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George Stevens Biography

(1905 - 1975)

Related Works

Films
1933 The Cohens and the Kellys in Trouble
1935 Alice Adams

1936 Swing Time
1937 Quality Street
1938 Vivacious Lady
1939 Gunga Din
1942 Woman of the Year
1943 The More the Merrier
1948 I Remember Mama
1951 A Place in the Sun
1956 Giant
1953 Shane
1959 The Diary of Anne Frank
1965 The Greatest Story Ever Told
1969 The Only Game in Town

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Related People

Hal Roach

(born Dec. 18, 1904, Oakland, Calif., U.S.—died March 8, 1975, Lancaster, Calif.) American motion-picture director known for his films exhibiting brilliant camera techniques and a romanticized view of life.

Both of his parents were actors, and Stevens was the stage manager of his father's company until 1921, when he went to Hollywood to become a cameraman. He filmed many of the early Laurel and Hardy two-reel comedies and earned a reputation for meticulous craftsmanship. Six years after he directed his first picture, Stevens achieved fame with Alice Adams (1935) and Annie Oakley (1935). A series of comedies followed, including Swing Time (1936), a musical with Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire; Vivacious Lady (1938); Woman of the Year (1942); The Talk of the Town (1942); and The More the Merrier (1943).Stevens' later films were praised for effective camera work and overall visual composition, for the careful integration of music and visuals, and for the skillful handling of sentimental themes. Although I Remember Mama (1948), his first postwar picture, idealized the past, it is praised for its realistic background and emotional restraint. He won the Academy Award for best directing for A Place in the Sun (1951), a screen adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy, and again in 1956 for Giant. He is also remembered for Shane (1953), a western now considered a classic; The Diary of Anne Frank (1959); and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). His last film was The Only Game in Town (1969).