1. Steven Allan Spielberg was born on Wednesday, 18 December 1946, in the state of Ohio. Other famous Hollywood celebrities also share the same date of birth, namely Christina Aguilera, Brad Pitt, Katie Holmes and Rachel Griffiths.
2. Steven Spielberg is one of the most successful and influential moviemakers of Hollywood. To date, Spielberg has produced 129 movies. He has won two Oscars for Best Director during his career of four decades though he has been nominated on six occasions. Among the top 100 movies of Hollywood that made the most money at the box-office, Spielberg directed seven.
3. Do you know what is common between two famous Hollywood actors namely Gwyneth Paltrow and Drew Barrymore? Both of these beautiful actors have Steven Spielberg as their Godfather Spielberg sent Barrymore a note saying, “cover up” when she posed for Playboy magazine.
4. Spielberg has been denied the role of director twice for the James Bond movies, which he is really fond of. Producer Albert Broccoli initially denied him the role of director citing inexperience as the key reason. Later when Spielberg became famous, he was again denied the role of director because according to Albert, he was now unaffordable.
5. The PG-13 movie rating, indicating that only people that are 13 years or above can be granted the right to watch a movie, was suggested by none other than Spielberg himself. His own movies became the inspiration for Spielberg to come up with this suggestion, as he thought the contents of some of his movies were not appropriate for younger audiences. Hence, he put forward this suggestion to Jack Valenti, the President of the Motion Picture Association of America.
6. Do you know which actor has been cast the most in Spielberg’s movies? You could guess Richard Dreyfuss, Tom Hanks or Harrison Ford, but that would be wrong. It is none other than Spielberg’s own dog! Spielberg’s dog Elmer, a cocker spaniel, has been a part of a number of his movies more than any other actor has.
7. Steven Spielberg has close affiliations with the 42nd President of the United States of America, Bill Clinton. This was quite evident when Bill Clinton made an appearance at the 2012 Golden Globe Awards for Spielberg’s movie, “Lincoln”.
8. Spielberg’s mother Leah once gifted his father, Arnold, a Brownie movie camera for his birthday. However, Spielberg at once took the present away for his own pleasure.
9. The first movie ever seen by the now famous moviemaker was back in 1952. The movie was Cecile B Demille’s “The Greatest Show on Earth”, which also won the Oscar for Best Movie the same year.
10. Steven Spielberg’s love for video games is quite evident. His favorites are action video games like Call of Duty and Half Life. Spielberg gave the idea of a shooting game WWII that later on became a massive hit when it was released on Sony PlayStation in 1999.
11. Same-sex marriage is an issue that Hollywood celebrities have openly talked about. Spielberg is no different. He and his wife have supported same-sex marriage and made donations towards this cause. Spielberg even resigned from the Advisory Board of Boy Scouts of America citing this issue. The Boy Scouts of America were against homosexuality, which offended Spielberg.
12. It is difficult to believe that a man who now makes millions with his movies once earned a profit of just $1 with the first movie he ever made. In 1964, Spielberg made a movie with a budget of just $500, which was played at the Phoenix Little Theatre, in Arizona. The movie was titled “Firelight on a shoestring” and featured several of Spielberg’s high school friends.
13. Pop star Michael Jackson’s song “Liberian Girl” features Steven Spielberg in the music video.
14. Spielberg has been married twice. His first marriage with Amy Irving lasted from 1985-1989. Their divorce was the third most expensive Hollywood divorce of all time, as Amy walked away with a whopping $100 million in the settlement. Spielberg later married his Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom actor, Kate Capshaw in 1991. Kate was previously married to Robert Capshaw. Kate converted to Judaism prior to her wedding with Spielberg.
15. Spielberg, as of now, has the responsibility of seven children. Both Spielberg and Kate have one child from their previous marriages each, Max and Jessica respectively. Jessica is well known for her role as Arizona on Grey’s Anatomy. Spielberg and Kate have two adopted children called Theo and Mikaela as well. Together, Spielberg and Kate have three children Sasha, Destry and Sawyer. Altogether, it is one large happy Spielberg-Capshaw family.
16. Steven Spielberg is one of those famous personalities who have suffered from Dyslexia all their lives. It was only in 2007 that he came to know why he had always lagged behind other kids in school as a child, or why he could not read as fast as the other kids could. Other famous people who have suffered from Dyslexia include Albert Einstein, Graham Bell, Tom Cruise, Orlando Bloom, Jay Leno, Patrick Dempsy, Keira Knightly and Cher, to name a few.
17. Jurassic Park has been termed as one of the most successful movies made by Spielberg. An astonishing fact is that in either of the Jurassic Park movies, women do not die. In all the parts, nearly 15 males gave their lives yet not a single female was portrayed as having died.
18. Spielberg cast the famous Bollywood villain Amrish Puri, in his movie “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom to play the role of Mola Ram.
19. The latest venture by Spielberg “Lincoln” is considered one of his most successful movies and is up for an Oscar. However, it is embedded with an important flaw as pointed out by Democrat Joe Courtney. During the movie when votes are to be cast for the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery, the state of Connecticut is shown to have voted in favor of slavery. History says otherwise. Spielberg now plans to make the correction before the movie is released on DVD. It is never too late for a perfectionist.
20. Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg have both worked together on a number of projects. However, they do not get along very well, due to their differences of opinion on issues such as Scientology, the use of Ritalin to treat children and other similar issues.