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George Stevens is a Actor, Director, Scriptwriter, Producer, Director of Photography, Editor and Cinematography American born on 18 december 1904 at Oakland (USA)

George Stevens

George Stevens
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Nationality USA
Birth 18 december 1904 at Oakland (USA)
Death 8 march 1975 (at 70 years) at Lancaster (USA)
Awards Academy Award for Best Director

George Stevens (December 18, 1904 – March 8, 1975) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer.

Among his most notable films are A Place in the Sun (1951; winner of six Academy Awards including Best Director), Shane (1953; Oscar nominated), Giant (1956; Oscar for Best Director), and Diary of Anne Frank (1959; nominated for Best Director).

Biography

Film career
He was born in Oakland, California, and his family included his father Landers Stevens and his mother Georgie Cooper, both stage actors. His uncle was drama critic Ashton Stevens. He also had two brothers, Jack and writer Aston Stevens. He learned about the stage from his parents and worked and toured with them, on his way to filmmaking. He broke into the movie business as a cameraman, working on many Laurel and Hardy short films, such as Night Owls (1930). His first feature film was The Cohens and Kellys in Trouble in 1933.

In 1934 he got his first directing job, the slapstick Kentucky Kernels. His big break came when he directed Katharine Hepburn in Alice Adams in 1935. He went on in the late 1930s to direct several Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire movies, not only with the two actors together, but on their own. In 1940, he directed Carole Lombard in Vigil in the Night, and the film has an alternate ending for European audiences in recognition of World War II, which the US had not yet entered.

During World War II, Stevens joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps and headed a film unit from 1943 to 1946, under General Eisenhower. His unit shot footage documenting D-Day—including the only Allied European Front color film of the war—the liberation of Paris and the meeting of American and Soviet forces at the Elbe River, as well as horrific scenes from the Duben labor camp and the Dachau concentration camp. Stevens also helped prepare the Duben and Dachau footage and other material for presentation during the Nuremberg Trials. In 2008, his footage was entered into the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as an "essential visual record" of World War II.

One result of his World War II experiences was that his subsequent films became more dramatic. I Remember Mama in 1948 was the last movie that he made with comic scenes. He was responsible for such classic films as A Place in the Sun, Shane, The Diary of Anne Frank, Giant and The Greatest Story Ever Told. He ended his directing career with the 1970 film The Only Game in Town with Warren Beatty and Elizabeth Taylor. In the same year, he was head of the jury at the 20th Berlin International Film Festival. In 1973 he was a member of the jury at the 8th Moscow International Film Festival.


Personal life
Stevens was the father of television and film writer-producer-director George Stevens, Jr., the first CEO and director of the American Film Institute, He produced and directed the documentary George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey in 1984 and is the father of Stevens' grandson Michael Stevens, also a television and film producer-director.


Death
Stevens died following a heart attack on March 8, 1975 on his ranch in Lancaster, California, north of Los Angeles.

Best films

Giant (1956)
(Director)
Shane (1953)
(Director)
A Place in the Sun (1951)
(Director)
Woman of the Year (1942)
(Director)
Swing Time (1936)
(Director)
The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)
(Director)

Usually with

Leo McCarey
Leo McCarey
(18 films)
Hal Roach
Hal Roach
(20 films)
Stan Laurel
Stan Laurel
(21 films)
Fred Guiol
Fred Guiol
(13 films)
Oliver Hardy
Oliver Hardy
(19 films)
Source : Wikidata

Filmography of George Stevens (55 films)

Display filmography as list

Actor

Hollywood Without Make-Up
Directed by Ken Murray
Origin USA
Genres Documentary
Themes Documentary films about business, Documentary films about the film industry, Documentary films about cities
Actors Kirk Douglas, Ken Murray, Cary Grant, June Allyson, George K. Arthur, Eddie Albert
Roles Self (archive footage)
Rating71% 3.578353.578353.578353.578353.57835
The film consists of archive footage of famous Hollywood stars, mostly home movies showing the stars as themselves instead of playing a role in front of the camera.
Shane
Shane (1953)
, 1h58
Directed by George Stevens
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Action, Adventure, Western
Actors Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon deWilde, Jack Palance, Edith Evanson
Roles Knock Him Into That Pigpen, Chris! (voice) (uncredited)
Rating75% 3.798433.798433.798433.798433.79843
Shane (Alan Ladd), a skilled, laconic gunslinger with a mysterious past, rides out of the desert and into an isolated valley in the sparsely settled state of Wyoming some time after enactment of the Homestead Act of 1862. At dinner with a pioneer homesteader, Joe Starrett (Van Heflin) and his wife, Marian (Jean Arthur), he learns that a war of intimidation is being waged on the valley's homesteaders. The ruthless cattle baron Rufus Ryker (Emile Meyer) is trying to run them out and seize their land. Starrett offers Shane a job, and he accepts.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 1h22
Directed by John S. Robertson
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Science fiction, Horror
Themes Serial killer films
Actors John Barrymore, Martha Mansfield, Brandon Hurst, Nita Naldi, Charles Lane, Charles Lane
Roles Poole der Butler
Rating68% 3.4478753.4478753.4478753.4478753.447875
Henry Jekyll (John Barrymore) is a doctor of medicine, but he is also an "idealist, philanthropist." When he is not treating the poor in his free clinic, he is in his laboratory experimenting. Sir George Carew (Brandon Hurst), the father of his fiancée, Millicent (Martha Mansfield), is "piqued" by Dr. Jekyll. "No man could be as good as he looks," Carew says.

Director

The Only Game in Town, 1h53
Directed by George Stevens
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Romance
Themes Films based on plays, Children's films
Actors Elizabeth Taylor, Warren Beatty, Hank Henry, Olga Valery
Rating57% 2.8523852.8523852.8523852.8523852.852385
Aging Las Vegas chorine Fran Walker (Taylor) drifts into an affair with lounge pianist and compulsive gambler Joe Grady (Beatty) while waiting for her married lover, San Francisco businessman Thomas Lockwood, to finalize the divorce he has been promising to get for the past five years.
The Diary of Anne Frank, 2h55
Directed by Nina Foch, George Stevens, David S. Hall
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Biography, Comedy, Historical, Romance
Themes Films about religion, Théâtre, Political films, Films about Jews and Judaism, Films based on plays, Children's films
Actors Douglas Spencer, Millie Perkins, Lou Jacobi, Joseph Schildkraut, Shelley Winters, Richard Beymer
Rating73% 3.6967953.6967953.6967953.6967953.696795
In 1945, as a truckload of war survivors stops in front of an Amsterdam factory at the end of World War II, Otto Frank (Joseph Schildkraut) gets out and walks inside. After climbing the stairs to a deserted garret, Otto finds a girl's discarded glove and sobs, then is joined and comforted by Miep Gies (Dodie Heath) and Mr. Kraler (Douglas Spencer), factory workers who shielded him from the Nazis. After stating that he is now all alone, Otto begins to search for the diary written by his youngest daughter, Anne. Miep promptly retrieves the journal for Otto, and he receives solace reading the words written by his young daughter three years earlier.
Giant
Giant (1956)
, 3h21
Directed by Fred Guiol, George Stevens
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Action, Romance, Western
Themes Films about families, Films about racism
Actors Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, Carroll Baker, Nick Adams, Mercedes McCambridge
Rating75% 3.7997953.7997953.7997953.7997953.799795
The movie follows a Texas family over a quarter century from the 1920s until after World War II. Themes of discrimination along race, class and gender lines, as well as the role they played in the social evolution of post-war Texas, are prominent.
Shane
Shane (1953)
, 1h58
Directed by George Stevens
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Action, Adventure, Western
Actors Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon deWilde, Jack Palance, Edith Evanson
Rating75% 3.798433.798433.798433.798433.79843
Shane (Alan Ladd), a skilled, laconic gunslinger with a mysterious past, rides out of the desert and into an isolated valley in the sparsely settled state of Wyoming some time after enactment of the Homestead Act of 1862. At dinner with a pioneer homesteader, Joe Starrett (Van Heflin) and his wife, Marian (Jean Arthur), he learns that a war of intimidation is being waged on the valley's homesteaders. The ruthless cattle baron Rufus Ryker (Emile Meyer) is trying to run them out and seize their land. Starrett offers Shane a job, and he accepts.
A Place in the Sun, 2h2
Directed by George Stevens, Charles C. Coleman, Gerd Oswald
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Crime, Romance
Themes Théâtre, Films based on plays
Actors Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters, Anne Revere, Keefe Brasselle, Fred Clark
Rating76% 3.8465453.8465453.8465453.8465453.846545
George Eastman (Montgomery Clift), the poor nephew of rich industrialist Charles Eastman (Herbert Heyes), arrives in town following a chance encounter with his uncle while working as a bellhop in a Chicago hotel. The elder Eastman invites George to visit him if and when he ever comes to town, and the ambitious young man takes advantage of the offer. Despite George's family relationship to the Eastmans, they regard him as something of an outsider, but his uncle nevertheless offers him an entry-level job at his factory. George, uncomplaining, hopes to impress his uncle (whom he addresses as "Mr. Eastman") with his hard work and earn his way up. While working in the factory, George starts dating fellow factory worker Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters), in defiance of the workplace rules. Alice is a poor and inexperienced girl who is dazzled by George and slow to believe that his Eastman name brings him no advantages.
On Our Merry Way, 1h47
Directed by John Huston, George Stevens, King Vidor, Leslie Fenton
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Comedy-drama, Musical, Romance
Themes Films about music and musicians, Musical films
Actors Paulette Goddard, Burgess Meredith, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Fred MacMurray, Dorothy Lamour
Rating57% 2.852742.852742.852742.852742.85274
Oliver Pease, qui a menti à sa femme sur ce qu'il fait exactement au journal pour lequel il travaille, se voit obligé d'enquêter auprès du public sur "Quelle influence a eu un petit enfant sur votre vie ?". Il va recueillir ainsi différentes histoires...
I Remember Mama, 2h14
Directed by George Stevens
Origin USA
Genres Drama
Themes Films based on plays
Actors Irene Dunne, Barbara Bel Geddes, Oskar Homolka, Ellen Corby, Cedric Hardwicke, Philip Dorn
Rating78% 3.94393.94393.94393.94393.9439
The film begins with eldest daughter Katrin completing the last lines of her autobiographical novel. As she reminisces about her family life, we flashback to 1910, where the first of a series of vignettes finds Marta Hanson preparing the weekly budget with her husband Lars, daughters Katrin, Christine and Dagmar, and son Nels, who announces his desire to attend high school. Each family member makes a financial sacrifice to contribute to the boy's education.
The Nazi Plan
Directed by George Stevens
Origin USA
Genres Documentary
Themes Films about racism, Films about religion, Documentary films about racism, Documentary films about law, Documentary films about war, Documentary films about historical events, Documentaire sur une personnalité, Documentary films about religion, Political films, Films about Jews and Judaism, Documentary films about World War II
Rating67% 3.359113.359113.359113.359113.35911
The film's central footage and themes "relied heavily" on the work of German film maker Leni Riefenstahl, in particular the 1935 movie Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will).
Keeper of the Flame, 1h40
Directed by George Stevens, George Cukor
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller
Actors Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Richard Whorf, Margaret Wycherly, Forrest Tucker, Darryl Hickman
Rating66% 3.348283.348283.348283.348283.34828
When national hero Robert Forrest is killed in an automobile accident, the entire United States goes into deep mourning. Admirer and renowned journalist Stephen O'Malley (Spencer Tracy) returns from Europe to write a biography of the great man. Among the throngs covering the funeral, he finds his old friends and fellow reporters, Jane Harding (Audrey Christie) and Freddie Ridges (Stephen McNally). They remain after the rest of the press leave.