Famous Film Directors a to z

Director, producer and playwright George Abbott lived to be 107 and participated in such Broadway productions as Boy Meets Girl, The Fall Guy and Our Town.

Woody Allen is an American comedian, filmmaker and writer who directed and starred in two of his most famous films, Annie Hall and Manhattan.

Filmmaker Robert Altman is best known for his highly individualistic films and use of simultaneous layers of dialogue.

Wes Anderson is known for the quirky and humorous films The Royal Tenenbaums, The Darjeeling Limited and Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Actor and director Alan Arkin is a three-time Academy Award nominee, whose notable films include Catch-22 and Wait Until Dark.

Dorothy Arzner was a pioneer in the film industry, becoming one of the first women directors of feature films and the first woman to join the Directors Guild of America.

Spanish actor Antonio Banderas starred in several of Pedro Almodóvar’s films. In America, he has played Zorro, and Puss in Boots in the Shrek film series.

Jean-Louis Barrault was a French actor director, and mime. He is best known for his role in the film The Children of Paradise (1945).

Actress Adriana Barraza played Amelia in the award-winning film Babel. Her performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Actress Drew Barrymore gained early fame as a child star. She later struggled with substance abuse and notoriety, before re-emerging as a talented actress and producer.

Warren Beatty is an Oscar-winning director and actor known for such films as Bonnie and Clyde, Reds and Heaven Can Wait.

Roberto Benigni is an Italian actor, director and producer best known for his 1997 Oscar winning film La Vita e Bella (Life is Beautiful).

Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director and producer best known for films such as The Seventh Sea (1956), Cries and Whispers (1971) and Autumn Sonata (1978).

Chadwick Boseman is an American actor known for his roles on the TV show Lincoln Heights and as baseball great Jackie Robinson in the biopic 42.

Danny Boyle is a British film director whose films include Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, and 127 Hours.

Matthew Broderick is an American actor who became a star with his role in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. He's also known for Broadway role in The Producers.

For 40 years, Actor and comedian Albert Brooks has worked steadily in Hollywood, appearing both in other people's movies and in his own self-directed projects.

James L. Brooks is an American director, producer and screenwriter, best-known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda and Taxi.

Mel Brooks is an iconic filmmaker known for comedies like The Producers, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, among other works.

Director, producer and screenwriter Tim Burton is known for such films as Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands, which blend themes of fantasy and horror.

Steve Buscemi is a popular character actor, director and screenwriter. He's known for his role on the critically acclaimed series Boardwalk Empire.

Oscar-winning director James Cameron is best known for the highly acclaimed, box-office hits Aliens (1986), Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009).

Jane Campion is a New Zealand film director and writer who won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for The Piano in 1993. She also directed Bright Star.

Nick Carter from the pop group the Backstreet Boys is also known for once dating Paris Hilton, starring in a reality TV show and overcoming drug and alcohol addiction.

Chris Columbus is a screenwriter, director and producer. He sold his screenplay, Gremlins, to Steven Spielberg, and also directed some Harry Potter movies.

Director, producer and screenwriter Francis Ford Coppola is best known for creating The Godfather film series starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino.

Sofia Coppola is a film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. She directed The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation, winning an Oscar for the latter.

Roger Corman is a film director and producer who helmed B-Movie classics and helped launch the careers of James Cameron, John Sayles, Ron Howard and others.

Film actor and director Kevin Costner directed and starred in the epic film Dances With Wolves (1990), which won seven Oscars.

Wes Craven is a horror film director, screenwriter and producer known for projects like Swamp Thing, Nightmare on Elm Street and the Scream series.

Michael Crichton was an American author best known for his sci-fi and medical thrillers. The movie based on his book, Jurassic Park, was one of the highest-grossing films in history.

Jon Cryer is known for his Emmy-winning role as a single dad on TV's Two and a Half Men as well as his films, especially the '80s teen flick Pretty in Pink.

Alan Cumming is a Scottish actor known for a range of work, from Shakespeare to Cabaret to X-Men, to the television series The Good Wife.

Stephen Daldry is a three-time Oscar nominated director known for the films Billy Elliot, The Hours and The Reader.

Ossie Davis was an American actor, writer, social activist and humanitarian. He often performed with wife Ruby Dee in plays, in film and on television.

Philippe de Broca was a French filmmaker, best known for his light-hearted comedies. He was awarded the Legion of Honor for his contributions to French culture.

Legendary award-winning actor Robert De Niro has starred in such films as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Godfather: Part II and Silver Linings Playbook.

Brian De Palma is a writer-director whose career has been marked by both hits and misses, with such films as Carrie and Bonfire of the Vanities.

Vittorio de Sico was a film director and actor who was a major figure in the Italian Neorealist movement.

Director and producer Ted Demme created Yo! MTV Raps, and worked on the films Beautiful Girls, Life and Blow.

Johnny Depp is an award-nominated actor known for his portrayal of odd-ball characters including Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean.

Actor, director and writer Laura Dern, daughter of actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd, has played everything from willowy ingénues to drug-addicted washouts. She's known for starring in Jurassic Park, and for co-producing and starring on the series Enlightened.

Actor Kirk Douglas brought his formidable chin and talent to movies like Spartacus and The Bad and the Beautiful. You may also know him as the father of Michael Douglas.

Controversial musician Fred Durst came to fame in the mid-1990s as the front man for the "nu metal" band Limp Bizkit.

Clint Eastwood has made his name as a popular TV and film actor. He went on to become a famed director, working on several Academy Award-winning films.

Blake Edwards was an American film director, producer and screenwriter who was perhaps best known for The Pink Panther and its sequels.

Jon Favreau is a Hollywood actor, screenwriter, director and producer known for film projects like Swingers, Elf and Iron Man.

Italian film director Federico Fellini was one of the most celebrated and distinctive filmmakers of the period after World War II.

David Fincher is an American film director known for his meticulous process and dark movies, including Alien³, Fight Club and Seven.

Victor Fleming was a Hollywood director, notably helming Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz.

An Academy Award-winning director, John Ford is considered to be one of the best filmmakers of all time. He is best known for directing Westerns.

Miloš Forman is an Academy Award winning Czech film director. He is best known for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus.

Jodie Foster is an award-winning American actress best known for her roles in the films Taxi Driver, The Accused and The Silence of the Lambs.

John Gielgud was a prolific Shakespearean actor known for his varied film and TV work as well, including Arthur and Prospero’s Books.

Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director and critic who was a leader of the French New Wave in film during the 1950s-60s.

D.W. Griffith was one of cinema's earliest directors and producers, known for his innovations and for directing the 1915 film Birth of a Nation.

Christopher Guest has written, directed and starred in a number of classic comedies, including This is Spinal Tap (1984) and Waiting for Guffman (1996).

An early 20th century filmmaking pioneer and one of the first to make a narrative fiction film, Alice Guy-Blaché made more than 1,000 films and ran her own film studio in New Jersey, experimenting with sound syncing, color tinting, interracial casting and special effects.

Director Lasse Hallström directed a number of music videos for ABBA before moving to television and film. His best-known movies include My Life as a Dog, What's Eating Gilbert Grape and The Cider House Rules.

Former sitcom actor Tom Hanks is the much-beloved star of such Hollywood hits as Splash, Big, Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Toy Story, and many more.

American actress Melissa Joan Hart starred on the television shows Clarissa Explains It All and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and began performing on the TV series Melissa & Joey in 2010.

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Howard Hawks directed Only Angels Have Wings, Sergeant York, Scarface, Bringing Up Baby and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

German director Werner Herzog has enjoyed international success with such films as Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972), Fitzcarraldo (1982) and Rescue Dawn (2006).

Director George Roy Hill produced some of the most popular films of the 1960s and 1970s, including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock was nicknamed the "Master of Suspense" for employing a kind of psychological suspense in his films, producing a distinct viewer experience.

Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman has gained recognition for his work in a series of successful films including Capote and Doubt.

Actor/director Dennis Hopper came to fame with 1969's Easy Rider. Later films like Blue Velvet and River's Edge cemented his legend.

Ron Howard is best known for his roles on the shows Happy Days and The Andy Griffith Show, and as the director for films, including A Beautiful Mind and Apollo 13.

C. Thomas Howell is best known for his acting roles in hit 1980s films E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (directed by Steven Spielberg), The Outsiders (1983) and The Hitcher (1986).

Film director and screenwriter John Hughes directed a string of hit teen films, including Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink.