BRIAN DE PALMA Biography - Theater, Opera and Movie personalities

 
 

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BRIAN DE PALMA

Name: Brian De Palma                                                               
Birth name: Brian Russell DePalma                                                   
Born: 11 September 1940 Newark, New Jersey, U.S.                                   
                                                                                   
Brian De Palma (born Brian Russell DePalma on September 11, 1940 in Newark, New     
Jersey) is an American film director. In a career spanning over forty years, he     
is probably best known for his suspense and thriller films, including such box     
office successes as Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and       
Mission: Impossible.                                                               
                                                                                   
De Palma is often cited as a leading member of the New Hollywood generation of     
film directors, a distinct pedigree who either emerged from film schools or are     
overtly cine-literate. His contemporaries include Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader,   
John Milius, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, and Steven Spielberg.             
                                                                                   
De Palma's artistry in directing and use of cinematography and suspense in         
several of his films is often compared to the work of Alfred Hitchcock.             
                                                                                   
Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, De Palma worked repeatedly with actors       
Jennifer Salt, Amy Irving, Nancy Allen (his wife from 1979 to 1983), William       
Finley, Charles Durning, Gerrit Graham, cinematographers Stephen H. Burum and       
Vilmos Zsigmond (see List of noted film director and cinematographer               
collaborations), set designer Jack Fisk, and composers Bernard Herrmann and Pino   
Donaggio. De Palma is credited with fostering the careers of or outright           
discovering Robert De Niro, Jill Clayburgh, John C. Reilly, John Leguizamo, and     
Margot Kidder.                                                                     
                                                                                   
De Palma has encouraged and fostered the filmmaking careers of directors such as   
Mark Romanek and Keith Gordon. Terrence Malick credits seeing De Palma's early     
films on college campus tours as a validation of independent film, and             
subsequently switched his attention from philosophy to filmmaking.