Today's Birthday 26/6
Today's Birthday, June 26: Paul Thomas Anderson, US filmmaker, (1970 - ).
Paul Thomas Anderson had little doubt about what he would grow up to become.
"Miss Stevens, I'm going to be a famous director. I'm going to win the Academy Award," he told his former high school teacher, according to Esquire in 2008.
The acclaimed director has since been nominated for eight golden statues.
His most recent movie Phantom Thread (2017) garnered worldwide attention both for its cinematic prowess, and the fact that lead actor Daniel Day-Lewis announced it would his last.
Born and raised in California, Anderson is the seventh of nine children. His father is famed radio and television personality Ernie Anderson.
At 12, his father gifted him his first camera, an old cassette format Betamax. He started shooting home films and street scenes around his San Francisco neighbourhood.
While attending high school he often charmed his way out of class to film parodies of famous films including Miami Vice, which he titled Brock Landers.
He studied film at NYU briefly but dropped out after one professor dissed Terminator 2, and another gave his first assignment, a script actually written by David Mamet, a C+.
After years hustling big names to give him a shot, it finally paid off.
His debut feature film Hard Eight (1996), a neo-noir crime thriller was followed by the cinematic masterpiece Boogie Nights (1997).
His third film Magnolia (1999), wrote and directed by Anderson was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. This was followed by Punch-Drunk-Love (2002) which turned comedian Adam Sandler into a bonafide dramatic lead.
There Will be Blood (2007) won its star Daniel Day-Lewis an Oscar for Best Actor and received wide acclaim both commercially and critically. Five years later The Master (2012) , starring the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, broke box-office records for an art house film.
His latest picture Phantom Thread (2017) was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director.
