Filmmakers
28 people, across 3 fields.
Charlie Chaplin 1889–1977Film, Television & ComedyBritish-American actor and filmmaker whose Tramp character became an icon of the silent film era.
Steven Spielberg b. 1946Film, Television & ComedyDirector and producer whose blockbusters and dramas have defined American cinema for five decades.
Andy Warhol 1928–1987Visual Arts & DesignPop art pioneer whose Campbell's soup cans and celebrity portraits defined contemporary American art.
Alfred Hitchcock 1899–1980Film, Television & ComedyDirector whose Hollywood films and television presence defined modern suspense and influenced generations of American filmmakers.
George Lucas b. 1944Film, Television & ComedyFilmmaker who created Star Wars and Indiana Jones, later selling Lucasfilm to Disney for over $4 billion.
Orson Welles 1915–1985Film, Television & ComedyDirector, actor, and broadcaster whose innovations in film, radio, and theater reshaped American visual and dramatic storytelling.
Stanley Kubrick 1928–1999Film, Television & ComedyDirector whose technically ambitious films redefined science fiction, war, horror, and cinematic authorship.
Martin Scorsese b. 1942Film, Television & ComedyDirector and preservation advocate whose films and institutions have shaped both American cinema and understanding of its history.
Clint Eastwood b. 1930Film, Television & ComedyActor and director whose Westerns and gritty dramas, from Dirty Harry to Unforgiven, defined American masculinity.
Jim Henson 1936–1990Film, Television & ComedyCreator of the Muppets and a central figure in Sesame Street and family television.
Tom Cruise b. 1962Film, Television & ComedyAction superstar and producer whose Mission: Impossible franchise and box office dominance span four decades.
Sidney Poitier 1927–2022Film, Television & ComedyFirst Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, breaking barriers in Hollywood.
Gene Kelly 1912–1996Film, Television & ComedyDanced in a T-shirt instead of tails, co-directed Singin' in the Rain, and rebuilt how dance is filmed.
Quentin Tarantino b. 1963Film, Television & ComedyDirector of Pulp Fiction
Buster Keaton 1895–1966Film, Television & ComedySilent-film comedian and director whose visual precision, stunts, and deadpan style became foundational to screen comedy.
Denzel Washington b. 1954Film, Television & ComedyAcademy Award-winning actor and director regarded as one of the greatest actors of his generation.
Francis Ford Coppola b. 1939Film, Television & ComedyDirector and producer whose landmark films helped define the New Hollywood era and modern American epic filmmaking.
John Ford 1894–1973Film, Television & ComedyDirector of Westerns and Depression dramas who won four directing Academy Awards.
Spike Lee b. 1957Film, Television & ComedyFour decades of American films about race that refuse to end in reconciliation.
Frank Capra 1897–1991Film, Television & ComedyThree directing Oscars in five years, and the Christmas film nobody wanted in 1946.
Harvey Weinstein b. 1952Notorious FiguresFilm producer convicted of sex crimes in New York and California
Robert Altman 1925–2006Film, Television & ComedyMade overlapping dialogue, drifting cameras and enormous casts into an American film language, lost Hollywood for a decade, and came back at 67.
Warren Beatty b. 1937Film, Television & ComedyProducing Bonnie and Clyde and directing Reds
Elia Kazan 1909–2003Film, Television & ComedyDirected A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman and On the Waterfront, and named names to HUAC.
Billy Wilder 1906–2002Film, Television & ComedyHollywood writer-director of Sunset Boulevard — Some Like It Hot and Double Indemnity.
Gordon Parks 1912–2006Visual Arts & DesignPhotographer for Life magazine and first Black director of a major Hollywood studio film.
Brad Pitt b. 1963Film, Television & ComedyActor and producer whose roles in Fight Club and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood made him a global star.
Jeff Skoll b. 1965Business, Finance & IndustryeBay's first president whose Skoll Foundation supports social entrepreneurs solving global problems.