George Stevens

George Cooper Stevens (December 18, 1904 – March 8, 1975) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer. He received two Academy Awards and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1953. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for A Place in the Sun (1951), and Giant (1956). He was also Oscar-nominated for The Talk of the Town, The More the Merrier (1943), Shane (1953), and The Diary of Anne Frank (1959). Among his most notable films are Swing Time (1936), Gunga Din (1939), Woman of the Year (1942), and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). Early life Stevens was born on December 18, 1904, in Oakland, California, the son of Landers Stevens and Georgie Cooper, both stage actors. Drama critic Ashton Stevens and film director James W. Horne were his uncles. He also had two brothers, Jack, a cinematographer, and writer Aston Stevens. He learned about the stage by watching his parents, and himself acted in plays in San Francisco. At the age of 10, his mother gave him a Brownie camera, and he began photographing the city and portraits of his mother. Career