Films: JFK (1991), Platoon (1986), Born On The Fourth Of July (1989), Salvador (1986), Wall Street (1987), Snowden (2016), U Turn (1997), Nixon (1995), Any Given Sunday (1999), The Doors (1991)

84. Vittorio De Sica

Director | Ladri di biciclette

Vittorio De Sica grew up in Naples, and started out as an office clerk in order to raise money to support his poor family. He was increasingly drawn towards acting, and made his screen debut while still in his teens, joining a stage company in 1923. By the late 1920s he was a successful matinee ...

Greatest Films: The Garden Of The Finzi-Continis (1973), Miracle In Milan (1951), Yesterday Today And Tomorrow (1963), Bicycle Thieves (1948), Umberto D. (1952), Shoeshine (1946), Two Women (1960), Indiscretion Of An American Wife (1953), After The Fox (1966), Marriage Italian Style (1964), The Children Are Watching Us (1943)

85. Jean-Luc Godard

Director | Bande à part

Jean-Luc Godard was born in Paris on December 3, 1930, the second of four children in a bourgeois Franco-Swiss family. His father was a doctor who owned a private clinic, and his mother came from a preeminent family of Swiss bankers. During World War II Godard became a naturalized citizen of ...

Greatest Films: A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Pierrot Le Fou (1965), Weekend (1967), Band Of Outsiders (1964), A Married Woman (1964), My Life To Live (1962), Breathless (1960), Detective (1985), Made In U.S.A (1966), Alphaville (1965), Contempt (1963), First Name: Carmen (1983)

86. Delmer Daves

Writer | An Affair to Remember

Although Delmer Daves obtained a law degree at Stanford University, he never had the opportunity to use it; while still in college, he obtained a job as a prop boy on The Covered Wagon (1923) and after graduation was hired by several film companies as a technical advisor on films with a college ...

Greatest Films: 3:10 To Yuma (1957), Destination Tokyo (1943), Dark Passage (1947), Jubal (1956), Pride Of The Marines (1945), The Hanging Tree (1959), The Last Wagon (1956), Cowboy (1956), Broken Arrow (1950), Demetrius And The Gladiators (1954), Treasure Of The Golden Condor (1953)

87. Guy Ritchie

Director | Sherlock Holmes

Guy Ritchie was born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK on September 10, 1968. After watching Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) as a child, Guy realized that what he wanted to do was make films. He never attended film school, saying that the work of film school graduates was boring and ...

Greatest Films: The Gentlemen (2019), Sherlock Holmes (2009), Wrath Of Man (2021), Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows (2011), The Covenant (2023), Operation Fortune: Ruse De Guerre (2023), The Man From UNCLE (2015), RocknRolla (2008), Revolver (2005), King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword (2017)

88. 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 ...

Greatest Films: The Departed (2006), Goodfellas (1990), The Irishman (2019), Gangs Of New York (2002), The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013), Mean Streets (1973), Hugo (2011), Shutter Island (2010), The Aviator (2004), Raging Bull (1980), Taxi Driver (1976)

89. 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 ...

Greatest Films: Inside Man (2006), 4 Little Girls (1997), Da 5 Bloods (2020), Mo Better Blues (1990), Blackkklansman )2018), She's Gotta Have It (1986), Malcolm X (1992), Jungle Fever (1991), 25th Hour (2002), Oldboy (2013)

90. John Guillermin

Director | The Towering Inferno

John Guillermin was born on November 11, 1925 in London, England, UK. He was a director and writer, known for The Towering Inferno (1974), Death on the Nile (1978) and King Kong (1976). He was married to Maureen Connell and Mary Guillermin. He died on September 27, 2015 in Topanga Canyon, ...

Greatest Films: The Towering Inferno (1974), Death On The Nile (1978), The Blue Max (1966), Guns At Batasi (1964), The Bridge At Remagen (1969), Rapture (1965), Never Let Go (1960), The Whole Truth (1958), Town On Trial (1957), The Day They Robbed The Bank Of England (1960), Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959)

91. 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 ...

Greatest Films: The Cameraman (1928), The General (1926), Sherlock Jr (1924), Our Hospitality (1923), Steamboat Bill Jr (1928), The Railroader (1965), The Scarecrow (1920), The "High Sign" (1921), The Goat (1921), The Boat (1921), The Navigator (1924), Three Ages (1923), Go West (1925), Seven Chances (1925), Battling Butler (1926)

92. Jack Conway

Director | Viva Villa!

Born Hugh Ryan Conway of Irish ancestry, Jack Conway was one of a team of MGM contract directors (others included Sam Wood and Robert Z. Leonard), who forsook any pretense to a specific individual style in favor of working within the strictures set forth by studio management--as embodied by Irving ...

Greatest Films: Boom Town (1940), A Yank At Oxford (1938), Love Crazy (1941), Libeled Lady (1936), Arsene Lupin (1932), Manhattan Melodrama (1934), Crossroads (1942), Viva Villa! (1934), Red-Headed Woman (1932), Tarzan And His Mate (1934), A Star Is Born (1937), A Tale Of Two Cities (1935)

93. 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 ...

Greatest Films: Sin City (2005), Machete (2010), Spy Kids (2001), Sin City: A Dame To Kill For (2014), Machete Kills (2013), Alita: Battle Angel (2019), Once Upon A Time In Mexico (2003), From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

94. 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 ...

Greatest Films: The Guns Of Navarone (1961), Cape Fear (1962), Mackenna's Gold (1969), North West Frontier (1959), St. Ives (1976), Ice Cold In Alex (1958), Happy Birthday To Me (1981), The Passage (1979), Return From The Ashes (1965), Woman In A Dressing Gown (1957)

95. George Roy Hill

Director | The Sting

George Roy Hill was never able to 'hit it off' with the critics despite the fact that 2 of his films - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), and The Sting (1973) - had remained among the top 10 box office hits by 1976. His work was frequently derided as 'impersonal' or lacking in stylistic ...

Greatest Films: The Sting (1973), Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969), The Great Waldo Pepper (1975), The World According To Garp (1982), Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), The World Of Henry Orient (1964), A Little Romance (1979), The Little Drummer Girl (1984)

96. Norman Z. McLeod

Director | Remember?

Norman Z. McLeod was one of Hollywood's leading early comedy directors. Born in Grayling, Michigan, he came from a family that had no connections to show business (his father was a clergyman). He was educated at the University of Washington and spent two years as a fighter pilot in the US Army in ...

Greatest Films: Topper (1937), The Paleface (1948), The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty (1947), Monkey Business (1931), Horse Feathers (1932), If I Had A Million (1932), It's A Gift (1934), My Favorite Spy (1951), Alias Jesse James (1959), Topper Takes A Trip (1938), The Kid From Brooklyn (1946), Road To Rio (1947), Let's Dance (1950)

97. William A. Wellman

Director | A Star Is Born

William Wellman, the Oscar-winning screenwriter-director of the original A Star Is Born (1937), was called "Wild Bill" during his World War I service as an aviator, a nickname that persisted in Hollywood due to his larger-than-life personality and lifestyle.

A leap-year baby born in 1896 on the 29th...

Greatest Films: The Public Enemy (1931), Roxie Hart (1942), Beau Geste (1939), The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), Westward The Women (1951), Night Nurse (1931), The Great Man's Lady (1941), Track Of The Cat (1954), Heroes For Sale (1933), Wild Boys Of The Road (1933), Frisco Jenny (1932), Battleground (1949)

98. Charles Crichton

Director | A Fish Called Wanda

Director Charles Crichton's film career began as an editor in 1935 with Alexander Korda's London Films, and in that capacity he worked on such productions as Sanders of the River (1935), Things to Come (1936) and Elephant Boy (1937) (which introduced Sabu to movie audiences). He soon left London ...

Greatest Films: The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), Hue And Cry (1947), Train Of Events (1949), Dead Of Night (1945), The Third Secret (1964), The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953), Against The Wind (1948), The Divided Heart (1954), Hunted (1952), The Battle Of The Sexes (1960)

99. Richard Attenborough

Actor | Jurassic Park

Richard Attenborough, Baron Attenborough of Richmond-upon-Thames, was born in Cambridge, England, the son of Mary (née Clegg), a founding member of the Marriage Guidance Council, and Frederick Levi Attenborough, a scholar and academic administrator who was a don at Emmanuel College and wrote a ...

Greatest Films: A Bridge Too Far (1977), Shadowlands (1993), Oh! What A Lovely War (1969), Magic (1978), Young Winston (1972), Cry Freedom (1987), Chaplin (1992), Gandhi (1982), Closing The Ring (2007)

100. 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 ...

Greatest Films: Hannah And Her Sisters (1986), Love And Death (1975), Manhattan (1979), Interiors (1978), Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex * But Were Afraid To Ask (1972), A Midsummer Nights Sex Comedy (1982), Deconstructing Harry (1997), Crimes And Misdemeanors (1989), A Rainy Day In New York (2019), Cafe Society (2016), Midnight In Paris (2011), Annie Hall (1977)