Joseph Ruben

Born: 1951
Where: Briafcliff, New York, USA

The director with a dark side had his first mainstream with the Julia Roberts thriller Sleeping With The Enemy.

After studying theatre and film at the University of Michegan, Ruben made his feature debut in 1974 with bleak drama The Sister-in-Law.

He switched styles to comedy for The Pom Pom Girls with Robert Carradine and then action adventure for Joyride with Carradine and Melanie Griffith.

Subsequent movies include the drama Our Winning Season, the Dennis Quaid comedy Gorp and the sci-fi thriller Dreamscape (again with Quaid).

In 1987's The Stepfather, Terry O'Quinn created a cult figure out of the seemingly innocent father who is really a serial killer.

James Woods and Robert Downey Jr starred in the drama True Believer while Roberts was the estranged wife terrorised by her ex-husband in Sleeping With The Enemy.

In 1993's Ian McEwan-scriped The Good Son, Macaulay Culkin teamed up with Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood for the sibling thriller.

Action comedy Money Train starred Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson while Return to Paradise recounted the fate of drug smugglers in Malaysia.

In 2004, Julianne Moore starred as the mother who clings on to the memory of her dead son in the psychological thriller The Forgotten.