50 Fun Facts About Steven Spielberg

In which city was Steven Spielberg born in 1946?

His family moved to New Jersey when he was six and to Phoenix, Arizona, when he was ten.

Spielberg made his first film, a nine-minute 8 mm Western, to earn what?

He became an Eagle Scout at 13; The Last Gunfight was his first movie.

Which film school famously rejected the young Spielberg because of his mediocre grades?

He enrolled at California State University, Long Beach instead and later dropped out to direct TV for Universal.

What 1968 short got Spielberg his Universal contract and later named his production company?

Firelight was his earlier feature-length sci-fi film, funded mainly by his father.

Spielberg's directorial debut, Duel (1971), pits Dennis Weaver's salesman against what?

Richard Matheson adapted his own Playboy short story; the film aired as an ABC Movie of the Week before playing in cinemas.

Which 1974 Goldie Hawn film was Spielberg's theatrical debut with John Williams scoring?

Williams has scored all but five of Spielberg's features since.

Jaws was shot mostly on location on which Massachusetts island?

The sandy sea floor stayed shallower than 35 feet for 12 miles offshore, letting the mechanical sharks work out of sight of land.

Jaws held the record as highest-grossing film in history until which movie arrived two years later?

Spielberg has said the malfunctioning mechanical shark made the film better by forcing him to suggest rather than show.

In Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the aliens' coordinates lead to which Wyoming landmark?

French director François Truffaut plays the scientist Claude Lacombe.

Which 1979 Spielberg action-comedy, written by Zemeckis and Gale, was regarded as his first critical flop?

One critic called it "the most conspicuous waste since the last major oil spill", though it still grossed $92 million.

Raiders of the Lost Ark was based on a story by which two men?

Lawrence Kasdan wrote the screenplay to link the set pieces Lucas and Spielberg had dreamed up.

Which sequel's dark content led directly to the creation of the PG-13 rating in 1984?

Spielberg met his future wife on the film.

Who wrote the screenplay for Spielberg's 1982 film about a stranded alien and a boy named Elliott?

The film closed the 1982 Cannes Film Festival, and E.T. became the first film character shortlisted for TIME's Man of the Year.

Which actor played Elliott, the boy who befriends E.T.?

Drew Barrymore, then six, played his little sister Gertie.

The Color Purple (1985), Spielberg's first dramatic film, was adapted from a novel by whom?

Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey starred; Spielberg worried he would be accused of lacking the sensibility for character studies.

Empire of the Sun (1987) was the first American film shot in which city since the 1930s?

A young Christian Bale starred; Spielberg called it one of his most enjoyable shoots.

In Hook (1991), who plays the grown-up Peter Pan?

Dustin Hoffman is Captain Hook and Julia Roberts is Tinker Bell; the film made over $300 million.

Jurassic Park surpassed which film to become the highest-grossing movie of all time in 1993?

It held the title until Titanic in 1997, and won three Oscars for effects and sound.

Jurassic Park is set on which fictional island off Costa Rica?

Jeff Goldblum's Ian Malcolm was written into the film at Spielberg's insistence after Goldblum auditioned.

Schindler's List was based on a Booker Prize-winning novel by which Australian author?

Schindler's Ark was published in 1982; the film shot for 72 days in Kraków, in black and white.

How many Academy Awards did Schindler's List win?

They included Best Picture and Spielberg's first Best Director; the AFI ranked the film eighth-greatest American movie in 2007.

What did Spielberg do with his profits from Schindler's List?

He took no salary for the film and used the proceeds to archive testimonies of Holocaust survivors, starting in 1994.

Spielberg co-founded DreamWorks in 1994 with which two partners?

The SKG in DreamWorks SKG stands for the three founders' surnames.

Which 1997 Spielberg film about an 1839 slave-ship revolt was his first release under DreamWorks?

Spielberg admitted it "became too much of a history lesson" and underperformed.

Saving Private Ryan's Omaha Beach sequence was actually filmed on a beach in which country?

Curracloe Beach in County Wexford stood in for Normandy; the scene cost $12 million and used 1,500 extras.

How many times has Spielberg won the Academy Award for Best Director?

Both were for World War II films, Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan; the former also won Best Picture.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) was a long-gestating project of which director, who died in 1999?

Kubrick had held the rights since 1979 and had himself suggested Spielberg direct.

Minority Report, based on a Philip K. Dick story, is set in what year?

Tom Cruise's Precrime unit in Washington uses psychic "precogs" to arrest murderers before they act.

Catch Me If You Can (2002) is based on the autobiography of which con artist?

Leonardo DiCaprio played him, with Tom Hanks as the FBI agent on his trail.

Spielberg's Munich (2005) dramatizes Israel's response to the murder of its athletes at which event?

It earned five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Lincoln (2012) covers the president's push to pass which constitutional amendment?

Daniel Day-Lewis won his record third Best Actor Oscar for the role; Tony Kushner adapted Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals.

Who won Best Supporting Actor for Spielberg's Bridge of Spies (2015)?

It is one of only five Spielberg features not scored by John Williams.

Ready Player One (2018) was adapted from a novel by whom?

Its release moved from December 2017 to March 2018 to avoid a big December franchise sequel.

What is the name of Spielberg's stand-in in his semi-autobiographical 2022 film The Fabelmans?

Gabriel LaBelle plays him; the film won the People's Choice Award at Toronto and a slew of Oscar nominations.

Which director plays a legendary Hollywood filmmaker in the final scene of The Fabelmans?

It was Lynch's last acting role before his death in 2025.

Spielberg's production company was co-founded with which two producers?

Kennedy later ran Lucasfilm; the company is named after Spielberg's 1968 short.

Which of these hits did Spielberg produce, rather than direct?

Poltergeist, Gremlins, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Transformers were also Spielberg-produced films.

Spielberg received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in which year?

He got the Kennedy Center Honor in 2006 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama in 2015.

Roughly how much have Spielberg's films grossed worldwide, making him the highest-grossing director ever?

Several of his films are in the National Film Registry, from Jaws to Saving Private Ryan.

Which actress, Spielberg's wife since 1991, did he meet on the set of the second Indiana Jones film?

She played nightclub singer Willie Scott in the film; the couple later produced Broadway musicals together.

Which of these was Spielberg's first musical, released in 2021?

It was another of the rare Spielberg films not scored by John Williams, since it used Leonard Bernstein's music.

Which segment did Spielberg direct in Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)?

He produced the anthology with John Landis.

Which director told the young Spielberg, 'So they tell me you want to be a picture maker'?

He restaged the meeting at the end of The Fabelmans.

To which Arizona city did the family move in 1957, where Steven shot his early amateur films?

At 13 he shot the 40-minute war film Escape to Nowhere there with a cast of classmates.

What was the title of teenage Spielberg's feature-length sci-fi film, funded by his father?

His father Arnold was an electrical engineer working on early computers; his mother Leah was a concert pianist.

At which university did Spielberg finally complete his bachelor's degree in 2002?

He submitted Schindler's List as coursework to finish his BA in Film and Electronic Media.

Spielberg directed 'Murder by the Book', the first regular episode of which detective series?

His professional debut was the Night Gallery segment 'Eyes' in 1969, starring Joan Crawford.

Which 1989 Dreyfuss romance was Spielberg's remake of his boyhood favourite A Guy Named Joe?

The film is about an aerial firefighter; a scene from the 1943 original also appears in Poltergeist.

Which EA video game series did Spielberg create?

An avid gamer since 1974, he also made the Wii puzzle game Boom Blox with EA in 2008.

Which 1985 NBC anthology did Spielberg create, pitched as Twilight Zone meets Hitchcock?

NBC gave him a two-year contract for the show.