Billy Wilder

Billy Wilder (22 June 1906 – 27 March 2002) was an Austrian-American journalist, filmmaker, screenwriter and producer, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age.
Born Samuel Wilder in Sucha Beskidzka, Austria-Hungary (now Poland) to Max Wilder and Eugenia Dittler, Wilder was nicknamed Billie by his mother, because she was fascinated with Billy the Kid when she had visited the United States in her younger days (he changed that to "Billy" after arriving in America). His parents had a successful and well-known cake shop in Sucha Beskidzka's train station and unsuccessfully tried to convince their son to inherit the business. Soon the family moved to Vienna, where Wilder attended school. After dropping out of the University of Vienna, Wilder became a journalist. To advance his career Wilder decided to move to Berlin, Germany.
While in Berlin, before achieving success as a writer, Wilder allegedly worked as a taxi dancer. After writing crime and sports stories as a stringer for local newspapers, he was eventually offered a regular job at a Berlin tabloid. Developing an interest in film, he began working as a screenwriter. He collaborated with several other tyros (with Fred Zinnemann and Robert Siodmak, on the 1929 feature, People on Sunday). After the rise of Adolf Hitler, Wilder, who was Jewish, left for Paris and then the United States. His mother, grandmother and stepfather were murdered at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

After arriving in Hollywood in 1933, Wilder continued his career as a screenwriter. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1934. Wilder's first significant success was Ninotchka1939, in a collaboration with fellow German immigrant Ernst Lubitsch. This screwball comedy starred Greta Garbo (generally known as a tragic heroine in film melodramas), and was popularly and critically acclaimed. With the byline, "Garbo Laughs!", it also took Garbo's career in a new direction (although he and Brackett had already wrote Bluebeard's Eighth Wife and Midnight to great aclaim). The film also marked Wilder's first Academy Award nomination, which he shared with co-writer Charles Brackett. For twelve years Wilder co-wrote many of his films with Brackett, from 1938 through 1950. He followed Ninotchka with a series of box office hits in 1942, including his Hold Back the Dawn and Ball of Fire, as well as his directorial feature debut, The Major and the Minor.

Wilder established his directorial reputation after helming Double Indemnity (1944), a film noir he co-wrote with mystery novelist Raymond Chandler, with whom he did not get along. Double Indemnity not only set conventions for the noir genre (such as "venetian blind" lighting and voice-over narration), but was also a landmark in the battle against Hollywood censorship. The original James M. Cain novel Double Indemnity featured two love triangles and a murder plotted for insurance money. The book was highly popular with the reading public, but had been considered unfilmable under the Hays Code, because adultery was central to its plot. Double Indemnity is credited by some as the first true film noir, combining the stylistic elements of Citizen Kane with the narrative elements of The Maltese Falcon.

Two years later, Wilder earned the Best Director and Best Screenplay Academy Awards for the adaptation of a Charles R. Jackson story The Lost Weekend, the first major American film to make a serious examination of alcoholism, another difficult theme under the Production Code. In 1950, Wilder co-wrote and directed the dark and cynical and critically acclaimed Sunset Boulevard, which paired rising star William Holden with Gloria Swanson. Swanson played Norma Desmond, a reclusive silent film star who dreams of a comeback; Holden is an aspiring screenwriter who becomes a kept man.

In 1951, Wilder followed Sunset Boulevard with Ace in the Hole (a/k/a The Big Carnival), a tale of media exploitation of a caving accident. It was a critical and commercial failure at the time, but its reputation has grown over the years. In the fifties, Wilder also directed two vibrant adaptations of Broadway plays, the POW drama Stalag 17 (1953), which resulted in a Best Actor Oscar for William Holden, and the Agatha Christie mystery Witness for the Prosecution (1957).

From the mid-1950s on, Wilder made mostly comedies.^[4] Among the classics Wilder created in this period are the farces The Seven Year Itch (1955) and Some Like It Hot (1959), satires such as The Apartment (1960), and the romantic comedy Sabrina (1954). Wilder's humor is sometimes sardonic. In Love in the Afternoon (1957), a young and innocent Audrey Hepburn who doesn't want to be young or innocent wins playboy Gary Cooper by pretending to be a married woman in search of extramarital amusement.

In 1959 Wilder introduced crossdressing to American film audiences with Some Like It Hot. In this comedy Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis play musicians on the run from a Chicago gang, who disguise themselves as women and become romantically involved with Marilyn Monroe and Joe E. Brown.

In 1959, Wilder began to collaborate with writer-producer I.A.L. Diamond, an association that continued until the end of both men's careers. After winning three Academy Awards for 1960's The Apartment (for Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay), Wilder's career slowed. His Cold War farce One, Two, Three (1961) featured a rousing comic performance by James Cagney, but was followed by the lesser films Irma la Douce and Kiss Me, Stupid. Wilder garnered his last Oscar nomination for his screenplay The Fortune Cookie in 1966. His 1970 film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes was intended as a major roadshow release, but was heavily cut by the studio and has never been fully restored. Later films such as Fedora and Buddy Buddy failed to impress critics or the public.

After that Wilder never ceased to complain that Hollywood was making a big mistake by not giving him any films to direct. He did so at film festivals, in interviews, on television, and whenever else he had the chance. He often hinted that he was being discriminated against, due to his age. His complaining didn't help: for whatever reason, Hollywood simply wouldn't hire him, and his directorial career ended.

One "consolation" which Wilder had in his later years, besides his art collection was the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical stage version of "Sunset Boulevard." The musical itself had an uneven success and is generally considered to be one of the least of Webber's musicals. However, the huge amount of money and energy thrown into the musical was definitely a tribute to Wilder's work.

Wilder's directorial choices reflected his belief in the primacy of writing. He avoided the exuberant cinematography of Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles because, in Wilder's opinion, shots that called attention to themselves would distract the audience from the story. Wilder's pictures have tight plotting and memorable dialogue. Despite his conservative directorial style, his subject matter often pushed the boundaries of mainstream entertainment.

Wilder was skilled at working with actors, coaxing silent era legends Gloria Swanson and Erich von Stroheim out of retirement for roles in Sunset Boulevard. For Stalag 17, Wilder squeezed an Oscar-winning performance out of a reluctant William Holden (Holden wanted to make his character more likeable; Wilder refused). Wilder sometimes cast against type for major parts such as Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity and The Apartment. Many today know MacMurray as a wholesome family man from the television series My Three Sons, but he played a womanizing schemer in Wilder's films. Humphrey Bogart shed his tough guy image to give one of his warmest performances in Sabrina. James Cagney, not usually known for comedy, was memorable in a high-octane comic role for Wilder's One, Two, Three. Wilder coaxed a very effective, and in some ways memorable performance out of Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot.

In total, he directed fourteen different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Barbara Stanwyck, Ray Milland, William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Robert Strauss, Audrey Hepburn, Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester, Jack Lemmon, Jack Kruschen, Shirley MacLaine and Walter Matthau. Milland, Holden and Matthau won Oscars for their performances in Wilder films.

Wilder mentored Jack Lemmon and was the first director to pair him with Walter Matthau, in The Fortune Cookie (1966). Wilder had great respect for Lemmon, calling him the hardest working actor he had ever met. Lemmon starred in seven of Wilder's films.

Billy Wilder was recognized with the AFI LIfe Achievement Award in 1986.

In 1988, Wilder was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Wilder died in 2002 of pneumonia at the age of 95 after battling health problems, including cancer, in Los Angeles, California and was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, Los Angeles, California next to Jack Lemmon. Marilyn Monroe's crypt is located nearby.

Wilder died the same day as two other comedy legends: Milton Berle and Dudley Moore. The next day, French top-ranking newspaper Le Monde titled its first-page obituary, "Billy Wilder is dead. Nobody is perfect." This was a reference to the famous closing line of his film Some Like it Hot spoken by Joe E. Brown after Jack Lemmon reveals he is not female.

Wilder holds a significant place in the history of Hollywood censorship for expanding the range of acceptable subject matter. He is responsible for two of the film noir era's most definitive films in Double Indemnity and Sunset Boulevard. Along with Woody Allen, he leads the list of films on the American Film Institute's list of 100 funniest American films with 5 films written and holds the honor of holding the top spot with Some Like it Hot. Also on the list are The Apartment and The Seven Year Itch which he directed, and Ball of Fire and Ninotchka which he co-wrote. The AFI has ranked four of Wilder's films among their top 100 American films of the 20th century: Sunset Boulevard (no. 12), Some Like It Hot (no. 14), Double Indemnity (no. 38) and The Apartment (no. 93).

Billy Wilder a hollywoodi aranykor vígjátékainak egyik kiemelkedő megteremtője, sajátos világot alkotott íróként és rendezőként. Érző szív és cinikus elme jellemezte. Világképét Matthau így foglalta össze: "A helyzet teljesen reménytelen, de nem súlyos". Mindig szimpátiát tudott kelteni alakjai iránt, lehettek azok alkoholisták, bűnözők, egykori sztárok vagy egyszerűen csak szerencsétlen kisemberek. A legtöbbet hozta ki sodró lendületű, pattanásig feszült jeleneteiből. Jelszava volt: sohasem untatni! És a legtöbbet hozta ki színészeiből. Sokakat ő juttatott a sztárság csillogó rivaldafényébe. Lubitsch volt a példaképe. Összeköti őket: a sztori kifogástalan felépítése, a remek időzítések és poénok, az emberszeretet és egy nagy adag szarkasztikus humor. Mindketten szívesen dolgoztak egyszerre több forgatókönyvíróval, sokra becsülték a dramaturgiához illeszkedő díszleteket, de mindenek felett a színészi egyéniségeket, akiknek karizmáját a celluloidszalag és a filmvászon csak még titokzatosabbá tette. Sok műfajú rendező volt. Akaratán kívül a film noir egyik megteremtője (Gyilkos vagyok, 1944). Legnagyobb vígjátéki és drámai sikereit az ötvenes-hatvanas években aratta: Alkony sugárút, Délutáni szerelem, A vád tanúja, Van, aki forrón szereti, A legénylakás. A hetvenes években népszerűsége visszaesett, "kiment a divatból". (1981-től már nem forgatott többet.) Végig megmaradt jelentős rendezőnek, aki akarva-akaratlan saját korát tükrözte. Így vallott önmagáról: "Szeretem a változatosságot. Amikor szomorú vagyok, vígjátékot csinálok, s amikor jó a kedvem, akkor súlyos drámát. Más is van az életemben, mint a film. És ha van valami, amit jobban utálok annál, hogy nem vesznek komolyan, akkor az az, ha túl komolyan vesznek." 96 évesen halt meg.

Steven F. Seagal

Steven F. Seagal (born April 10, 1952) is an American action movie actor, producer, writer, director, martial artist and singer-songwriter. He belongs to a generation of movie action hero actors (including Chuck Norris, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren and Sylvester Stallone) who were featured in many blockbuster action films of the late 1980s and 1990s.

A 6' 4" (193 cm) 7th-dan black belt in aikido, Seagal began his adult life as an aikido instructor in Japan. He became the first foreigner to operate an aikido dojo in Osaka, Japan. He later moved to the Los Angeles, California area where he made his film debut in 1988 in Above the Law. Since then, Seagal has become a major action star, mainly due to his films of the 1990s such as Under Siege (1992) and Under Siege 2 (1995) where he played Navy SEALs counter-terrorist expert Casey Ryback. In total his movies have earned in excess of $850 million worldwide.

Seagal is also a recording artist and guitarist and the founder of Steven Seagal Enterprises. In addition to his professional achievements, he is also known as an environmentalist, an animal rights activist and, like other actors such as Richard Gere, is a supporter of Tenzin Gyatso the 14th Dalai Lama and the cause of Tibetan independence. Spiritualism and Buddhism play an important role in Seagal's life and he has been recognized by Tibetan lama Penor Rinpoche as a reincarnated Tulku. According to Seagal in a November 2006 interview: "I was born very different, clairvoyant and a healer".

Seagal was born in Lansing, Michigan, where he lived until he was five years old. His mother, Patricia, was a medical technician, and his father a high school math teacher.^[5] His mother was Irish and his father Jewish.The family relocated to Fullerton, California, where Seagal attended the Buena Park High School in Buena Park, California. Following his graduation, Seagal held one of his first jobs at the local Burger King.

It was allegedly at the age of seven that Seagal first began studying martial arts under the direction of renowned Shitō-ryū karate master Fumio Demura and aikido under Rod Kobayashi, the President of the Western States Aikido Federation. He earned belts in aikido, karate, judo, and kendo and in his late teens, Seagal became part of Demura's Karate Demonstration Team and performed daily demonstrations in the former Japanese Village and Deer Park, in Southern California. In 1974, he was promoted by Kobayashi-sensei to shodan in Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido (a fact disputed by ex-wife Miyako Fujitani [below]). He was also reported as having trained in Mas Oyama's Kyokushin Kai karate do.

Return to the U.S.

Seagal initially returned to Taos, New Mexico, with his student—and later a film stuntman—Craig Dunn. There, they opened a dojo, but Seagal spent much of his time pursuing a film career and other ventures. Dunn stayed in New Mexico and continued to run the dojo. After another period in Japan, Seagal returned to the U.S. in 1983 with senior student Haruo Matsuoka. They opened an aikido dojo, initially in Burbank, California, but later moved it to the city of West Hollywood. Seagal left Matsuoka in charge of the dojo, which he ran until the two parted ways in 1997. It was during that period that Seagal first found himself in contact with Hollywood. Initially, he worked as the martial arts co-ordinator for the films The Challenge (1982) starring Scott Glenn and Toshirô Mifune, and Never Say Never Again (1983) starring Sean Connery.

In 1988, Seagal began work on his first film, Above the Law (titled Nico in Europe), with director Andrew Davis and reportedly as a favor to a former aikido student, the agent Michael Ovitz, who believed he could make anyone a star.^[7] Following its success, Seagal made three more movies – Hard to Kill, Marked for Death, and Out for Justice – that were box office hits, making him an action hero. Later, he achieved wider, mainstream success in 1992 with the release of Under Siege (1992). That film reunited Seagal with director Andrew Davis, and was a blockbuster in the U.S. and abroad, grossing $156.4 million worldwide.^[8]

He then filmed a sequel to one of his most successful films Under Siege titled Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995) and the cop drama The Glimmer Man (1996). In 1996, he had his first supporting role, in the Kurt Russell film Executive Decision (1996), which featured him in a starring role, but kept secret his character's fate. Then, he again made an environmentally-conscious film, Fire Down Below (1997), wherein he was an EPA agent fighting industrialists dumping toxic waste in the Kentucky hills, but the movie was commercially unsuccessful. This film ended his original multi-picture contract with Warner Bros., and because of its disaster, his contract was not renewed.

The next year, Seagal made The Patriot, another environmental thriller which was his first direct-to-video release in the United States (though it was released theatrically in most of the world). Seagal produced this film with his own money, and the film was shot on-location on and near his farm in Montana.

After taking a couple years to produce Prince of Central Park, Seagal returned to cinema screens with the release of Exit Wounds in March 2001. The film had fewer martial arts scenes than Seagal's previous films, but it was a commercial success, taking almost $80 million worldwide. However, he was unable to capitalize on this success and his next two projects were both critical and commercial failures. Ticker co-starring Tom Sizemore and Dennis Hopper, and filmed in San Francisco before Exit Wounds, went straight to DVD while Half Past Dead, starring rap star Ja Rule, made less than $20 million worldwide.

As of May 2008^[update], all of the films Seagal has made since 2003 have been released direct-to-video (DTV) in North America, with only limited theatrical releases in the rest of the world. Though Seagal is credited as a producer (and sometimes a writer) on many of these DTV movies, it is unclear how deeply involved he was in their production - his voice is often dubbed in by another actor as seen in the film Attack Force and a double is used in almost any scene where his face is not shown clearly. The most notable stunt doubles are in his films Black Dawn, Belly of the Beast, Out of Reach and Submerged. One of his most recent films, Kill Switch (2008), also featured extensive fight-double footage added in post-production to unintentionally humorous effect.

His latest direct-to-video films include Urban Justice (2007), Pistol Whipped (2008), Against The Dark (2009), Kill Switch (2008), and Driven to Kill (2009). He has finished filming The Keeper (2009) for a projected 2009 release.

Seagal intends to have his films remembered; "I am hoping that I can be known as a great writer and actor some day, rather than a sex symbol." Seagal has clarified the purpose of his films: "Above the Law was a politically conscientious movie. On Deadly Ground was environmentally conscientious so I want to keep making movies like that which are more geared with a certain entertainment value but also bring people forward into contemplation."

Seagal has produced many of the movies that he stars in, and has also participated in writing and directing. Seagal's roles do not fit the standard action hero archetype; instead, Seagal's characters are usually "born perfect," displaying no limitations, character flaws, or character development (as is typically included in the story arc for most action heroes). His characters are often associated with attributes given to action movie antagonists or villains, such as clandestine government associations (Under Siege), great wealth and high-level corporate ties (On Deadly Ground), high-level biochemical research skill (The Patriot). Seagal's characters are normally nigh-on invincible and are unable to be beaten or even slowed down. Reports state that Seagal insists on such roles, even allegedly becoming hysterical when his character was scripted to die a heroic death in the movie Executive Decision, when director Stuart Baird insisted he must do it as scripted. Seagal held up filming for a few days, and finally acted the death scene as scripted after threat of contractual breach.

While his acting performance in Above The Law gained praise from Roger Ebert, Seagal has repeatedly faced criticism from both actors and fans who accuse him of playing the same character in many of his movies (see typecasting), as well as displaying a lack of emotional range.

Others have surmised that Seagal's unorthodox approach to film is actually an elaborate joke.^[12] This is supported by Seagal's statement regarding humor: "I’m a very funny guy, if you’ll forgive me for saying so. When I did The Glimmer Man with Keenan Ivory Wayans, he and I were talking about who was funniest, and...I kicked his ass every day."^[13] In addition, some of Seagal's own self-parody supports this view. In at least one commercial for Orange SA, Seagal pokes fun at his action star archetype.In addition to acting and aikido, Seagal also plays the guitar, and his songs have been featured in several of his movies (such as Fire Down Below and Ticker). In 2005, he released his first album, Songs from the Crystal Cave, which has a mix of pop, world, and blues music. It features duets with Tony Rebel, Lt. Stichie, Lady Saw, and Stevie Wonder. The soundtrack to Seagal's 2005 film Into the Sun features several songs from the album. One of his album tracks, "Girl It's Alright," was also released as a single in parts of the world alongside an accompanying music video created for it.

Seagal's second album, titled Mojo Priest, was released in April 2006. Subsequently, he spent summer 2006 touring the United States and Europe with his band, Thunderbox, in support of the album. Having received good support from UK audiences, the tour continues through early 2007.

Seagal uses a blend of Blues, Country, World Music and Euro techno in his unique compositions, reflecting the eclectic mosaic style of his martial arts and film work, both of which combine different styles (aikido/gunfire and action/lecture are respective examples). Seagal is also known for his live cover versions including seminal works like Don Macleans' 'American Pie' and Hot Gossips' 'I Fell In Love With a Starship Trooper'.

Despite initial doubts by music industry insiders about his success as a musician, the sales volume that his albums have received proved them wrong. While there is no true institution to monitor every record that Seagal has sold, estimates range from between 9 to 13 million albums sold in the domestic U.S. market, mostly to under privileged inner city youths who find his voice inspiring, and double the sales figure for global sales.

Seagal is currently a deputy sheriff of his home community of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. In November 2008, A&E announced that they have begun filming Steven Seagal: Lawman, a reality show that follows his on- and off-duty work in the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office. Seagal stated that "I’ve decided to work with A&E on this series now because I believe it’s important to show the nation all the positive work being accomplished here in Louisiana—to see the passion and commitment that comes from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office in this post-Katrina environment.”

Seagal Enterprises markets an energy drink known as Steven Seagal's Lightning Bolt, as well as an herbal oil product line.^[16] Seagal personally endorses this drink, "I have traveled the world creating this drink; there is none better that I know."^[16] He also has his own aftershave called Scent of Action. Seagal has his own imprint of Kershaw Knives. The "Steven Seagal Edition" knives feature 4" blades with his signature etched in, and no auto-assisted opening mechanism.

An only son, he has three sisters, one older and two younger. He now keeps a dude ranch in Colorado and a home in the Mandeville Canyon section of Brentwood, a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles. He has adopted many animals from shelters, including the cats Sylvester and Gap, and the dogs Gruff, Cole, Tyson, Hamlet, and Chaos.^[17] Steven travels back and forth to a home in Eads, Tennessee, a rural unincorporated area located just east of Memphis, Tennessee.

Seagal has six children from three relationships in which he has been involved. With Fujitani, he had a son, model and actor Kentaro Seagal (b. October 3, 1975), and a daughter, writer and actress, Ayako Fujitani (b. December 5, 1979). His three children with LeBrock are daughters Annaliza (b. 1987) and Arissa (b. 1993), and son Dominic (b. 1990). Seagal and Arissa Wolf have one daughter, Savannah (b. 1996).

In addition to his biological children, Seagal's Tibetan Buddhist beliefs have also placed him in the role of guardian to a Tibetan child, Yabshi Pan Rinzinwangmo. Rinzinwangmo, or "Renji," is the only child of the 10th Panchen Lama of Tibet. Renji studied in the United States at American University, and Seagal was her guardian and bodyguard.^[21]

Seagal has been an outspoken opponent of animal cruelty which can be seen in a scene in the movie Out for Justice. This is consistent with his views on spirituality, as well as his environmentalist views (as showcased in On Deadly Ground). Seagal believes in reincarnation: "When I walk into a room some people see a dog, some people see a cow. I am all of what they see. It is their perception."

Steven has described his activism method as "shaming companies into changing," a theme that is visible in such films as On Deadly Ground and Fire Down Below. He has worked with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to discourage the fur trade, and has written to the Prime Minister of India to seek increased legal protection for cows. Seagal worked effectively towards saving dogs destined to drown in Taiwan.

This activism has not diminished in recent years. For these and other efforts, Seagal was awarded a PETA Humanitarian Award in 1999.^[23] In 2003, Seagal wrote an open letter to the leadership of Thailand, urging them to enact law to prevent the torture of baby elephants.
Steven Seagal (született 1951. április 10-én) amerikai akciófilm-színész, producer, forgatókönyvíró, harcművész, énekes-dalszerző, spiritualista és aktivista. Színészként az 1980-as évek végén és a ’90-es évek elején akciófilmes szerepeivel vált híressé.

Seagal – aki 7 danos fekete öves aikidomester – fiatal felnőttként aikido-oktatóként dolgozott Japánban; ő volt az első külföldi, aki Ószakában saját edzőtermet üzemeltetett. Később Los Angelesbe költözött és 1988-ban Nico című filmjével debütált a tengerentúlon. A ’90-es években a színész jellegzetes akciósztárrá vált, olyan filmekkel, mint az Úszó erőd (1992) vagy a Száguldó erőd (1995). Filmjeivel világszerte összesen több mint 850 millió dollár bevételt ért el. Seagal filmes pályafutásán túl zenészként és gitárosként is tevékenykedik, de hivatásos munkáján túl aktív környezetvédő és állatjogi aktivista, valamint Richard Gere-hez hasonlóan a dalai láma támogatója és Tibet függetlenségének szószólója.

Seagal a Michigan állambeli Lansingben született, családjával ötéves koráig élt ebben a városban. Édesanyja, Patricia az egészségügyben dolgozott, édesapja középiskolai matematikatanár volt. A család a kaliforniai Fullertonba költözött, ahol Seagal hétéves korában kezdett érdeklődni a harcművészetek iránt; először karatét, mjad aikidót tanult. Aikidóból, karatéból és kendóból fekete övet szerzett és a karatés bemutatócsapat tagja lett.

A diploma megszerzése után Seagal az akkori barátnőjével, Miyako Fujitanival (akit később feleségül vett és akitől két gyermeke született) Japánba költözött, a fiatal pár a lány szüleinél élt, akik aikidót oktattak; rossz nyelvek szerint csupán azért költözött Japánba, hogy elkerülje a besorozást az akkor dúló vietnami háborúba és házasságának valódi célja is a lehetséges hadba hívás megakadályozása volt.

1988-ban Seagal Andrew Davis rendezővel elkészítette első filmjét, Nico (Above the Law) címmel. Ezt az átlagos bűnügyi thrillernek induló filmet az akciójelenetekkel és a karakterábrázolásokkal sikerre vitték. Ezután Seagal három további filmben szerepelt – Ölve vagy halva (Hard to Kill, 1990), Halálra jelölve (Marked for Death, 1990) és Törvényre törve (Out for Justice, 1991) – melyek jegyeladási szempontból sikert arattak és a színész igazi akciófilmes hőssé avanzsálták. Az 1992-es Úszó erőd (Under Siege) című film még szélesebb körben ismertté tette, az USA-ban és külföldön egyaránt, összesen 156,4 millió dollár bevétellel.

Az Úszó erőd pozitív fogadtatása után Seagal rendezőként debütált a Lángoló jég (On Deadly Ground) című 1994-es környezetvédelmi filmmel, melyben Michael Caine mellett szerepelt, de a film nézettségi, kritikai és pénzügyi kudarcot is vallott (az elkészítése 50 millió dollárba került, de az USA-ban csak 39 millió dolláros bevételt hozott).^[2]

Hogy népszerűségét visszaszerezze, Seagal 1995-ben folytatást készített legsikeresebb filmjéhez, az Úszó erődhöz, Száguldó erőd (Under Siege 2: Dark Territory) címmel és a Tisztítótűz (The Glimmer Man) című 1996-os rendőrdrámában is főszerepet vállalt. Még ugyanebben az évben, először tűnt fel mellékszereplőként Kurt Russell oldalán a Tűzparancsban (Executive Decision), ezután 1997-ben a Lángoló jég után újabb környezetvédelemmel foglalkozó filmet készített, Tűz a mélyben (Fire Down Below) címmel, de ez a film a bevétel szempontjából bukásnak számított. A Warner Bros. ekkor a sikertelen film miatt már nem újított szerződést a színésszel.

1998-ban Seagal ismét elkészített egy környezetvédelmi thrillert, A patriótát (The Patriot), mely első olyan filmje volt, amelyet közvetlenül videón jelentettek meg az Egyesült Államokban (noha a legtöbb országban moziban is bemutatták). A színész a filmet saját tőkéből gyártotta, és montanai birtokán forgatta le.

Miután pár évre a Prince of Central Park című családi film producere volt, Seagal 2001-ben tért vissza a mozivászonra Sebhelyek (Exit Wounds) című akciófilmjével. Ez ugyan kevesebb harcművész jelenetet tartalmazott, mint korábbi filmjei, de pénzügyileg sikeres volt és majdnem 80 millió dollár bevételt ért el. Seagal azonban nem tudta meglovagolni sikerét, és két következő filmjével minden téren kudarcot vallott; a Másodpercekre a haláltól (Ticker) csak DVD-n jelent meg, míg a Félholttal (Half Past Dead), melyben a rapsztár Ja Rule is szerepelt, mindössze 20 millió dollárt keresett világszerte.

2008 májusáig az összes Seagal-film, mely 2003 után készült, közvetlenül videón jelent meg az USA-ban, a a világ többi országában is csak pár helyen mutatták be őket moziban. Habár ezek közül sok filmben Seagalt tüntetik fel producerként (és néha íróként is), nem tudni, valójában mennyire vett részt ezen filmek elkészítésében; a hangját ugyanis sokszor egy másik színész kölcsönözte és szinte az összes jelenetben dublőrt alkalmaztak helyette – például az Idegen 2 - Sötét hajnal (Black Dawn), A fenevad gyomrában (Belly of the Beast), A megmentő (Out of Reach) és a Terror a tenger alatt (Submerged) című filmekben.

Legutóbbi videófilmjei közé tartozik a Volt egyszer egy igazság (Urban Justice, 2007), a Piszkos lappal (Pistol Whipped, 2008), a Könyörtelen csapás és a Ruslan. Legújabb, The Keeper című filmje várhatólag 2009-ben jelenik majd meg.

Oliver Stone

William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946) is an American film director and screenwriter. Stone came to prominence as a director with a series of films about the Vietnam War, in which he had participated as an American infantry soldier, and his work continues to focus frequently on contemporary political and cultural issues, often controversially. His work has earned him three Academy Awards. His first Oscar was for Best Adapted Screenplay for Midnight Express (1978). He won Academy Awards for Directing Platoon (1986) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989), both of which were centered on the Vietnam War.

A notable feature of his directing style is the use of many different cameras and film formats, from VHS to 8 mm film to 70 mm film. He sometimes uses several formats in a single scene, as in JFK (1991) and Natural Born Killers (1994). Some of Stone's films often have been criticized for promoting conspiracy theories and historical inaccuracies. JFK was criticized in the media as being a mixture of truth and fiction. One of the musicians portrayed in his film about the rock band The Doors called the biographical film inaccurate. As well, Stone's film Natural Born Killers was criticized by for its apparent glorification of violence; Stone argued that the film was meant to satirize the media's preoccupation with depicting violence.

Stone was born in New York City, the son of Jacqueline (née Goddet) and Louis Stone, a stockbroker.^[1] He grew up affluent and lived in townhouses in Manhattan and Stamford, Connecticut. His father was Jewish and his mother a Roman Catholic of French birth, and Stone was raised an Episcopalian as a compromise^[2] but has since converted to Buddhism. Stone attended Trinity School before his parents sent him away to attend The Hill School, an exclusive college-preparatory school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. His parents divorced while he was away at The Hill School, and only then did Stone learn of his father's extramarital affairs with the wives of several family friends. Stone's father was also influential in obtaining jobs for his son including work on a financial exchange in France, where Stone often spent his summer vacation with his maternal grandparents, a job that proved inspirational to Stone for his movie Wall Street. Stone eventually graduated from The Hill School in 1964, the same year as former JP Morgan & Co. CEO, Douglas A. Warner III.

Stone was then admitted into Yale University, where he subsequently dropped out after one year.^[3] Stone had become inspired by Joseph Conrad's novel Lord Jim as well as by Zorba the Greek and George Harrison's music to teach English at the Free Pacific Institute in South Vietnam. Stone taught in Vietnam for six months after which he worked as a wiper on a United States Merchant Marine ship, traveling to Oregon and Mexico, before returning to Yale, where he dropped out a second time. While at Yale, Stone and long-time friend Lloyd Kaufman, worked on an early Troma Entertainment production "The Battle of Love's Return" (1971). Both also acted in the movie, Stone in a cameo role.^[4] Stone eventually graduated from film school at New York University (where he was mentored by director Martin Scorsese) in 1971, after his service in Vietnam. A veteran of the Vietnam war, Stone served with the U.S. Army from April 1967 to November 1968. He specifically requested combat duty and was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division and the 1st Cavalry Division, and was wounded twice in action. His personal awards include the Bronze Star with "V" device for valor for "extraordinary acts of courage under fire", and the Purple Heart with one Oak Leaf Cluster.

He has made three films about Vietnam – Platoon (1986), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), and Heaven & Earth (1993). He has called these films a trilogy, though they each deal with different aspects of the war. Platoon is a semi-autobiographical film about Stone's experience in combat. Born on the Fourth of July is based on the autobiography of Ron Kovic. Heaven & Earth is derived from the memoir When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, the true story of Le Ly Hayslip, a Vietnamese girl whose life is drastically affected by the war. During this same period, Stone directed Wall Street (1987), which earned Michael Douglas an Academy Award for Best Actor; Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio (1988), and The Doors (1991), starring Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison. Stone has won three Academy Awards. His first Oscar was for Best Adapted Screenplay for Midnight Express (1978). He won Academy Awards for Directing Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July.

For Year of the Dragon (1985) he received a Razzie nomination in the category Worst Screenplay. Other films whose screenplays he participated in are Conan the Barbarian (1982), Scarface (1983), 8 Million Ways to Die (1986) and Evita (1996). In addition, he has written or taken part in the writing of every film he has directed, except for U Turn (1997). The very first film that he directed professionally was the obscure horror picture Seizure (1974). A distinctive feature of Oliver Stone's films is the use of many different cameras and film formats, from VHS to 8 mm film to 70 mm film. He sometimes uses several formats in a single scene, as in JFK (1991) and Natural Born Killers (1994).

In the past decade, Stone has directed U-Turn (1997), which he describes as a small film that he would enjoy seeing as a teenager, Any Given Sunday (1999), a film about power struggles within and surrounding an American football team, and Alexander (2004), a biographical film about Alexander the Great. He later said he was stung by the critical pans of Alexander, which was a financial fiasco despite being one of the highest-grossing films internationally in 2004 – production and marketing costs were not recovered.^[6] Stone has recently said that the film has recouped the cost (over 3.5 million DVDs sold in the U.S. alone). He re-edited the film as the Director's Cut, which was shortened from 175 minutes to 167 minutes. A third version of the film, a 3 hour and 45 minute extended cut, was released February 27, 2007 on the DVD, Blu-Ray, and HD-DVD formats.

After Alexander, Stone went on to direct World Trade Center, which centered on two Port Authority Police Department (PAPD) cops during the September 11, 2001 attacks. The main undercurrent of the film is hope through times of trial. The film did not do as well as it was expected, grossing $70 million (as of November 17, 2006), though the film was made on a budget of $63 million. As of December 19, 2006, the worldwide box office for World Trade Center was $161,735,806. He is slated to direct Pinkville, a Vietnam war drama about the infamous killings set to star Bruce Willis and Channing Tatum. The film's plot was to focus on the investigation into the 1968 My Lai Massacre of Vietnamese civilians. It would have been Stone's fourth Vietnam film, after Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July and Heaven & Earth. The film was to have been made for the newly reformed United Artists.^[7] However, United Artists halted its December 2007 production start because of the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike.

Stone's latest film is a biopic about George W. Bush, named W. Stone indicated that it would be a "fair, but true portrait of the man", portraying the controversial President's childhood, relationship with his father, struggles with alcoholism, subsequent conversion to Christianity, his political career and presidency up through the invasion of Iraq. The film is based on a screenplay by Stone and Stanley Weiser, who had co-written Wall Street (1987). Josh Brolin was cast in the role of Bush,^[8] James Cromwell as Bush Sr. ^[9] and Elizabeth Banks as his wife. Filming began on May 12, 2008 in Shreveport, Louisiana and wrapped in June.^[10] W. was released on October 17 2008, in time for the U.S. presidential election in November.

Stone's films often have been criticized for promoting conspiracy theories and historical inaccuracies. JFK, for instance, hypothesizes many high-level government officials having a hand in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In 1991, he showed the film to Congress on Capitol Hill, which helped lead to passage of the Assassination Materials Disclosure Act^[11] of 1992. The Assassination Records Review Board (created by Congress to end the secrecy surrounding Kennedy's assassination) discussed the film, including Stone's observation at the end of the film, about the dangers inherent in government secrecy.^[12] The film JFK was widely criticized in the media as being a mixture of truth and fiction. Stone published an annotated version of the screenplay, in which he cites references for his claims, shortly after the film's release. Similarly, he published an annotated version of his screenplay for the film Nixon, nominated for four Academy Awards, which was also criticized for its portrayal of President Richard M. Nixon.

Stone's screenplay Midnight Express was criticised for portraying the Turkish people in an overly negative light. The original author, Billy Hayes, around whom the film is set, has spoken out against the film, protesting that he had many Turkish friends while in jail. Stone's film The Doors received criticism from Ray Manzarek (keyboardist–bass player) during a question and answer session at Indiana University East (in Richmond, Indiana) in 1997. During the discussion Manzarek stated that he sat down with Stone about The Doors and Jim Morrison for over 12 hours. He said none of the content of the discussion - such as details on important events in the history of The Doors and Morrison's personal life - was present in the film. Manzarek went on to say that Stone's film was highly inaccurate about Morrison and The Doors.

Patricia Kennealy Morrison, the rock critic and author, Morrison's widow (and a high school friend of Billy Hayes), is on record publicly and privately with ferociously angry criticism of Stone's film. She was a consultant on the movie, in which she also has a cameo appearance, but she writes in her memoir Strange Days: My Life With and Without Jim Morrison (Dutton, 1992) that Stone ignored everything she told him and proceeded with his own version of events. From the moment the movie was released, she blasted it as untruthful and inaccurate.^[13] Surviving members of the band: John Densmore, Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger also cooperated with the filming of 'Doors' but distanced themselves from the work before the film's release.

Natural Born Killers is filmed and edited in a frenzied style where animation, grainy black-and-white 8 mm film, color 35 mm film, and VHS are intercut and juxtaposed in a psychedelic montage of images showing not only the story's action, but also conveying the thoughts and feelings of the characters. The film was criticized by some for its apparent glorification of violence. Stone refutes this claim, saying that it is a satire of the American media's glorification of violence and violent people. The original screenwriter, Quentin Tarantino, was unhappy with the end result of the film because of the attention Stone gave to the aspects of the story involving the media, and asked that his name be removed from the credits. Tarantino was credited with "Story By" on the final film. In 1997, a book about the making of the film, Killer Instinct was written by Jane Hamsher and published by Broadway Books. The book was well reviewed and sold well in Hollywood. It told of an out of control Stone making the film.

Also in 1997, Stone was one of 34 celebrities to sign an open letter to then-German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, published as a newspaper advertisement in the International Herald Tribune, which protested the treatment of Scientologists in Germany and compared it to the Nazis' oppression of Jews in the 1930s.^[14] Other signatories included Dustin Hoffman and Goldie Hawn.^[14]

In 2003, Stone travelled to Cuba where he interviewed Fidel Castro for three days. The result was the documentary Comandante where Stone and Castro talk about politics, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Fidel's personal beliefs, the Cuban Revolution, important events from the past 50 years and Castro's views on the future of the revolution. The film was scheduled to air in May 2003 on HBO but was put on hold after an incident where hijackers threatened to kill passengers on a Cuban ferry if they were not taken to the United States. The hijackers were subsequently executed and in response to loud protests from the Miami Cuban lobby HBO pulled the film.To this day it has not been released in the United States and is only available on imported DVDs from Britain. Stone returned to Cuba and shot Looking for Fidel, a documentary dealing with conditions on the island and the relationship between Cuba and the United States. That film was aired on HBO in early 2004. Stone has said he admires the Cuban Revolution and supports Cuba's rights as a sovereign nation free from U.S. influence. In December 2006, Oliver Stone shocked audiences at the British Comedy Awards by making a joke in reference to the Suffolk Strangler.

In 1993, Stone produced a mini series for ABC Television called Wild Palms. In a cameo, Stone appears on a television in the show discussing how the theories in his film JFK had been proven correct (the series took place in a hypothetical future, 2007). Wild Palms has developed a moderate cult following in the years since it aired, and has recently been released on DVD. That same year, he also spoofed himself in the comedy hit Dave, espousing a conspiracy theory about the President's replacement by a near-identical double. In 1997, Stone published A Child's Night Dream, a largely autobiographical novel first written in 1966-1967. After several unsuccessful attempts to get the work published, he "threw several sections of the manuscript into the East River one cold night, and, as if surgically removing the memory of the book from my mind, volunteered for Vietnam in 1967." Eventually, he dug out the remaining pages, rewrote the manuscript, and published it. The book is almost a stream of consciousness telling of his experiences as a child, in college, and in Vietnam.

In 2003, Stone made two documentary films: Persona Non Grata, about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Comandante, about Cuban President Fidel Castro. In 2004, he made a second documentary on Castro, titled Looking for Fidel. (See also Controversy, above.) Stone is directing a short film about the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where the games were held. He was recently admitted permission by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to make a documentary about him. Stone had been previously refused permission by the Iranian government when the President's media advisor, Mehdi Kalhor, denounced Stone^{[21] [22]} as being part of the "Great Satan" of American culture, despite his opposition to the Bush administration. However, Ahmadinejad approved permission a month later, saying he had "no objections" provided the documentary was based on accurate facts. Stone is due to visit Tehran to negotiate the production of the film with Iranian officials, possibly the president himself. Stone and known independent filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman were childhood friends, and have since collaborated on a number of projects.

In 2008, Stone was named the Artistic Director of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts Asia.

The future of Pinkville remains currently unknown, though Stone is expected to return to the project, following the completion of W. However, in 2007, Stone was reported to have turned down an invitation to direct a sequel to Wall Street. Original star Charlie Sheen will also be absent, but Michael Douglas is expected to reprise his role as Gordon Gekko.

Oliver Stone (1946. szeptember 15., New York; teljes neve William Oliver Stone) amerikai filmrendező.

Sajátos képi világa, lenyűgöző vizualitása, remekül szerkesztett operatőri munkája teszi jellegzetessé munkáit. Filmjei dinamikusak, rendkívül hatásos kifejezőerővel bírnak. Több munkájában játszott is, legtöbbnek producere és forgatókönyvírója is volt.

Apja, Louis zsidó származású (eredeti neve Silverstein), anyja, Jacqueline Goddet, francia. (Stone gyermekkorában jobban beszélt franciául, mint angolul.) Jó anyagi körülmények között éltek, a fiatal Oliver elitiskolákba járhatott. A filmek iránti érdeklődés apja hatására alakult ki benne, első meghatározó filmélménye Fellini Édes élet c. filmje volt.

1964-ben kezdte meg egyetemi tanulmányait a Yale-en. Egy évvel később már angolt tanított egy katolikus iskolában, Saigon egyik külvárosában, de hamarosan úgy érezte, a tanári pálya nem neki való, így abbahagyta tanulmányait. Hajókon dolgozott, és az írással kezdett próbálkozni.

1967-ben lépett be a hadseregbe, a dél-karolinai Fort Jacksonban kapott gyalogsági kiképzést. 15 hónapot szolgált Vietnamban, 1968 áprilisától egy felderítő szakaszban, amelynek tagjai későbbi filmje több szereplőjének is mintájául szolgáltak. Kétszer sebesült meg; Bíborszívvel és Bronzcsillaggal tüntették ki.

Visszatérve New Yorkba egy kölcsönkamerával amatőr filmeket kezdett készíteni, illetve nekilátott a Break című forgatókönyvnek, mely a Platoon alapjául szolgál majd. Beiratkozott a New York-i Egyetem Filmiskolájába (New York University's Film School), ahol Martin Scorsese előadásai komoly hatással voltak rá. Ebben az időszakban három rövidebb fekete-fehér filmet készített, miközben taxisofőrként próbált megélni. Első egész estés filmje (Seizure) egy kanadai mecénás támogatásával készülhetett el.

Egy ideig Los Angelesben építette karrierjét, majd ismét New Yorkban élt, s – 1976 nyarán – itt látott neki első nagy hatású filmje, A szakasz forgatókönyvének. A kész művel – immár véglegesen – Los Angelesbe költözött. A történetet ugyan egy stúdió sem akarta megfilmesíteni, de Stone tehetségére felfigyeltek, és a Columbia Pictures megbízta Billy Hayes önéletrajzi könyvének, a Midnight Express-nek (Éjféli expressz) forgatókönyvvé alakításával, melyért 1979-ben Oscar-díjat kapott. Szintén forgatókönyvíróként működött közre Brian de Palma remake-jében, a A sebhelyesarcú-ban.

A szakasz forgatásának 1986-ban láthatott neki, a film nyolc Oscar-jelölést kapott, s négy szobrot nyert el, köztük a legjobb rendezésért járót is. (Ezért forgatókönyvíróként is jelölték.) Még 1986-ban jelölve volt a Salvador című politikai thriller forgatókönyvírójaként. A Vietnam-téma trilógiává bővült, 1989-ben készült el a Született július 4-én (melynek rendezéséért szintén Oscart kapott és jelölve volt producerként és forgatókönyvíróként), majd 1993-ban a Heaven & Earth. 1991-ben elkészítette a JFK című életrajzi, összeesküvés elméletet boncolgató filmet, amelyért újabb három kategóriában jelölték. Két évre rá készült el a Nixon című filmje, amelyért legutóbbi jelölését kapta.