This is a temporary biography.  I copied it from an old talk I did in my English class.  Its a little inaccurate in places but I'll soon have a better one on the way.

Over three decades Steven Spielberg has risen from the ranks of Hollywood to become one of the most popular and distinguished directors of our time and offering some of the most memorable films in history.

He was born in 1946 into a Jewish family headed by his mother Leah and father Arnold Spielberg. His aspirations to become a director flourished in his pre-teen years when he took control of his father's 8mm video camera. He showed a degree of skill and made a number of short films in his teens, though they would hardly be seen as masterpieces.

His career began in the late sixties when he broke off from a tour at a major Hollywood studio and began wandering the lot. He was approached by an executive who was so impressed by his passion to be a filmmaker that he promised to find him work.

His first assignment was a segment in a twilight zone-style anthology series called The Night Galley. He stayed in the ranks of television for some time, before achieving his big break with Duel, a short story he had discovered and which he persuaded studio heads to let him make. It was only a TV movie, but it became so popular that it was released in cinemas in Europe.

He then made a film called The Sugarland Express, but this went relatively unnoticed. He found Jaws and was determined to make it. He did, but only after a nightmarish shoot. It became the top-grossing film of all time (a title that would be taken away by another Spielberg movie years later) and he had created a new genre, the blockbuster.

Spielberg's career was now in full swing. He made Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977 and it proved to be a massive audience draw. He made a preferably forgettable comedy in 1979 before directing the first of three Indiana Jones films, Raiders of the Lost Ark, in 1980. He hit a career high in 1982 when Poltergeist and the phenomenally successful E.T. were released simultaneously. The films showed the two sides of Spielberg: one was a veritable fright-fest about ghosts besieging a family home, the other was a bittersweet fantasy about a young boy who befriends a friendly alien.

Spielberg directed a segment of The Twilight Zone - The Movie before another Indiana Jones adventure. He then adapted two novels for the screen. Alice Walker's The Color Purple and J.G. Ballard's Empire of the Sun. Both were panned by critics who accused him of turning two dark novels into two light-hearted, decidedly Spielbergian fairy stories.

Spielberg made the final Indiana Jones film before remaking his favourite film, A Guy Named Joe, as Always. He then made Hook, a modern-day twist on the peter pan tale. But it was not until Jurassic Park that he was acclaimed with having another winner on his hands. It triumphed at the box office at became a worldwide obsession.

He went on to make the deadly serious Schindler's List, a shocking film based on the harrowing non-fiction best seller. It was praised by critics, who noted that Spielberg had now matured as a director.

Spielberg has gone from strength to strength since then. His sequel to Jurassic Park, The Lost World, was recently released and his new company Dreamworks recently released their new movie The Peacemaker. His film Amistad will be released in cinemas soon, and looks to be on the same par as Schindler's List. He career looks set to continue to be a success story from there.

Sorry...it'll be ready soon!