Robert Zemeckis

Robert Lee Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) is an American filmmaker. He first came to public attention as the director of the action-adventure romantic comedy Romancing the Stone (1984), the science-fiction comedy Back to the Future film trilogy (1985–1990), and the live-action/animated comedy Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). He subsequently directed the satirical black comedy Death Becomes Her (1992) and then diversified into more dramatic fare, including Forrest Gump (1994), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director. The film also won the Best Picture. He has directed films across a wide variety of genres, for both adults and families. Zemeckis is regarded as an innovator in visual effects. His exploration of state-of-the-art special effects includes the pioneering performance capture techniques seen in The Polar Express (2004), Monster House (2006), Beowulf (2007), A Christmas Carol (2009), and Welcome to Marwen (2018). He is also known for his collaboration with composer Alan Silvestri, with whom he has worked on many of his films. Though interest in Zemeckis has at times been solely limited to his work with special effects, his work has been praised by several film critics, including David Thomson, who wrote that "no other contemporary director has used special effects to more dramatic and narrative purpose." Early life Robert Lee Zemeckis was born on May 14, 1952, in Chicago the son of Rosa (née Nespeca) and Alphonse Zemeckis. His father was Lithuanian-American while his mother was Italian-American. Zemeckis grew up on the South Side of the city. He attended a Catholic grade school and Fenger Academy High School. Zemeckis has said "the truth was that in my family there was no art. I mean, there was no music, there were no books, there was no theater... The only thing I had that was inspirational, was television—and it actually was."