Silent Generation Directors

by maxwellmcphee | created - 18 Oct 2019 | updated - 6 months ago | Public

Directors born from 1928-1945, in order of birthdate.

Some of the most notable directors on this list: 1928 (6) Jacques Rivette Alan J. Pakula Agnes Varda James Ivory Stanley Kubrick Nicholas Roeg 1929 (5) Sergio Leone Alejandro Jodorowsky Peter Yates Hal Ashby John Cassavetes 1930 (7) Frederick Wiseman John Frankenheimer Richard Donner Clint Eastwood Claude Chabrol Kinji Fukasaku Jean Luc Godard 1931(4) Leonard Nimoy Ted Kotcheff Jacques Demy Mike Nichols 1932 (8) Richard Lester Francois Truffaut Milos Forman Andrei Tarkovsky John Glen Mike Hodges Yash Chopra Louis Malle 1933 (4) John Boorman Costa-Gavras Roman Polansky Noriaki Yuasa 1934 (2) Sydney Pollack Garry Marshall 1935 (6) Theodoros Angelopoulos William Friedkin Jules Bass Isao Takahata Woody Allen John G. Avildsen 1936 (4) Ken Loach Robert Redford Jim Henson Philip Kaufman 1937 (3) Warren Beatty Don Bluth Ridley Scott 1938 (6) Lewis Teague Richard Benjamin Tommy Chong Paul Verhoeven Ralph Bakshi Michael Ritchie 1939 (10) Michael Cimino Glauber Rocha Lino Brocka Francis Ford Coppola Peter Bodganovich Wes Craven Bob Clark John Badham Joel Schumaker Jeannot Szwarc 1940 (6) George A. Romero Abbas Kiarostami James L. Brooks Dario Argento Brian De Palma Terry Gilliam 1941 (9) George P. Cosmatos Hayao Miyazaki Michael Apted Adrian Lyne Wolfgang Petersen Bernando Bertolucci Nora Ephron Stephen Frears Krzysztof Kieslowski 1942 (8) Walter Hill Terry Jones Michael Haneke Mike Newell Barry Levinson Rod Daniel Werner Herzog Martin Scorsese 1943 (18) Simon Wincer Tobe Hooper Michael Mann Mike Leigh David Cronenberg Roy Andersson Jonathan Lynn Emile Ardolino Tom Holland Peter Hyams Robert De Niro Hugh Wilson Jean-Jacques Annaud Mick Jackson Penny Marshall Jan de Bont Martin Campbell Terrence Malick 1944 (12) Alan Parker Jonathan Demme John Milius Jim Abrahams George Lucas Frank Oz Tony Scott Peter Weir Danny Devito Harold Ramis William Dear Taylor Hackford 1945 (9) George Miller Curtis Hanson Rainer Werner Fassbinder Roger Donaldson Penelope Spheeris Nicholas Meyer Wim Wenders Ron Shelton Lloyd Kaufman

1. Michael Roemer

Director | Nothing But a Man

Michael Roemer was born on January 1, 1928 in Berlin, Germany. He is a director and actor, known for Nothing But a Man (1964), The Plot Against Harry (1989) and Dying (1976).

2. Jan Lenica

Director | Adam 2

Jan Lenica was born on January 4, 1928 in Poznan, Wielkopolskie, Poland. He was a director and writer, known for Adam 2 (1968), Rhinoceros (1964) and Labyrinth (1963). He died on October 5, 2001 in Berlin, Germany.

3. William Peter Blatty

Writer | The Exorcist

William Peter Blatty was born on January 7, 1928 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for The Exorcist (1973), The Exorcist III (1990) and The Ninth Configuration (1980). He was married to Julie Alicia Witbrodt, Linda Blatty, Elizabeth Gilman and Mary Margaret Rigard. ...

4. Jeanne Moreau

Actress | Jules et Jim

When people gave Louis Malle credit for making a star of Jeanne Moreau in Elevator to the Gallows (1958) immediately followed by The Lovers (1958), he would point out that Moreau by that time had already been "recognized as the prime stage actress of her generation." She had made it to the Comédie ...

5. Roger Vadim

Writer | Barbarella

Roger Vadim was born on January 26, 1928 in Paris, France. He was a writer and director, known for Barbarella (1968), The Game Is Over (1966) and No Sun in Venice (1957). He was married to Marie-Christine Barrault, Catherine Schneider, Jane Fonda, Annette Stroyberg and Brigitte Bardot. He died on ...

6. Jacques Rivette

Director | La Belle Noiseuse

Although François Truffaut has written that the New Wave began "thanks to Rivette," the films of this masterful French director are not well known. Rivette, like his "Cahiers du Cinéma" colleagues Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol and Éric Rohmer, did graduate to filmmaking but, like Rohmer...

7. Robert Clouse

Director | Enter the Dragon

A hard-working director throughout his long and varied career, Robert Clouse was best-known for his two most successful films: Enter the Dragon (1973) and Game of Death (1978). Born in 1928, he was a director. After being hired by Warner Bros. and Golden Harvest to direct Enter the Dragon (1973), ...

8. Alan J. Pakula

Producer | Sophie's Choice

Alan J. Pakula was an American film director, writer and producer. He was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Picture for To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Best Director for All the President's Men (1976) and Best Adapted Screenplay for Sophie's Choice (1982).

He also directed Presumed Innocent (...

9. Marco Ferreri

Writer | Storie di ordinaria follia

Marco Ferreri was born on May 11, 1928 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981), L'udienza (1972) and El cochecito (1960). He was married to Jacqueline Ferreri. He died on May 9, 1997 in Paris, France.

10. John Mackenzie

Director | The Long Good Friday

A solid and reliable filmmaker with frequent flairs of brilliance, Mackenzie gave up a career in acting because of a desire to control what he was doing. He assisted Ken Loach on his classic early TV plays such as The Wednesday Play: Cathy Come Home (1966), which inspired him and gave him the best ...

11. Agnès Varda

Director | Cléo de 5 à 7

Agnès Varda was born on May 30, 1928 in Ixelles, Belgium. She was a director and writer, known for Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Vagabond (1985) and Faces Places (2017). She was married to Jacques Demy. She died on March 29, 2019 in Paris, France.

12. Tony Richardson

Director | Tom Jones

The son of a Shipley chemist he was initially connected with the stage first with the post war Shipley Young Theatre then with the Bradford Civic Theatre where he came into contact with the Bradford born author J B Priestley who recognising his potential commissioned him to write a TV documentary. ...

13. James Ivory

Writer | Call Me by Your Name

The main part of his few movies were filmed in the quarter of a century in which he worked closely together with the Indian producer Ismail Merchant and the German writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. His first films are all set in India and are very much influenced by the style of Satyajit Ray and Jean ...

14. Stanley Kubrick

Director | 2001: A Space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick was born in Manhattan, New York City, to Sadie Gertrude (Perveler) and Jacob Leonard Kubrick, a physician. His family were Jewish immigrants (from Austria, Romania, and Russia). Stanley was considered intelligent, despite poor grades at school. Hoping that a change of scenery would ...

15. James B. Harris

Producer | The Killing

James B. Harris was born on August 3, 1928 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for The Killing (1956), The Black Dahlia (2006) and Paths of Glory (1957).

16. Andy Warhol

Director | Blue Movie

Andrew Warhol's father, Ondrej, came from the Austria-Hungary Empire (now Slovakia) in 1912, and sent for his mother, Julia Zavackyová Warholová, in 1921. His father worked as a construction worker and later as a coal miner. Around some time, the family moved to Pittsburgh. During his teenage years...

17. Jacques Rouffio

Writer | Le sucre

Jacques Rouffio was born on August 14, 1928 in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France. He was an assistant director and writer, known for Le sucre (1978), 7 morts sur ordonnance (1975) and Mon beau-frère a tué ma soeur (1986). He died on July 8, 2016 in Sèvres, Hauts-de-Seine, France.

18. Lina Wertmüller

Writer | Pasqualino Settebellezze

During the 1970s, Lina Wertmüller emblazoned her name into the pantheon of Italian cinema with a series of intensely polemical, deeply controversial and wonderfully entertaining films. Among the most politically outspoken and iconoclastic members of the second generation of postwar directors - the ...

19. Nicolas Roeg

Director | Don't Look Now

When he made his directorial debut in 1970, Nicolas Roeg was already a 23-year veteran of the British film industry, starting out in 1947 as an editing apprentice and working his way up to cinematographer twelve years later. He first came to attention as part of the second unit on David Lean's ...

20. Mel Stuart

Producer | Running on the Sun: The Badwater 135

Mel Stuart was born on September 2, 1928 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and director, known for Running on the Sun: The Badwater 135 (2000), Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) and The Making of the President 1960 (1963). He was married to Roberta Frances Silberman ...

21. Sergio Leone

Writer | Once Upon a Time in America

Sergio Leone was virtually born into the cinema - he was the son of Roberto Roberti (A.K.A. Vincenzo Leone), one of Italy's cinema pioneers, and actress Bice Valerian. Leone entered films in his late teens, working as an assistant director to both Italian directors and U.S. directors working in ...

22. Ulu Grosbard

Director | Georgia

Born in Belgium, Ulu Grosbard was educated at the University of Chicago, then attended the Yale Drama School. Becoming a stage director in 1957, Grosbard directed many successful Broadway shows. In the early '60s Grosbard journeyed to Hollywood, where he was hired as an assistant director on several...

23. Elio Petri

Writer | Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto

Elio Petri was born on January 29, 1929 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970), We Still Kill the Old Way (1967) and His Days Are Numbered (1962). He was married to Paola Pegoraro. He died on November 10, 1982 in Rome, Lazio,...

24. Vera Chytilová

Director | O necem jiném

Vera Chytilová was born on February 2, 1929, in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic). She studied philosophy and architecture in Brno for two years, then worked as a technical draftsman, a designer, a fashion model, a photo re-toucher, then worked as a clapper girl for Barrandov Film ...

25. Leonard Kastle

Director | The Honeymoon Killers

Leonard Kastle was born on February 11, 1929 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and writer, known for The Honeymoon Killers (1970), NBC Television Opera Theatre (1949) and The Making of Wedding at Cana. He died on May 18, 2011 in Westerlo, New York, USA.

26. Alejandro Jodorowsky

Writer | El Topo

Alejandro Jodorowsky was born in Tocopilla, Chile on February 17, 1929. In 1939 he moved to Santiago where he attended university, was a circus clown and a puppeteer. In 1953 he went to Paris and studied mime with Marcel Marceau. He worked with Maurice Chevalier there and made a short film, La ...

27. Roberto Gómez Bolaños

Actor | El Chavo del Ocho

Roberto Gomez Bolaños more commonly known by his pseudonym Chespirito, or "Little Shakespeare" was a Mexican screenwriter, actor, comedian, film director, television director, playwright, songwriter, and author. He is widely regarded as the most important Latin and Spanish-language humorist of all ...

28. Mark Rydell

Actor | The Long Goodbye

Mark Rydell was born on March 23, 1929 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a director and actor, known for The Long Goodbye (1973), On Golden Pond (1981) and Hollywood Ending (2002). He was previously married to Esther Jacobs and Joanne Linville.

29. Jacques Brel

Soundtrack | Le Far-West

One of the most popular singers of French songs. After a childhood full of boredom and normality, Brel started to work in his father's cardboard factory. But he wanted a different kind of life. He had been writing songs all his life and in the early 1950s he went to Paris. After a few years he ...

30. Max von Sydow

Actor | Flash Gordon

Max von Sydow was born Carl Adolf von Sydow on April 10, 1929 in Lund, Skåne, Sweden, to a middle-class family. He was the son of Baroness Maria Margareta (Rappe), a teacher, and Carl Wilhelm von Sydow, an ethnologist and folklore professor. His surname traces back to his partial German ancestry.

...

31. Amir Shervan

Director | Samurai Cop

Amir Shervan, was born Amir Hosein Ghaffar in Tehran, Iran on May 24, 1929. In the U.S. he is mostly known for directing the movies Hollywood cop and Samurai Cop but was better known in Iran for his directing, writing and acting in numerous films.

Shervan studied theater in Pasadena California in ...

32. Monte Hellman

Director | Iguana

Monte Hellman was born on July 12, 1929, in New York City, where his parents were visiting, but he grew up in Los Angeles. He studied drama at Stanford University--on an NBC scholarship--and film at UCLA. After a few years directing in summer theater, Hellman hooked up with legendary "B" movie ...

33. René Laloux

Writer | La planète sauvage

René Laloux was born on July 13, 1929 in Paris, France. He was a writer and director, known for Fantastic Planet (1973), Time Masters (1982) and Les escargots (1966). He died on March 14, 2004 in Angoulême, Charente, France.

34. Peter Yates

Director | Krull

Having seen Robbery (1967) and Bullitt (1968), it comes as no surprise that Peter Yates started out as a professional racing car driver and team manager - albeit briefly - before turning his attention to film. The son of a military man, he was educated at Charterhouse School and trained at RADA, ...

35. Vincent McEveety

Director | The Untouchables

Vincent McEveety was born on August 10, 1929 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a director and assistant director, known for The Untouchables (1959), Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (1958) and Star Trek (1966). He was married to Mary Ann O'Dell. He died on May 19, 2018 in Los Angeles, California...

36. Hal Ashby

Editor | In the Heat of the Night

Hal Ashby was born the fourth and youngest child in a Mormon household, in Ogden, Utah, to Eileen Ireta (Hetzler) and James Thomas Ashby, on September 2, 1929. His father was a dairy farmer. After a rough childhood that included the divorce of his parents, his father's suicide, his dropping out of ...

37. Kurt Kren

Director | 8/64: Ana - Aktion Brus

Kurt Kren was born on September 20, 1929 in Vienna, Austria. He was a director and cinematographer, known for 8/64: Ana - Aktion Brus (1964), 16/67: 20. September (1967) and 10b/65: Silber - Aktion Brus (1965). He died on June 23, 1998 in Vienna, Austria.

38. Vittorio Taviani

Director | La notte di San Lorenzo

Vittorio Taviani studied law at the University of Pisa, becoming interested in the cinema after seeing Roberto Rossellini's Paisan (1946). After writing and directing short films and plays with his brother Paolo, he made his first feature in 1962. The brothers have continued to work together ever ...

39. Robin Hardy

Director | The Wicker Man

Robin Hardy was born on October 2, 1929 in Wimbledon, London, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for The Wicker Man (1973), Forbidden Sun (1988) and The Fantasist (1986). He was married to Victoria. He died on July 1, 2016 in Reading, Berkshire, England, UK.

40. Alain Tanner

Director | Charles mort ou vif (petite fresque historique)

Alain Tanner was born on December 6, 1929 in Geneva, Switzerland. He was a director and writer, known for Charles, Dead or Alive (1969), In the White City (1983) and Return from Africa (1973). He was married to Janine Giudici. He died on September 11, 2022 in Geneva, Canton de Genève, Switzerland.

41. John Cassavetes

Actor | Rosemary's Baby

John Cassavetes was a Greek-American actor, film director, and screenwriter. He is considered a pioneer of American independent film, as he often financed his own films.

Cassavetes was born in New York City in 1929 to Nicholas John Cassavetes (1893-1979) and his wife, Katherine Demetre (1906-1983). ...

42. Joseph McGrath

Director | Casino Royale

Joseph McGrath was born on March 28, 1928 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He is a director and producer, known for Casino Royale (1967), Rising Damp (1980) and 30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia (1968).

43. Frederick Wiseman

Director | National Gallery

Born in 1930, Wiseman is a Cambridge, Massachusetts resident and member of the Massachusetts Bar Association who turned to filmmaking in 1967, after years as an instructor and/or researcher at Boston University, Brandeis University, and Harvard. In 1970 he founded Zipporah Films, Inc., which ...

44. John Frankenheimer

Director | The Manchurian Candidate

Born in New York and raised in Queens, John Frankenheimer wanted to become a professional tennis player. He loved movies and his favorite actor was Robert Mitchum. He decided he wanted to be an actor but then he applied for and was accepted in the Motion Picture Squadron of the Air Force where he ...

45. John Hayes

Director | The Cut-Throats

John Patrick Hayes was a writer, director, editor, producer and occasional actor who made a wide variety of offbeat and interesting low-budget independent pictures throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Born in New York, he began his film career making short movies in the 1950s--his 1958 short "The Kiss" ...

46. Spede Pasanen

Producer | Uuno Turhapuro kaksoisagentti

Spede Pasanen was born on April 10, 1930 in Kuopio, Finland. He was a producer and writer, known for Uuno Turhapuro kaksoisagentti (1987), Häpy endkö? Eli kuinka Uuno Turhapuro sai niin kauniin ja rikkaan vaimon (1977) and Kahdeksas veljes (1971). He was married to Pirjo Pasanen. He died ...

47. Richard Donner

Director | Superman

Richard Donner was born on April 24, 1930 in The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Superman (1978), Ladyhawke (1985) and Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (1980). He was married to Lauren Shuler Donner. He died on July 5, 2021 in Los Angeles, ...

48. Paul Mazursky

Actor | An Unmarried Woman

Paul Mazursky was born on April 25, 1930 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for An Unmarried Woman (1978), Harry and Tonto (1974) and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969). He was married to Betsy Mazursky. He died on June 30, 2014 in Beverly Grove, ...

49. Richard C. Sarafian

Director | Vanishing Point

Richard C. Sarafian was born on April 28, 1930 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and actor, known for Vanishing Point (1971), Bugsy (1991) and Blue Streak (1999). He was married to Helen Joan Altman. He died on September 18, 2013 in Santa Monica, California, USA.

50. Clint Eastwood

Actor | Million Dollar Baby

Clint Eastwood was born May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, to Clinton Eastwood Sr., a bond salesman and later manufacturing executive for Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and Ruth Wood (née Margret Ruth Runner), a housewife turned IBM clerk. He grew up in nearby Piedmont. At school Clint took interest in ...

51. Anthony Harvey

Director | The Lion in Winter

Anthony Harvey was born on June 3, 1930 in London, England, UK. He was an editor and director, known for The Lion in Winter (1968), Dutchman (1966) and Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). He died on November 23, 2017 in Southampton, New York, USA.

52. Bo Widerberg

Director | Ådalen 31

Bo Widerberg was born on June 8, 1930 in Malmö, Skåne län, Sweden. He was a director and writer, known for Adalen 31 (1969), All Things Fair (1995) and Joe Hill (1971). He was married to Vanja Nettelbladt and Ann-Mari Björklund. He died on May 1, 1997 in Ängelholm, Skåne län, Sweden.

53. Claude Chabrol

Director | Le beau Serge

Claude Chabrol was born on June 24, 1930 in Paris, France. He was a director and writer, known for Le Beau Serge (1958), La Cérémonie (1995) and Story of Women (1988). He was married to Aurore Chabrol, Stéphane Audran and Agnès Goute. He died on September 12, 2010 in Paris, France.

54. Kinji Fukasaku

Director | Batoru rowaiaru

Kinji Fukasaku was born on July 3, 1930 in Mito, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Battle Royale (2000), Fall Guy (1982) and Crest of Betrayal (1994). He was married to Sanae Nakahara. He died on January 12, 2003 in Tokyo, Japan.

55. Stefan Uher

Director | Pásla kone na betóne

Stefan Uher was born on July 4, 1930 in Prievidza, Czechoslovakia [now Slovakia]. He was a director and writer, known for She Kept Asking for the Moon (1982), Organ (1965) and Tri dcéry (1968). He died on March 29, 1993 in Bratislava, Slovakia.

56. Frank Perry

Director | Mommie Dearest

Frank Perry was born on August 21, 1930 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Mommie Dearest (1981), David and Lisa (1962) and Last Summer (1969). He was married to Virginia Brush Ford, Barbara Goldsmith and Eleanor Perry. He died on August 29, 1995 in New York ...

57. Sean Connery

Actor | The Rock

The tall, handsome and muscular Scottish actor Sean Connery is best known as the original actor to portray James Bond in the hugely successful movie franchise, starring in seven films between 1962 and 1983. Some believed that such a career-defining role might leave him unable to escape it, but he ...

58. Charles B. Griffith

Writer | Little Shop of Horrors

Legendary screenwriter Charles Byron Griffith was born in Chicago on September 23, 1930. His mother and grandmother starred in the famous radio show, "Myrt and Marge," which went on to New York and became a soap opera. After a hitch in the army, Griffith went to California to live with his ...

59. Harold Pinter

Actor | Mansfield Park

Harold Pinter, the 2005 Nobel Laureate for Literature, was born October 10, 1930, in London's working-class Hackney district to Hyman and Frances Pinter, Eastern European Jews who had immigrated to the United Kingdom from Portugal. Hyman (known as "Jack") was a tailor specializing in women's ...

60. Gérard Blain

Actor | Hatari!

Gérard Blain was born on October 23, 1930 in Paris, France. He was an actor and writer, known for Hatari! (1962), Les amis (1971) and Un enfant dans la foule (1976). He was married to Marie-Hélène Bauret, Monique Blain, Bernadette Lafont and Estella Blain. He died on December 17, 2000 in Paris, ...

61. Jean-Luc Godard

Director | Bande à part

Jean-Luc Godard was born in Paris on December 3, 1930, the second of four children in a bourgeois Franco-Swiss family. His father was a doctor who owned a private clinic, and his mother came from a preeminent family of Swiss bankers. During World War II Godard became a naturalized citizen of ...

62. Buck Henry

Writer | The Graduate

Prolific, multi-talented comedy writer, story editor, actor and director. His father was an Air Force general (Paul Steinberg Zuckerman) turned stockbroker and his mother was silent screen star Ruth Taylor, formerly a member of Mack Sennett's bathing beauties. Buck Henry's first fling with comedy ...

63. Francesco Maselli

Director | Storia d'amore

Francesco Maselli was born on December 9, 1930 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for Storia d'amore (1986), Codice privato (1988) and Time of Indifference (1964). He was married to Stefania Brai and Goliarda Sapienza. He died on March 21, 2023 in Rome, Italy.

64. Armin Mueller-Stahl

Actor | Eastern Promises

Armin Mueller-Stahl is a German actor with a relatively long film career. He was once nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role as an abusive father in the biographical drama "Shine" (1996).

In 1930, Mueller-Stahl was born in Tilsit, East Prussia. The town developed ...

65. Robert Duvall

Actor | The Apostle

Veteran actor and director Robert Selden Duvall was born on January 5, 1931, in San Diego, CA, to Mildred Virginia (Hart), an amateur actress, and William Howard Duvall, a career military officer who later became an admiral. Duvall majored in drama at Principia College (Elsah, IL), then served a ...

66. Rip Torn

Actor | Men in Black

Rip Torn was born Elmore Rual Torn Jr. on February 6, 1931 in Temple, Texas, the son of Thelma Mary (Spacek) and Elmore Rudolph Torn, who was an agriculturalist and economist, credited with popularizing the custom of eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day. "Rip" is a family name, taken by ...

67. George Ogilvie

Director | Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

George Ogilvie was born on March 5, 1931 in Goulburn, New South Wales, Australia. He was a director and actor, known for Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), Short Changed (1986) and Blue Heelers (1994). He died on April 5, 2020 in New South Wales, Australia.

68. Gerald Potterton

Director | Heavy Metal

Gerald Potterton was born on March 8, 1931 in London, England, UK. He was a director and writer, known for Heavy Metal (1981), The Railrodder (1965) and Yellow Submarine (1968). He died on August 23, 2022 in Cowansville, Québec, Canada.

69. William Shatner

Actor | Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

William Shatner has notched up an impressive 70-plus years in front of the camera, displaying heady comedic talent and being instantly recognizable to several generations of cult television fans as the square-jawed Captain James T. Kirk, commander of the starship U.S.S. Enterprise.

Shatner was born ...

70. Leonard Nimoy

Actor | Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Leonard Simon Nimoy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Dora (Spinner) and Max Nimoy, who owned a barbershop. His parents were Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. Raised in a tenement and acting in community theaters since age eight, Nimoy did not make his Hollywood debut until he was 20, with a bit ...

71. Yoshimitsu Banno

Producer | Godzilla

Yoshimitsu Banno studied at Toho under such directors as Hiromichi Horikawa, Mikio Naruse, Kengo Furusawa and Seiji Maruyama. By 1970 Toho was ready to promote him to full director, and the resulting project, Birth of the Japanese Islands (1970) played at Osaka's Expo 70, attracting record-breaking...

72. Jon Stone

Director | Sesame Street

Jon Stone was born on April 13, 1931 in New Haven, Connecticut, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Sesame Street (1969), Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (1978) and Big Bird in China (1983). He was married to Beverley Owen. He died on March 30, 1997 in New York City, New York, USA.

73. Ivan Dixon

Actor | A Raisin in the Sun

Ivan Dixon was a handsome, mustachioed African-American actor and director who carried a strong, serious nature about his solid frame. He initially earned attention in groundbreaking stage and film work with pronounced themes of social and racial relevance. He would become better known, however, ...

74. Ted Kotcheff

Director | Weekend at Bernie's

William Theodore Kotcheff was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Bulgarian parents from Plovdiv. He graduated with a degree in English Literature from the University of Toronto. He began his professional career directing TV drama at age 24 at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, at the time ...

75. King Hu

Director | Xia nü

He was educated in art school in Beijing, left China for Hong Kong in 1949 and entered the film industry in 1951 in the art department. In the 1950s he began acting and in 1958 joined Shaw Brothers as an actor and writer, and later a director. In 1967 he left to start his own studio in Taiwan, ...

76. Ettore Scola

Writer | Una giornata particolare

Ettore Scola was born on May 10, 1931 in Trevico, Campania, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for A Special Day (1977), The Family (1987) and Passion of Love (1981). He was married to Gigliola. He died on January 19, 2016 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

77. Irwin Winkler

Producer | Life as a House

Irwin Winkler's career as a producer, director and writer encompasses popular and influential movies that have impacted contemporary culture. With a passion for big, bold, meaningful stories, his films include an array of true screen classics, garnering among them 12 Academy Awards and 52 Oscar ...

78. Jacques Demy

Soundtrack | Les parapluies de Cherbourg

Jacques Demy was born on June 5, 1931 in Pontchâteau, Loire-Atlantique, France. He was a director and writer, known for The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) and A Room in Town (1982). He was married to Agnès Varda. He died on October 27, 1990 in Paris, France.

79. Ermanno Olmi

Director | L'albero degli zoccoli

Ermanno Olmi was born on July 24, 1931 in Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978), The Legend of the Holy Drinker (1988) and Il posto (1961). He was married to Loredana Detto. He died on May 5, 2018 in Asiago, Veneto, Italy.

80. Umberto Lenzi

Writer | La casa 3

Born in Massa Marittima, Italy on August 6, 1931, Umberto Lenzi was a movie enthusiast since his early grade school years. During those years, he founded various film fan clubs while studying law. Lenzi started out as a journalist for various local newspapers and magazines. Lenzi put off his law ...

81. Nicolas Gessner

Director | The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane

Nicolas Gessner was born on August 17, 1931 in Szombathely, Hungary. He was a director and writer, known for The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976), Spaceship Earth (1996) and Quicker Than the Eye (1988). He died on August 22, 2023 in Caen, Calvados, France.

82. Larry Hagman

Actor | Dallas

The son of a legendary actress (Mary Martin) and a district attorney, Larry Martin Hagman was born on September 21, 1931 in Fort Worth, Texas. After his parents' divorce, he moved to Los Angeles, California to live with his grandmother. When he was 12, his grandmother died and he moved back to his ...

83. Román Chalbaud

Director | Pandemonium, la capital del infierno

Román Chalbaud was born on October 10, 1931 in Mérida, Venezuela. He was a director and writer, known for Pandemonium, the Hell's Capital City (1997), El pez que fuma (1977) and El caracazo (2005). He died on September 12, 2023 in Caracas, Venezuela.

84. Mike Nichols

Director | The Graduate

He, along with the other members of the "Compass Players" including Elaine May, Paul Sills, Byrne Piven, Joyce Hiller Piven and Edward Asner helped start the famed "Second City Improv" company. They used the games taught to them by fellow cast mate, Paul Sills 's mother, Viola Spolin. He later ...

85. Carlos Saura

Writer | Carmen

Spanish director, writer, producer (2 films) and actor (2 films). His interest in cinema started when he was very young. His mother, who was a pianist, instilled in him the liking for music, and his brother, Antonio, who was a painter, the passion for art. When he was an teenager he started to ...

86. Alfonso Arau

Actor | Three Amigos!

Alfonso Arau has had a long and fruitful career both in front of and behind the camera and is one of the most prominent Latino film-makers in Hollywood. He was a drama disciple of Seki Sano--a Japanese teacher, classmate of Lee Strasberg with Konstantin Stanislavski in Russia--and traveled the ...

87. Richard Lester

Director | A Hard Day's Night

Richard Lester was one of the most influential directors of the 1960s, and continued his career into the 1970s and early '80s. He is best remembered for the two films he helmed starring The Beatles: A Hard Day's Night (1964) and Help! (1965), the frenetic cutting style of which was seen by many as ...

88. François Truffaut

Writer | La nuit américaine

French director François Truffaut began to assiduously go to the movies at age seven. He was also a great reader but not a good pupil. He left school at 14 and started working. In 1947, aged 15, he founded a film club and met André Bazin, a French critic, who became his protector. Bazin helped the ...

89. Alexander Kluge

Director | Abschied von gestern - (Anita G.)

Writer. Director. Producer. Studied law and graduated. Was one of the founders of the Oberhausener Manifest in 1962. Since 1962 Headmaster of the 'Institut fuer Filmgestaltung' at the 'Hochschule fuer Gestaltung' in Ulm, Germany. Since 1988 produces broadcastings dealing with cultural aspects in ...

90. Milos Forman

Director | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Milos Forman was born Jan Tomas Forman in Caslav, Czechoslovakia, to Anna (Svabova), who ran a summer hotel, and Rudolf Forman, a professor. During World War II, his parents were taken away by the Nazis, after being accused of participating in the underground resistance. His father died in ...

91. Toshio Matsumoto

Director | Dogura magura

Matsumoto was born in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan and graduated from Tokyo University in 1955. His first short was Ginrin, which he made in 1955. His most famous film is Funeral Parade of Roses, featuring a transvestite trying to move up in the world of Tokyo Hostess clubs. Matsumoto published ...

92. Nagisa Ôshima

Director | Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence

Nagisa Oshima's career extends from the initiation of the "Nuberu bagu" (New Wave) movement in Japanese cinema in the late 1950s and early 1960s, to the contemporary use of cinema and television to express paradoxes in modern society. After an early involvement with the student protest movement in ...

93. Anthony Perkins

Actor | Psycho

Anthony Perkins was born April 4, 1932 in New York City, to Janet Esselstyn (Rane) and Osgood Perkins, an actor of both stage and film. His father died when he was five. Anthony's paternal great-grandfather was engraver Andrew Varick Stout Anthony. Perkins attended the Brooks School, the Browne & ...

94. Andrei Tarkovsky

Writer | Offret

The most famous Soviet film-maker since Sergei Eisenstein, Andrei Tarkovsky (the son of noted poet Arseniy Tarkovsky) studied music and Arabic in Moscow before enrolling in the Soviet film school VGIK. He shot to international attention with his first feature, Ivan's Childhood (1962), which won the...

95. Elaine May

Actress | Small Time Crooks

Elaine May (born under the name Elaine Iva Berlin) is an American actress, comedian, film director, playwright, and screenwriter from Philadelphia. Her professional career started in the 1950s and is still ongoing. She has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. She ...

96. John Glen

Director | For Your Eyes Only

He started on the Shepperton Studios cutting rooms in 1948 working on such as 'The Wooden Horse' and 'The Third Man' before moving to Nettlefold Studios where his stay was interrupted by two years National Service after which he joined Group 3 at Beaconsfield . His next move was becoming sound ...

97. Anne Claire Poirier

Producer | Mourir à tue-tête

Born in Montreal. Study first in Law but turn to the Conservatoire d'art dramatique. She works on TV at the Societe Radio-Canada as an actress, an interviewer, a writer. Enters the Office du film du Canada in 1960 in the Translation's Office. From edition to production then direction, she becomes a...

98. George Sluizer

Director | Spoorloos

George Sluizer was born on June 25, 1932 in Paris, France. He was a director and producer, known for The Vanishing (1988), La balsa de piedra (2002) and Dying to Go Home (1996). He was married to Anne Sluizer. He died on September 20, 2014 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands.

99. Barbara Loden

Actress | Wanda

A one-time pin-up beauty and magazine story model, Barbara Loden studied acting in New York in the early 50s and was on the Broadway boards within the decade. She was discovered for films by legendary producer/director Elia Kazan who was impressed with what she did in a small role as Montgomery ...

100. Aleksandr Askoldov

Director | Komissar

Aleksandr Askoldov was born on July 17, 1932 in Kiev, Ukraine, USSR. He was a director and actor, known for The Commissar (1967), La chasse aux papillons (1992) and Tal cual (1988). He was married to Svetlana. He died on May 21, 2018 in Gothenburg, Sweden.