Today's Birthdays

one click shows all of today's celebrity birthdays

Browse All Birthdays

43,625    Actors
27,931    Actresses
4,867    Composers
7,058    Directors
842    Footballers
221    Racing drivers
925    Singers
9,111    Writers

Get FamousLikeMe on your website
One line of code gets FamousLikeMe on your website. Find out more.

Subscribe to Daily updates


Add to Google

privacy policy



Famous Like Me > Director > M > Sam Mendes

Profile of Sam Mendes on Famous Like Me

 
Name: Sam Mendes  
   
Also Know As:
   
Date of Birth: 1st August 1965
   
Place of Birth: Reading, Berkshire, England, UK
   
Profession: Director
 
 
From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia

Samuel Alexander Mendes (born August 1, 1965) is a British stage and film director born in Reading, Berkshire, England. Although English by birth, he is the son of a Portuguese Catholic father and a Jewish mother was born in England. His father, Peter, is the son of the writer Alfred Mendes, author of the novels Black Fauns and Pitch Lake, and part of the group around CLR James and Albert Gomes which produced the Beacon literary magazine in the early 1930s. His secondary education was at Magdalen College School, Oxford, and he later attended the University of Cambridge. As a stage director, he is probably best known for his 1998 production of Cabaret, starring Alan Cumming.

As a film director, he is best known for his debut film, American Beauty, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director.

In 2000, Mendes was made a Commander of the British Empire.

After a string of romances with actresses, including Cameron Diaz, Calista Flockhart and Rachel Weisz, Sam married English actress Kate Winslet on May 24, 2003 in the West Indies. Their first child, Joe Alfie Winslet-Mendes, was born on December 22, 2003. Mendes also has a step-daughter, Mia Honey Threapleton, from Winslet's first marriage to English assistant director Jim Threapleton.

Stage

  • Won a Critics Circle Award for Best Newcomer after directing Judi Dench in The Cherry Orchard.
  • 1990: Began directing for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
  • 1992: became artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse theatre
  • 1994: directed revival of Oliver! (with score specially revised and added to by the original composer and lyricist, Lionel Bart) at the London Palladium; the show ran for four years, becoming, on July 8, 1997, the longest-running show at that venue.
  • 1994: directed revival of Cabaret
  • 1998: revival of Cabaret opens on Broadway; wins four Tony Awards, including Best Musical (Revival)
  • 1998: directed David Hare's The Blue Room, starring Nicole Kidman (and Iain Glen).

Film

  • 1999: Film directorial debut: American Beauty; won Golden Globe Award for Film Directing and Academy Award for Directing.
  • 2002: Road to Perdition (based on graphic novel by Max Allan Collins)
  • 2005: Jarhead
  • 2006: The Kite Runner
  • 2006: Sweeney Todd

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Sam Mendes