Philip Kaufman
Born: 23rd October 1936
Where: Chicago, Illinois
Variety is the hallmark of this director and writer who attracted critical praise for The Right Stuff and the Unbearable Lightness of Being.
Away from the director's chair he has also earned plaudits as a writer, particularly for Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones series.
After spending a year on a Kibbutz in Israel, Kaufman returned to the US to study history at the University of Chicago, which he followed up with a degree from Harvard Law School.
After a stint in California trying to write a novel, he moved his family to Europe and taught English and Maths in Greece and Italy.
Kaufman's yet unfinished novel, Goldstein, was eventually turned into a feature which he co-wrote and directed upon his return to the US.
In 1964 Kaufman wrote and directed Jon Voight in his screen debut in Fearless Frank and soon moved to Hollywood under contract with Universal Studios, for whom he made The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid.
In 1977 Philip moved to San Francisco and began to develop the original story for Raiders of the Lost Ark with George Lucas.
The next year he made the acclaimed sci-fi thriller Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Wanderers, a cult hit about New Yoork gangs in The Bronx.
Then came what many consider to be his best film, The Right Stuff, which earned eight Oscar nominations, including one for Best Picture.
It was a further eight years before Philip received another Oscar nomination - this time for co-writing and directing the screenplay adaptation of The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
He followed this up two years later with the erotic drama Henry and June starring Uma Thurman and Fred Ward.
In 1993, he switched genres to make the Japan-set thriller Rising Sun with Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes.
Quills - Kaufman's biopic of the Marquis De Sade - starred Kate Winslet and Geoffrey Rush in the title role.
Recent work includes the lacklustre thriller Twisted, starring Ashley Judd as a police detective who has slept with a series of murder victims.
