Steven Spielberg Wiki: 5 Facts To Know About 'Schindler's List' Director

Steven Allan Spielberg is a 71-year-old man from Cincinnati, Ohio. He was born in a Jewish family on December 18, 1946. His mother, Leah Posner, was a concert pianist and a restaurateur. She passed away in February 2017. His father Arnold Spielberg was an electrical engineer.

It was not an easy phase while growing up for Spielberg because of several reasons. He was often bullied and mistreated by people around him. One of the reasons was that he was dyslexic as a child. This disability of being able to read, write, and understand properly created many difficulties for him. His classmates made fun of him and school faculty considered him lazy and ignorant. It was even more problematic as in those years psychological problems weren't well understood by common people. It was the lack of knowledge and comprehension towards dyslexia that Spielberg's difficulties remained undiagnosed for a very long time. He suffered while being mocked by his fellows. This problem, though, was not as terrible as the one that was much worse in the life of Spielberg. Since he belonged to an Orthodox Jewish family, he came across many misfortunate events. Given the circumstances of those times, we all know that it was a harsh time for Jews after the invasion by Nazis. The after effects of which could be felt even after many following years. He has admitted that he has experienced Anti-Semitic hostility during his high school years. For people who are unfamiliar with the term, it refers to the prejudice or racism against Jews. Spielberg was a very strong-minded person from the beginning though and he never saw himself as a victim. In fact, he used filmmaking as an escape from all this. He started making basic 8 mm films at the age of 12, right after entering high school. The first he made, using his toys, was a train wreck. Nothing could stop him after this.

The $22 million budget film is one of the most expensive black & white movies of its times. It narrates the story of a German man who employees thousands of Jews in his factories in order to protect them from the Holocaust during World War II. Since it was a Holocaust movie, Steven Spielberg refused to be paid for directing it. He considered it Blood Money. Even after trying to get someone else directs the movie, he ended up taking up the job himself. Given his past experiences, he felt more inclined towards the plot of the story. However, the movie was a great success. It also won seven BAFTA and three Golden Globe Awards including the ones Spielberg won for the Best Director and Best Picture.

Amy Irving, a young actress, was the first wife of Spielberg. After a relationship of about three years, a break for the next few years and the reconciliation, they finally got married in 1985. Unfortunately, their career choices created some stress between them, and they ended up getting divorced. It was recorded to be the most costly celebrity divorce in history. He then married the popular actress Kate Capshaw in 1991, known for her work in Indiana Jones 5 and the Temple of Doom. They currently have homes in Georgia Pond, East Hampton, in Pacific Palisades, California, in Long Island, New York and Naples, Florida. They are one big family with seven children, including a son from Spielberg's previous marriage and a daughter from Kate Capshaw's previous marriage. She is also a well-known actress named Jessica Capshaw mostly known for her role in Grey's Anatomy. Another daughter, Sasha Rebecca Spielberg, is an actress and musician as well. She has also appeared in her father's movies like Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Munich, and The Terminal.

Spielberg's works include Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Lincoln, Close Encounters, Catch me if you can, The BFG, The Sugarland Express, The Adventures of Tintin, The Terminal, Transformers and many more blockbusters. Apart from success, fame, and money, Spielberg has also received recognition not only by viewers but his talents have been well appreciated by the Former President of United States, Bill Clinton. This happened specifically after the Golden Globe Award winner movie, released in December 2017, The Post. Bill Clinton is known to be getting together with Steven Spielberg for a project. They are supposed to be working on the adaption of a novel, and The President Is Missing by James Patterson. Most probably it will be out in 2018. Also, Clinton received a special invitation for the advance screening of The Post.

It takes an extremely strong will and talents for a man like Spielberg to gain a high net worth when he initially started working as an unpaid intern at Universal Studios. The first profitable movie was Jaws that raked $450 million and then the popular Jurassic Park that grossed $900 million. Due to his next hit movies, Catch me if you can, Minority Report, The Adventures of Tintin, and Lincoln, his net worth had gone up to $3.2 billion by the year 2013. Other films like Real Steel, Super 8, Transformers, and I am Number 4, kept on adding to his wealth and worth. He is not only a director and producer but also a video game designer and studio entrepreneur. He co-founded DreamWorks Studio. After the hype of The Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Doom, he was the one who introduced the concept of Pg-13 ratings of movies. Indiana Jones 5, Ready Player One is much talked about and will be coming out very soon. A documentary on Spielberg's life, Spielberg, has also been made in 2017. His current net worth is estimated to be $5.41 billion.

With such a high net worth, Spielberg has been recorded as one of the highest grossed directors presently. His brilliant ideas can be easily reflected in his movies like Ready Player one, and it's no wonder what all he has achieved.