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

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', March 12, 1975, page 79. He received two

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1953. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for '' A Place in the Sun'' (1951), and ''

Giant In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: ''gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...

'' (1956). He was also Oscar-nominated for '' The Talk of the Town'', ''

The More the Merrier ''The More the Merrier'' is a 1943 American comedy film by Columbia Pictures starring Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea and Charles Coburn, and directed by George Stevens. The film script — from "Two's a Crowd", an original screenplay by Garson Kan ...

'' (1943), ''

Shane Shane may refer to: People * Shane (actress) (born 1969), American pornographic actress * Shane (New Zealand singer) (born 1946) * iamnotshane (born 1995), formerly known as Shane, American singer * Shane (name) Shane is mainly a masculine g ...

'' (1953), and ''

The Diary of Anne Frank ''The Diary of a Young Girl'', also known as ''The Diary of Anne Frank'', is a book of the writings from the Dutch-language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherl ...

'' (1959). Among his most notable films are ''

Swing Time In music, the term ''swing'' has two main uses. Colloquially, it is used to describe the propulsive quality or "feel" of a rhythm, especially when the music prompts a visceral response such as foot-tapping or head-nodding (see pulse). This sens ...

'' (1936), '' Gunga Din'' (1939), ''

Woman of the Year ''Woman of the Year'' is a 1942 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by George Stevens and starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. The film was written by Ring Lardner Jr. and Michael Kanin (with uncredited work on the rewritten ...

'' (1942), and ''

The Greatest Story Ever Told ''The Greatest Story Ever Told'' is a 1965 American epic film produced and directed by George Stevens. It is a retelling of the Biblical account about Jesus of Nazareth, from the Nativity through to the Ascension. Along with the ensemble cast ...

'' (1965).

Early life

Stevens was born on December 18, 1904, in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, the son of

Landers Stevens John Landers Stevens (1877–1940) was an American stage and film actor. A character actor he appeared in prominent screen roles in the early 1920s before switching to smaller supporting parts, often authority figures, in the following decade. ...

and Georgie Cooper, both stage actors. Drama critic Ashton Stevens and film director James W. Horne were his uncles. He also had two brothers,

Jack Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas, USA People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, ...

, a cinematographer, and writer Aston Stevens. He learned about the stage by watching his parents, and himself acted in plays in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

.''George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey'' (1984) At the age of 10, his mother gave him a Brownie camera, and he began photographing the city and portraits of his mother.

Career

1930–1939

At the age of 17, Hal Roach Studios employed him as an assistant cameraman filming Rex the Wonder Horse in Utah. Stevens helped grant Stan Laurel a film career, as the studio had trouble getting the comedian's blue eyes to register on film, but Stevens made a successful test of him using

panchromatic film Panchromatic emulsion is a type of black-and-white photographic emulsion that is sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light. Description A panchromatic emulsion renders a realistic reproduction of a scene as it appears to the human eye, alth ...

. He worked as

director of photography The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...

and a gag writer on 35 Laurel and Hardy short films, such as '' Bacon Grabbers'' (1929) and '' Night Owls'' (1930); according to Stevens he learned from this experience that comedy could be "graceful and human". In 1928, he met Yvonne Howell in Oliver Hardy's home; they were married on January 1, 1930. In the early 1930s, Stevens began to disagree with Roach's studio, wanting to flesh out characters rather than just make slapstick comedy. This led to a suspension and his departure from the studio. In 1933, he directed his first feature film, ''

The Cohens and Kellys in Trouble ''The Cohens and Kellys in Trouble'' is a 1933 American pre-Code comedy film starring Charlie Murray, Andy Devine, and Maureen O'Sullivan. It is the last film in the ''Cohens and Kellys'' series and the first director credit for George Steven ...

'', for

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

George Stevens and Barbara Bel Geddes I Remember Mama

In 1934, Stevens was hired by RKO Pictures, and he directed the slapstick film ''

Kentucky Kernels ''Kentucky Kernels'' is a 1934 American comedy directed by George Stevens and starring the comedy duo of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey. The screenplay was written by Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, and Fred Guiol, from a story by Kalmar and Ruby. ...

'', starring

Wheeler and Woolsey Wheeler & Woolsey were an American vaudeville comedy double act who performed together in comedy films from the late 1920s. The team comprised Bert Wheeler (1895–1968) of New Jersey and Robert Woolsey (1888–1938) of Illinois. Collaboration ...

. His big break came when he directed Katharine Hepburn the next year in '' Alice Adams''; according to Hepburn, Stevens felt that she got him the job. He would subsequently make seven films for the studio in five years. In the late 1930s, he directed

Fred Astaire Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and singer. He is often called the greatest dancer in Hollywood film history. Astaire's career in stage, film, and tele ...

and

Ginger Rogers Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starri ...

together in the musical ''

'' and separately in '' A Damsel in Distress'' and ''

Vivacious Lady ''Vivacious Lady'' is a 1938 American black-and-white romantic comedy film directed by George Stevens and starring Ginger Rogers and James Stewart. It was released by RKO Radio Pictures. The screenplay was written by P.J. Wolfson and Ernest Paga ...

'', respectively. In 1939, Stevens directed

Cary Grant Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English-American actor. He was known for his Mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. He was one o ...

in the large-scale '' Gunga Din'', costing over $1 million as RKO's most expensive film to date; though the studio feared its ballooning budget, it ended up a profitable success.

1940–1949

In 1940, he directed Carole Lombard in ''

Vigil in the Night ''Vigil in the Night'' is a 1940 RKO Pictures drama film based on the 1939 serialized novel '' Vigil in the Night'' by A. J. Cronin. The film was produced and directed by George Stevens and stars Carole Lombard, Brian Aherne and Anne Shirley. ...

''. In 1942, he reunited with Hepburn at her behest to film ''

''. Stevens served as president of the

Screen Directors Guild The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Directors Guild in 1936, the group mer ...

(SDG) from 1941 to 1943. He directed the romantic comedy ''

'' starring

Jean Arthur Jean Arthur (born Gladys Georgianna Greene; October 17, 1900 – June 19, 1991) was an American Broadway and film actress whose career began in silent films in the early 1920s and lasted until the early 1950s. Arthur had feature roles in three F ...

Joel McCrea Joel Albert McCrea (November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990) was an American actor whose career spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and Westerns, for which he bec ...

and

Charles Coburn Charles Douville Coburn (June 19, 1877 – August 30, 1961) was an American actor and theatrical producer. He was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award three times – in ''The Devil and Miss Jones'' (1941), '' The More the M ...

for which he received an Academy Award for Best Director nomination losing to

Michael Curtiz Michael Curtiz ( ; born Manó Kaminer; since 1905 Mihály Kertész; hu, Kertész Mihály; December 24, 1886 April 10, 1962) was a Hungarian-American film director, recognized as one of the most prolific directors in history. He directed cla ...

for '' Casablanca''. After seeing the

Nazi propaganda The propaganda used by the German Nazi Party in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's dictatorship of Germany from 1933 to 1945 was a crucial instrument for acquiring and maintaining power, and for the implementation of Nazi polici ...

film ''

Triumph of the Will ''Triumph of the Will'' (german: Triumph des Willens) is a 1935 German Nazi propaganda film directed, produced, edited and co-written by Leni Riefenstahl. Adolf Hitler commissioned the film and served as an unofficial executive producer; his n ...

'' (1935), he was provoked to join the Allied forces in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. He joined the

U.S. Army Signal Corps ) , colors = Orange and white , colors_label = Corps colors , march = , mascot = , equipment = , equipment_label = ...

and headed a film unit from 1943 to 1946, under General

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

. His unit shot footage—including the only color film of the war in Europe (which remained archived for decades)—documenting the

Normandy landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and ...

(D-Day), the liberation of Paris, the meeting of American and Soviet forces at the Elbe River, and the Allied discovery of both the Duben labor camp and Dachau concentration camp. Stevens helped prepare the Duben and Dachau footage and other material for presentation during the

Nuremberg Trials The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II. Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany invaded m ...

; this was released as the hour-long ''Nazi Concentration'' ''Camps'' (1945). In 2008, Stevens's footage was entered into the U.S.

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...

by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

as an "essential visual record" of the war. In 1946, Stevens resumed his duties as president of the SDG, remaining so until 1948. As a result of his experiences during the war, his films became more dramatic. The drama '' I Remember Mama'' (1948) was only partly comedic.

1950–1975

In 1950, during the

McCarthyist McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner. The term origina ...

scare and related

Hollywood blacklist The Hollywood blacklist was an entertainment industry blacklist, broader than just Hollywood, put in effect in the mid-20th century in the United States during the early years of the Cold War. The blacklist involved the practice of denying empl ...

, Stevens defended

Joseph L. Mankiewicz Joseph Leo Mankiewicz (; February 11, 1909 – February 5, 1993) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Mankiewicz had a long Hollywood career, and won both the Academy Award for Best Director and the Academy Award for Best A ...

from

Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cine ...

's attempt to recall him as president of the SDG. Stevens went on to direct and earn two

for

Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to: Film awards * AACTA Award for Best Direction * Academy Award for Best Director * BA ...

for '' A Place in the Sun'' (1951) starring

Montgomery Clift Edward Montgomery Clift (; October 17, 1920 – July 23, 1966) was an American actor. A four-time Academy Award nominee, he was known for his portrayal of "moody, sensitive young men", according to ''The New York Times''. He is best remembered ...

and Elizabeth Taylor, the epic Western drama ''

'' (1956) Elizabeth Taylor,

Rock Hudson Rock Hudson (born Roy Harold Scherer Jr.; November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985) was an American actor. One of the most popular movie stars of his time, he had a screen career spanning more than three decades. A prominent heartthrob in the Golde ...

and James Dean. For those films he also earned nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Director. Stevens also directed the Western ''

'' (1953) starring Alan Ladd and

, the biographical

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

drama ''

'' (1959), and his biblical epic of

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...

, ''

'' (1965). In 1960 he earned the Directors Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award. That same year he earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He ended his directing career with the 1970 romantic comedy-drama '' The Only Game in Town'' with

Warren Beatty Henry Warren Beatty (né Beaty; born March 30, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker, whose career spans over six decades. He was nominated for 15 Academy Awards, including four for Best Actor, four for Best Picture, two for Best Director, ...

and Elizabeth Taylor. That year, he was head of the jury at the

20th Berlin International Film Festival The 20th annual Berlin International Film Festival was supposed to be held from 26 June to 7 July 1970. The festival opened with ''Klann – grand guignol'' by Patrick Ledoux. However, on 5 July the competition was cancelled and no major prizes ...

, which ended in scandal. In 1973, he was a member of the jury at the 8th Moscow International Film Festival.

Personal life

During his time filming wild horses with Hal Roach Studios in Utah, Stevens bonded with the Comanche. Stevens was the father of television and film writer-producer-director George Stevens, Jr., the founder of the American Film Institute (AFI). George Jr. produced and directed the documentary about his father ''George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey'' in 1984 and is the father of Stevens's grandson Michael Stevens (1966–2015), who was also a television and film producer-director.

Death

Stevens died following a heart attack on March 8, 1975, on his ranch in

Lancaster, California Lancaster is a charter city in northern Los Angeles County, in the Antelope Valley of the western Mojave Desert in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 173,516, making Lancaster the 153rd largest city in the United ...

, north of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the

Hollywood Hills The Hollywood Hills are a residential neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Geography The Hollywood Hills straddle the Cahuenga Pass within the Santa Monica Mountains. The neighborhood touches Studio City, Univer ...

of Los Angeles.

Filmography

Short films

Feature films

Awards and honors

Academy Awards As a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, Stevens headed the Signal Corps unit that filmed D-Day and the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp. For these contributions, he was awarded the Legion of Merit. Stevens has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1701 Vine Street. He won the Academy Award for Best Director twice, in 1951 for ''A Place in the Sun'' and in 1956 for ''Giant''. He was also nominated in 1943 for ''

'', in 1954 for ''Shane'', and in 1959 for ''The Diary of Anne Frank''. He also received both the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award and the

Lifetime Achievement Award Lifetime achievement awards are awarded by various organizations, to recognize contributions over the whole of a career, rather than or in addition to single contributions. Such awards, and organizations presenting them, include: A * A.C. ...

from the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...

(1954). He also received the National Board of Review Award for Best Director and the

New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director The New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director is an award given by the New York Film Critics Circle, honoring the finest achievements in filmmaking. In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, the New York Film Critics Circle rarely made the same ...

References

External links

*
George Stevens: Movie Movie

George Stevens papers
Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences {{DEFAULTSORT:Stevens, George 1904 births 1975 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters Activists from California American cinematographers American film directors American male screenwriters Best Directing Academy Award winners Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) Directors Guild of America Award winners Film directors from California Film producers from California Golden Globe Award-winning producers Military personnel from California Presidents of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Presidents of the Directors Guild of America Recipients of the Legion of Merit Screenwriters from California United States Army officers United States Army personnel of World War II United States Army Signal Corps personnel Western (genre) film directors Writers from Oakland, California