Information on Stanley Kubrick
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THIS SECTION
Information on
Stanley Kubrick
brief biography
filmography
awards

The Shining
Section of FAQ
dealing specifically
with The Shining

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this section contents

Biography
Brief biography, concentrating on some salient facts of Kubrick's life.

Filmography
The films listed in chronological order.

Awards
A rundown of the recognition both Kubrick and his films have received from critics and industry peers.




biography

Stanley Kubrick was born July 26th, 1928, in The Bronx, New York. The son of a successful Manhattan physician father and a Rumanian born mother (his family name is most often pronounced "KOOB-rik"). His sister Barbara Mary was born in 1934.

Kubrick by his own admission was "a lonely child," and a "misfit in high school." His parents had wanted him to become a doctor but he graduated with a 70% average which fell short of the marks needed to get into medical college. Kubrick grew up on the Grand Concourse and 196th Street in the Bronx, attending Taft High School. His love of film began at an early age he would go to Loew's Paradise and R.K.O. Fordham twice a week to view the double features. He would later say of this experience: "One of the important things about seeing run-of-the-mill Hollywood films eight times a week was that many of them were so bad [...] Without even beginning to understand what the problems of making films were, I was taken with the impression that I could not do a film any worse than the ones I was seeing. I also felt I could, in fact, do them a lot better."

Kubrick said that everything good that happened in his life was by the sheerest stroke of luck. At the age of 13, his father bought him a stills camera and he soon became fascinated by photography. He soon became an excellent amateur photographer, selling his pictures to magazines whilst still at high school. Later when he was looking for a job, Helen O'Brien, a picture editor at "Look" magazine, whom Kubrick had befriended, asked him if he would like to be a junior photographer for $50 a week. After 6 months Kubrick made it to staff photographer. He travelled around the country and abroad (including Europe) and learned "a lot about people and things." In 1951 he made a documentary about the boxer Walter Cartier "Day of the Fight," which he sold to RKO for a small profit which started him on his movie making career.

Kubrick was married three times: to Toba Metz 1948-54, Ruth Sobtka 1955-1957 and Christiane Harlan 1958-99. Christiane, under the stage name of Susanne Christian, played the German peasant girl who sings for the soldiers at the end of Paths of Glory. She said, they were both in "grotesquely unhappy marriages and both in the throes of divorce" at the time of their meeting. The Kubrick's had three daughters; Katharina (Christiane's child from her previous marriage) Anya and Vivian. (1)

After leaving the US in the mid-sixties, Kubrick spent the remainder of his life with Christiane and their children in Abbots Mead and later Childwick Bury, both residences located on the outskirts of North London near the town of St. Albans. "It's very pleasant, very peaceful, very civilised, here," Mr. Kubrick said in an interview. "London is, in the best sense, the way New York must have been in about 1910. I have to live where I make my films and, as it has worked out, I have spent most of my time during the last 10 years in London."

Mr. Kubrick died at home in the Spring of 1999 of a heart attack, and is survived by his wife and daughters.

Sorces for information:
Biography on The Kubrick Site

Kubrick interviewed by Robert Emmett Ginna in 1962, published in the UK Guradian newspaper July 16 1999, available to read online at www.filmunlimited.co.uk

Notes:
(1) Vivian Kubrick who directed "Making the Shining" is also known as 'Abigail Mead,' the writer of the original music for "Full Metal Jacket".  (back)





filmography

"The Day of the Fight" (1951)

"The Flying Padre" (1951)

"The Seafarers" (1953)

"Fear and Desire" (1953)

"Killers Kiss" (1955)

"The Killing (1956)

"Paths of Glory" (1957)

"Spartacus" (1960)

"Lolita" (1962)

"Dr. Strangelove" (1963)

"2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968)

"A Clockwork Orange" (1971)

"Barry Lyndon" (1975)

"The Shining" (1980)

"Full Metal Jacket" (1987)

"Eyes Wide Shut" (1999)



awards

While scrolling through the information listed below, it's worth baring in mind that awards schemes are subjects to certain anomalies, for instance Time magazine did not compile a "10 best list" from 1962 through to 1968, so we don't know how they would have rated Lolita, Dr Strangelove or 2001.

Researching Kubrick's awards statistics reveals a few surprises, for instance Barry Lyndon, assumed by many critics to have been 'misunderstood and neglected' at the time of it's release, garnered the most awards of any Kubrick film.



  • Awards given to Stanley Kubrick personally


    (1998)
    DW Griffiths Lifetime Achievement Award from the Director's Guild of America.

    Note:
    For a transcript of Kubrick's acceptance speech go to:     Kubrick on Griffith and His Wings of Fortune


    (1999)
    Lifetime Achievement Award from the Director's Guild of Great Britain.




  • Awards given for Kubrick films


    (1957) Paths of Glory

    Time Magazine
    Appeared on Annual 10 Best List.

    (1960) Spartacus

    Oscars
    Winner
    Best Supporting actor
    (Peter Ustinov)

    Winner
    Best Cinematography (colour)
    (Russell Metty)

    Nominated
    Best Art Direction (Colour)
    (Eric Orbom, Russell A. Gausman, Julia Heron)


    Golden Globes
    Winner
    Best Motion Picture Drama


    Time Magazine
    Appeared on Annual 10 Best List.

    (1962) Lolita

    Oscars
    Nominated
    Best Screenplay based on material from another medium
    (Vladimir Nabakov)


    Golden Globes
    Nominated
    Most promising newcomer female
    (Sue Lyon)

    (1964) Dr Strangelove

    Oscars
    Nominated
    Best Picture

    Nominated
    Best Director
    (Stanley Kubrick)

    Nominated
    Best Actor
    (Peter Sellers)

    Nominated
    Best Screenplay based on material from another medium
    (Stanley Kubrick, Peter George, Terry Southern)


    New York Film Critics
    Winner
    Best Director
    (Stanley Kubrick)


    Writers Guild Of America
    Winner
    Best Written Comedy
    (Stanley Kubrick, Peter George, Terry Southern)


    British Film Academy Awards
    Winner
    Best Film

    Winner
    Best British film

    Winner
    United nations award

    Winner
    Best Art direction British film (black & white)
    (Ken Adam)


    The New York Times
    Annual 10 Best List

    International Film Guide
    Top 5 Directors of the year (1965).

    Hugo Award
    Best Science-Fiction movie.

    (1968) 2001: A Space Odyssey

    Oscars
    Winner
    Special Visual Effects
    (Stanley Kubrick collected on behalf of Wally Veevers, Tom Howard Con Pederson & Douglas Trumbull)

    Nominated
    Best Director
    (Stanley Kubrick)

    Nominated
    Best Story and screenplay written directly for the screen
    (Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C Clarke)

    National Board Of Review Awards
    One of years ten best US films

    British Film Academy Awards
    Winner
    Best Cinematography
    (Geoffrey Unsworth)

    Winner
    Best Art Direction
    (Tony Masters, Harry Lange, Ernie Archer)

    Winner
    Best Sound Track
    (Wilson Ryder)

    Italian Motion Picture Industry
    Di Donatello Golden Statue
    The best film from the West

    National Catholic Office For Motion Pictures
    Winner
    Best film of Educational value

    American film institute Survey (1977)
    2001 was ranked amoung the top ten greatest American films.

    Hugo Award
    Winner
    Best Science-Fiction movie.

    (1971) A Clockwork Orange

    Oscars
    Nominated
    Best Picture

    Nominated
    Best Director

    Nominated
    Best Screenplay based on material from another medium
    (Stanley Kubrick)

    New York Film Critics
    Winner
    Best Picture

    Winner
    Best Director
    (Stanley Kubrick)

    The New York Times
    Annual 10 Best List

    Time Magazine
    Appeared on Annual 10 Best List.

    Italian Motion Picture Industry
    Di Donatello Golden Statue
    The best film from the West

    German Spotlight Award
    Best Film

    Hugo Award
    Winner
    Best Science-Fiction movie.

    (1975) Barry Lyndon

    Oscars
    Winner
    Best Cinematography
    (John Alcott)

    Winner
    Best Art Direction
    (Ken Adam, Roy Walker, Vernon Dixon)

    Winner
    Costume Design
    (Ulla-Britt Soderlund, Milena Canonero)

    Winner
    Original Score & Adaptation
    (Leonard Rosemann)

    Nominated
    Best Picture

    Nominated
    Best Director
    (Stanley Kubrick)

    Nominated
    Best Screenplay based on material from another medium
    (Stanley Kubrick)

    National Society Of Film Critics Awards
    Winner
    Best Cinematography
    (John Alcott)

    National Board Of Review Awards
    Winner
    Best English language picture
    (Joint winner with Nashville)

    Winner
    Best Director
    (Stanley Kubrick, joint winner with Robert Altman)

    Winner
    Best art direction
    (Joint winner with Nashville)

    One the ten best English language films of the year
    (Listed joint first with Nashville)

    British Film Academy Awards
    Winner
    Best Director
    (Stanley Kubrick)

    Winner
    Best Cinematography
    (John Alcott)

    Time Magazine
    Appeared on Annual 10 Best List at number 1.

    (1980) The Shining

    Saturn
    Winner
    Best horror film

    Winner
    Best Supporting Actor
    (Scatman Crothers)

    (1987) Full Metal Jacket

    Oscars
    Nominated
    Best Screenplay based on material from another medium
    (Gustav Hasford, Michael Herr and Stanley Kubrick)

    Golden Globes
    Nominated
    Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
    (R. Lee Emery)

    British Film Academy Awards
    Nominated
    Best Special Effects
    (John Evans)

    Sources
    1/ "Reel Facts" Cobbett Steinberg
    2/ Michel Ciment Interview with SK on A Clockwork Orange
    3/ Internet Movie Database
    4/ The Making of 2001 by Jerome Agel
    5/ Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction (for Hugo Awards)



    contents
    index
    Looking for the answer to a specific question? Try here first.

    information on Stanley Kubrick
    Go back to the start of this section.

    The Kubrick FAQ
    49 of the most frequently re-occurring questions on alt.movies.kubrick.

    The Shining
    Section of FAQ dealing specifically with The Shining

    contributors and credits
    All the people who contributed to the FAQs

    - THE FOLLOWING IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION -

    the films
    Questions relating to Kubrick's films can be found in individual sections under the film's title
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