Stanley Kubrick Biography

Stanley Kubrick was born on July 26, 1928 in the Bronx, New York City. At thirteen, his hobbies were jazz drumming, playing chess, and photography. He went to William Taft High School, where he played in the school band and wrote for the school newspaper. While he was still in high school, he began selling photos to Look magazine. He graduated high school in 1946 with a 67% average, and could not get into college because of his low grades.

When he was seventeen he landed a job with Look magazine as a photographer. He worked there for several years, and traveled all over America. In his travels he developed a thirst for knowledge, and enrolled as a non-matriculating student at Columbia University. He also began attending film showings at the Museum of Modern Art as often as they changed the program.

At twenty-three, Kubrick used his savings to finance his first film, a sixteen-minute documentary about Walter Cartier. RKO bought Day of the Fight for its "This is America" series. It played at the Paramount Theater in New York, making Kubrick a profit.

Kubrick then quit his job at Look to pursue a career making films. RKO gave him advance money to make a documentary short for their "Pathe Screenliner" series. Nine minutes long, The Flying Padre was about Father Fred Stadmueller, a priest who flew around his 400-mile New Mexico parish in a Piper Cub.

In 1953 Kubrick was commisioned by the Atlantic and Gulf Coast District of Seafarers to direct a thirty-minute industrial documentary. It was his first film in color.

In 1953, he raised $13,000 from his relatives to finance his first feature-length film Fear and Desire. Two years later, he raised $40,000 from friends and relatives and shot his second feature, Killer's Kiss. The next year, he teamed up with budding producer James B. Harris and went to Holly wood to make his first studio picture, The Killing. It had a budget of $320, 000, and a cast of notable actors. Kubrick and Harris were soon signed by Dore Share, head of production at MGM.

With Calder Willingham, Kubrick developed a script based on the Stefan Zweig story The Burning Secret. The project was never made. Next, Kubrick and Willingham wrote an adaptation of Humphrey Cobb's novel Paths of Glory. Every studio turned it down until Kirk Douglas agreed to star. The result was Kubrick's first classic, and has been called one of the greatest films ever made.

Kubrick spent the next couple of years creating scripts he couldn't get produced. He then spent six months in preproduction with Marlon Brando for One Eyed Jack, a film Brando eventually decided to produce himself.

In 1959, Kirk Douglas was producing Spartacus. The original director had been fired after only two weeks. Douglas offered Kubrick the job, which he accepted. Spartacus was Kubrick's first hit, and it got some Academy Award attention.

Next Kubrick made Lolita, based on the controversial Vladimir Nabokov novel. They had bought the rights to the novel in 1958, for a reported $150,000. For a number of financial and legal reasons, the film was made in England. In the late '60s, Kubrick moved to England permanently, and made all of his subsequent films there.

Kubrick and Harris ended their partnership after Lolita so they could work independently. A fascination over "the delicate balance of terror" of the cold war led Kubrick to the novel Red Alert, which he adapted to the nightmare comedy Dr. Strangelove.

After Dr. Strangelove, Kubrick hired noted noted sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke to develop a scenario about man's encounter with extraterrestial intelligence. 2001: A Space Odyssey, generally considered not only one of the greatest films ever made, but a landmark in cinematic history. Kubrick received more Oscar nominations for writing and directing, and his only Oscar win ever, for designing the film's special effects.

Kubrick then adapted Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange. Despite its initial X-rating in the U.S., the controversial film recieved much attention, including three Oscar nominations.

After two futuristic films, Kubrick changed direction and did Barry Lydon, based on the story by William Makepeace Thackery. The $11 million costume drama may not have been a box office success, but it piled up seven Oscar nominations, more than any Kubrick film before or since.

In 1980 Kubrick released his contribute to the horror genre, The Shining. Based on the Stephen King novel, it was a financial success but the critics were not as receptive.

Seven years later, Kubrick released Full Metal Jacket. It was a box office success and a critical favorite, but received only one Oscar nomination, for writing. On the heels of Full metal Jacket's release, Kubrick gave Rolling Stone an interview where he refuted many of the rumors of his eccentric behavior. He also became involved in supervising transfers of some of his films for the home video market, and making new negatives for Dr. Strangelove.

He began a project called A.I.(Artificial Intelligence), but put it on hold because of its special effects requirements. He bagan working on a film called Aryan Papers, based on Louis Begley's Wartime Lies. It was then put on hold afyer Kubrick watched the film Jurassic Park. Kubrick decided that computerized special effects, like those in J.P., would work well in his film A.I..

In December 1995, Warner Bros. released news that Kubrick was still in preproduction on A.I., and would first make a film entitled Eyes Wide Shut, starrinf Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman as married psychologists.

In September 1997, Kubrick was awarded the Golden Lion Award at the 54th Venice International Film Festival.

In March 1997 the Director's Guild of America gave Kubrick their highest honor, the Griffith Award.

Kubrick has said of his films, "I would not think of quarrelling with your interpretation nor offering any other, as I have always found it the best policy to allow the film to speak for itself."

Kubrick died of a heart attack on March 7, 1999, twenty-two months before 2001 actually came. His final film, Eyes Wide Shut, will be released on July 16, 1999.

Some Kubrickian Trivia:

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