Stanley Kubrick

July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999

Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, and editor who worked predominantly in the United Kingdom. He was part of the New Hollywood film-making wave is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential directors of all time. He was born on July 26, 1928, in The Bronx, New York City, the first of two children to Jewish parents. His films, typically adaptations of novels or short stories, are noted for their "dazzling" and unique cinematography, attention to detail in the service of realism, and the evocative use of music. Kubrick's films covered a variety of genres, including war, crime, literary adaptations, romance, black comedies, horror, epic and science fiction. Kubrick was also noted for being a demanding perfectionist, using painstaking care with scene staging, camera-work and coordinating extremely closely both with his actors and his off-screen collaborators. Starting out as a photographer in New York City, Kubrick taught himself all aspects of film production and directing after graduating from high school. His earliest films were made on a tight budget, followed by the Hollywood blockbuster, Spartacus; he spent most of the rest of his career living and filming in the United Kingdom. His home near London became his workplace where he did his writing, research, editing and management of production details. This allowed him to have almost complete artistic control of his films, but with the rare advantage of having financial support from major Hollywood studios. Many of his films broke new ground in cinematography, including 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), a science-fiction film which director Steven Spielberg called his generation's "big bang", with innovative visual effects and scientific realism. For Barry Lyndon (1975), Kubrick obtained lenses developed by Zeiss for NASA in order to film scenes under natural candlelight and The Shining (1980) was among the first feature films to make use of a Steadicam for stabilized and fluid tracking shots. As with his earlier shorts, Kubrick was the cinematographer and editor on the first two of his thirteen feature films. He directed, produced and wrote all or part of the screenplays for nearly all his films. While some of Kubrick's films were controversial with initially mixed reviews, such as Paths of Glory (1957), Lolita (1962), and A Clockwork Orange (1971), most of his films were nominated for Oscars, Golden Globes or BAFTAs. Film historian Michel Ciment considers his films to be "among the most important contributions to world cinema in the twentieth century" while director Norman Jewison calls him one of the "great masters" that America has produced

Quick facts

Born July 26, 1928 The Bronx, New York City, U.S Died March 7, 1999 (aged 70) St Albans, Hertfordshire, England Cause of death Heart attack Occupation Film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor Years active 1951–1999 Spouse(s) Toba Etta Metz (1948–51; divorced) Ruth Sobotka (1954–57; divorced) Christiane Harlan (1958–99; his death)