Steven Spielberg

Married to Amy Irving from 1985 to 1989; the couple has one kid together, Max Samuel.

His present wife is Kate Capshaw, whom he met during filming of ‘Indiana Jones’ and the ‘Temple of Doom’. The two married in 1991 and have 5 children together, 3 biological and 2 adopted.

In 2002, 35 years after he first enrolled in college, Spielberg was able to finish his degree through independent studies and was awarded a Bachelor’s of Arts in ‘Film Production and Electronic Arts’ from ‘California State University Long Beach’.

Steven Spielberg was born on December 18th, 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio to Leah Adler Posner, a restaurateur and concert pianist, and Arnold Spielberg, an electrical engineer.

Growing up as an Orthodox Jew, he attended ‘Hebrew School’ from 1953 to 1957 and experienced prejudice and bullying due to his family’s religious practices.

As a child, Spielberg began directing his first short films. In 1958, as a Boy Scout he received a photography merit badge for creating a 9 minute film called ‘The Last Gunfight’.

At the age of 13, Spielberg won a prize for his film ‘Escape to Nowhere’, a 40 minute film based on a battle in east Africa.

In 1963, he wrote and directed his first independent film, a 140 minute science fiction film entitled ‘Firelight’.

Spielberg’s first film was a 26 minute production by the name of Amblin’, produced in 1968 when the budding film-maker was working as an intern at ‘Universal Studios’.

In 1969, he received his first professional television job as he was hired to direct a segment for the pilot episode of ‘Night Gallery’, which starred Joan Crawford.

After impressing ‘Universal Studios’ with his first full-length assignment, an episode of ‘The Name of the Game’ called ‘L.A. 2017’, he signed a contract with Universal for directing four films.

He directed the 1975 film ‘Jaws’, which was his first major success, grossing more than $470 million worldwide at the box office and ushering him into mainstream.

’Close Encounters of the Third Kind’, both written and directed by Steven in 1977, won him his first ‘Academy Award nomination for Best Director’.

In 1981, he founded ‘Amblin Entertainment’, an American film and television production company. Amblin has released many of Spielberg’s motion pictures, along with pictures from a variety of other directors, most of whom are friends of Steven.

He founded ‘DreamWorks SKG’ studio, in 1994, with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, a live-action and animation film studio, located in the ‘Universal Studios’ lot. ‘DreamWorks’ has distributed a variety of ‘Amblin’ productions.