Steven Allan Spielberg born December 18 1946 is an American film director writer and producer A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster he is the most commercially successful director of all time Spielberg is the recipient of various accolades including three Academy Awards a Kennedy Center honor four Directors Guild of America Awards two BAFTA Awards a Cecil B DeMille Award and an AFI Life Achievement Award Seven of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as culturally historically or aesthetically significant Spielberg was born in Cincinnati Ohio and grew up in Phoenix Arizona He moved to California and studied film in college After directing several episodes for television including Night Gallery and Columbo he directed the television film Duel 1971 which gained acclaim from critics and audiences He made his directorial film debut with The Sugarland Express 1974 and became a household name with the 1975 summer blockbuster Jaws He then directed huge box office successes Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977 ET the ExtraTerrestrial 1982 and the Indiana Jones original trilogy 198189 Spielberg subsequently explored drama in the acclaimed The Color Purple 1985 and Empire of the Sun 1987 After a brief hiatus Spielberg directed the science fiction thriller Jurassic Park 1993 the highestgrossing film ever at the time and the Holocaust drama Schindlers List 1993 which has often been listed as one of the greatest films ever made He won the Academy Award for Best Director for the latter and for the 1998 World War II epic Saving Private Ryan Spielberg continued in the 2000s with science fiction films AI Artificial Intelligence 2001 Minority Report 2002 and War of the Worlds 2005 He also directed the adventure films The Adventures of Tintin 2011 and Ready Player One 2018 the historical dramas Amistad 1997 Munich 2005 War Horse 2011 Lincoln 2012 Bridge of Spies 2015 and The Post 2017 the musical West Side Story 2021 and the semiautobiographical drama The Fabelmans 2022 He has been a producer on several successful films including Poltergeist 1982 Gremlins 1984 Back to the Future 1985 and Who Framed Roger Rabbit 1988 as well as the miniseries Band of Brothers 2001 Spielberg cofounded Amblin Entertainment and DreamWorks and has served as a producer for many successful films and television series He is also known for his long collaboration with the composer John Williams with whom he has worked for all but five of his feature films Several of Spielbergs works are among the highestgrossing and greatest films all time Premiere ranked him first place in the list of 100 Most Powerful People in Movies in 2003 In 2013 Time listed him as one of the 100 most influential people