John Lee Hancock

John Lee Hancock Jr. (born December 15, 1956) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the sports drama films The Rookie (2002) and The Blind Side (2009), the historical drama films The Alamo (2004), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), The Founder (2016) and The Highwaymen (2019), the crime thriller film The Little Things (2021), and the horror film Mr. Harrigan's Phone (2022). Early life and education Hancock was born in Longview, but grew up in Texas City. His father, John Lee Hancock Sr., played football for Baylor and in the NFL and went on to become a football coach at Texas City High School. His mother, Sue Hancock is a retired English teacher who taught in the Texas City ISD. The eldest of four children (two brothers and one sister), John Jr. played football and competed in swimming while in high school (his brother played briefly in the NFL). Throughout high school and when home from college, John worked in his grandfather's pipe fabrication shop, located near the industrial refineries of his hometown, Texas City, Texas. Hancock received his bachelor's degree in English from Baylor in 1979 and earned a J.D. degree from Baylor Law School in 1982. Career After working in a Houston law firm for four years, he decided to pursue screenwriting and moved to Los Angeles. Choosing not to take the California bar exam and practice law in California, Hancock instead held numerous non-legal jobs those next few years, took acting classes, and worked in local theater. He debuted as both a screenwriter and director with 1991's Hard Time Romance, and another screenplay he wrote in 1991 was noticed by Clint Eastwood and went on to become A Perfect World directed by Eastwood and starring Eastwood and Kevin Costner. He went on to produce the critically acclaimed My Dog Skip before finding widespread recognition as director of The Rookie, which won an ESPY in 2002 for "Best Sports Movie" and was both critically and commercially successful. He also wrote the screenplay for Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and directed The Alamo, a remake of the 1960 film.