Background

Stanley Kubrick was born on July 26, 1928 in New York City. He was the son of Jacob Leonard Kubrick, known as Jack or Jacques, and Sadie Gertrude Kubrick (née Perveler), known as Gert. Kubrick also had a sister Barbara Mary Kubrick.

Education

Stanley Kubrick began schooling in Public School 3 in the Bronx and moved to Public School 90 in June 1938. He displayed an interest in literature from a young age and began reading Greek and Roman myths and the fables of the Grimm brothers. He also liked to play chess. When Kubrick was 13 his father bought him a Graflex camera, triggering a fascination with still photography.

In 1941 Stanley Kubrick entered William Howard Taft High School where he was an official school photographer. He graduated in 1945, but his poor grades, combined with the demand for college admissions from soldiers returning from the Second World War, eliminated any hope of higher education. Kubrick attended evening classes at the City College of New York, however, he aborted his studies shortly after he had started them so that he could join the staff of Look at age 17. Later he attended auditing classes at Columbia University.

Career

Stanley Kubrick started his career as a photojournalist for Look magazine in 1946. He was assigned to photograph numerous jazz musicians, from Frank Sinatra and Erroll Garner to George Lewis, Eddie Condon, Phil Napoleon, Papa Celestin, Alphonse Picou, Muggsy Spanier, Sharkey Bonano, and others. During this time, he also became increasingly interested in the science and art of filmmaking and frequented film screenings. He was particularly inspired by Max Ophuls’ and Elia Kazan’s style of filmmaking. In 1950 he shot a short documentary about the run-up to a boxing match, which was released by RKO as Day of the Fight. Kubrick left Look, began auditing classes at Columbia University, became a voracious reader, and turned to full-time filmmaking. In 1951, he began making Flying Padre, a film that documents Reverend Fred Stadtmueller, who travels some 4,000 miles to visit his 11 churches. Later he made the film The Seafarers, his first color film, which was shot for the Seafarers International Union in June 1953. It has shots of ships, machinery, a canteen, and a union meeting.

In 1953, Stanley Kubrick persuaded his father and uncle to help finance the production of his first fiction feature, an ultralow-budget war film, Fear and Desire. The plot centers around four soldiers trapped behind enemy lines who kill four of their adversaries while trying to escape only to discover they've killed their own doubles. In later years, Kubrick disowned the film, calling it amateurish. He then scraped together the financing for another low-budget effort, a boxing-related film noir romance, Killer’s Kiss, which focuses on a gang of small-time hoods and their elaborate plan to rob a racetrack. In 1957, Kubrick directed Paths of Glory, an adaptation that he, Calder Willingham, and Jim Thompson wrote of the best-selling Humphrey Cobb novel of the same name. No studio had been willing to take on this particular project until Kirk Douglas agreed to star. Set during World War I, it focused on the suicidal attack by French troops on a German position and the repercussions in its aftermath. Because of its damning portrayal of the French officer corps, the film was not shown in France until 1975.

After that Kubrick worked on developing One-Eyed Jacks for several months with Marlon Brando, but the creative differences between the two finally became too great, and Kubrick left the project, which was ultimately directed by Brando himself. Kubrick then accepted Douglas’s offer to take over the direction of Spartacus from Anthony Mann, who had just been fired. It was his first movie to become a huge critical as well as commercial success. However, Kubrick complained that he did not have complete artistic control over the film as he would have wished. Creative differences arising from his work with Douglas and the film studios, a dislike of the Hollywood industry prompted Kubrick to move to the United Kingdom in 1961, where he spent most of the remainder of his life and career. In 1962, he made the highly controversial Lolita, adapted from Vladimir Nabokov’s novel of the same name. He treated the erotic subject matter of the novel in a sensible manner to create black comedy. His next film was Dr. Strangelove; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Based on Peter George's novel Red Alert, it is what some consider the blackest comedy in movie history. The film is both a suspenseful Cold War thriller and a wicked farce that lampoons both the military and political establishments.

Kubrick next hired science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke to develop a story about man's encounter with extraterrestrial intelligence. The result was the landmark 2001: A Space Odyssey. This film has set the standard and tone for many science fiction films that followed. Kubrick himself said that he hoped that the film’s significance would transcend language and reason. His next film was A Clockwork Orange, which he adapted himself from the 1963 novel of the same name by Anthony Burgess. Controversial because of its violent scenes, the film initially garnered an "X" rating (that is now replaced by NC-17) in the United States. Then Kubrick adapted Thackeray's historical novel Barry Lyndon to the screen in 1975. It was an expensive, meticulously detailed costume drama that did not do well at the box office. But it was a hit with critics and with Kubrick's fellow filmmakers.

Five years later, Kubrick adapted Stephen King's novel The Shining for the screen. Although it was a financially successful film, it left critics unmoved and angered King, who deeply resented the changes Kubrick had made to his original story. In 1987, Kubrick released Full Metal Jacket, based on Gustav Hasford's novel The Short-Timers. A brutal look at Marine basic training and the subsequent combat experiences of a group of recruits sent to Vietnam, the film tackled one of Kubrick's favorite themes-dehumanization, particularly amid war and violence. Kubrick's last film was Eyes Wide Shut, starring the then-married Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. This film took two years of production under unprecedented security and privacy and was released after Kubrick's death in 1999.

Achievements

• Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, screenwriter, producer and photographer, famous for directing such films as Paths of Glory, Spartacus, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut. He is also known as one of the great American filmmakers of the 20th century. Many of Kubrick's films were nominated for Academy Awards or Golden Globes, but his only personal win of an Academy Award was for his work as director of special effects on 2001: A Space Odyssey. In 1955 Kubrick received the Locarno International Film Festival Prize for the film Killer's Kiss. He also received three BAFTA Awards two of which he received in 1965 and the third one in 1977. Kubrick received three Hugo Awards. In 1971, he was awarded the New York Film Critics Circle Award.
  
  In 2000, BAFTA renamed their Britannia lifetime achievement award the "Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award". Kubrick is widely referenced in popular culture, and the TV series. In 2018 the International Astronomical Union named the largest mountain of Pluto's moon Charon after Kubrick. On October 30, 2012, an exhibition devoted to Kubrick opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and concluded in June 2013. From October 2019 through the beginning of March 2020, the Skirball Cultural Center hosted an exhibition called Through a Different Lens: Stanley Kubrick Photographs that is focused on Kubrick's early career.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • The Killing

    (Career criminal Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) recruits a ...)

    1956
  • Barry Lyndon

    (Barry, an Irish rogue, gets into a relationship with a ri...)

    1975
  • Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

    (An American Brigadier puts the world on the verge of a nu...)

    1966
  • Killer's Kiss

    (Davey Gordon (Jamie Smith), a New York City boxer aging o...)

    1955
  • Lolita

    (With a screenplay penned by the author himself, Stanley K...)

    1962
  • Full Metal Jacket

    (Full Metal Jacket: MoviDuring the Vietnam War, under the ...)

    1987
  • Fear and Desire

    (After their aeroplane crashes behind enemy lines, four so...)

    1953
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey

    (The Discovery One and its revolutionary super computer se...)

    1968
  • The Seafarers

    (The Seafarers is Stanley Kubrick's fourth film and third ...)

    1953
  • Spartacus

    (Thracian Spartacus, who was born and raised a slave, rebe...)

    1960
  • Day of the Fight

    (Day of the Fight is a 1951 American short subject documen...)

    1951
  • Paths of Glory

    (General Mireau decides to take on an impossible mission t...)

    1957
  • The Shining

    (Jack and his family move into an isolated hotel with a vi...)

    1980
  • A Clockwork Orange

    (Alex, a psychopathic delinquent, is imprisoned for murder...)

    1971
  • Eyes Wide Shut

    (After Dr. Bill Hartford's (Tom Cruise) wife, Alice (Nicol...)

    1999

Religion

Although from Jewish decent, Kubrick's religious views defy any conventional belief system. He said that he would be very surprised if the universe wasn’t full of an intelligence of an order that to us would seem God-like. He found it very exciting to have a semi-logical belief that there is a great deal to the universe we don’t understand, and that there is an intelligence of an incredible magnitude outside the Earth.

Politics

Stanley Kubrick seemed to have a deep distrust in the government. Although he favored capitalism and was extremely distrustful of socialism – even the watered-down version of Britain’s (his adopted country) Labour Party, which he opposed – he was critical of both sides of the political spectrum.

Views

Quotations: "The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent; but if we can come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death – however mutable man may be able to make them – our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfillment. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light."

"I think the big mistake in schools is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can produce learning on a scale compared to fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker."

"I don't like doing interviews. There is always the problem of being misquoted or, what's even worse, of being quoted exactly."

"The very meaninglessness of life forces man to create his own meaning. If it can be written or thought, it can be filmed."

"There's something in the human personality which resents things that are clear, and conversely, something which is attracted to puzzles, enigmas, and allegories."

"I have always enjoyed dealing with a slightly surrealistic situation and presenting it in a realistic manner. I've always liked fairy tales and myths, magical stories. I think they are somehow closer to the sense of reality one feels today than the equally stylized "realistic" story in which a great deal of selectivity and omission has to occur in order to preserve its "realist" style."

"The reason movies are often so bad out here isn't because the people who make them are cynical money hacks. Most of them are doing the very best they can. They really want to make good movies. The trouble is with their heads, not their hearts."

Membership

Stanley Kubrick was a member of the United States Chess Federation.

Personality

Those who know Stanley Kubrick said that he had an especially fraternal temperament and seemed supernaturally youthful to his friends. Michel Ciment said that Kubrick's had a disarming way of 'leavening' serious discourse with low adolescent humor. He also was considered to be a well-read man with extreme attention to detail. Michael Herr also noticed that Kubrick was exclusive, but he wasn't a snob.

Stanley Kubrick had a well-known fear of flying, but he had to fly quite often early in his career. Because of his hysteria on planes, he simply tried to lessen the number of times he flew. Kubrick loved animals. When he died, he had a Highland Terrier, seven Golden Retrievers, one Scotch Terrier, eight cats, and four Fern Donkeys.

Physical Characteristics: Stanley Kubrick first grew his famous beard during the making of "2001:A Space Odyssey". He kept the beard for the rest of his life and kept his hair long. He had dark, focused, and piercing eyes.

Kubrick dressed simply, wearing the same style clothes every day: beat chinos, a basic blue work shirt, a ripstop cotton fatigue jacket with many pockets, and a pair of well-worn running shoes. His appearance was not well known in his later years, to the extent that a British man named Alan Conway successfully impersonated Kubrick locally for a number of years.

Quotes from others about the person

• Gary Ross: "I love almost all of Stanley Kubrick, there’s almost no Stanley Kubrick I don't love. I love Lolita, I love Dr. Strangelove. I love A Clockwork Orange, obviously. I even like a lot of Barry Lyndon. And early stuff, like The Killing and Paths of Glory. It’s ridiculous. Look, he made the best comedy ever, he may have made one of the best science fiction movies ever, he made the best horror movie ever. I couldn't watch the end of The Shining. I went through half The Shining for years before I could finish, because I’m a writer and as soon as he starts writing "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," I had to turn it off. It’s almost like Picasso in that he mastered so many different genres. He took his time and patience and he had a crew of like 18 people. They were very handmade movies these were not large behemoths that he did; they were very thoughtful and his editing process was long. He's kind of without peer really. If I was gonna settle on a director, probably Kubrick."
  
  Diane Johnson: "Kubrick always said that it was better to adapt a book rather than write an original screenplay, and that you should choose a work that isn't a masterpiece so you can improve on it. Which is what he's always done, except with Lolita."
  
  Gerald Fried: "He was kind of an awkward kid, and the fact that he was bright and talented made it even worse. He just wanted to be a regular guy, as we all do, and he wasn't and it was very painful for him. So when he found out that he was smart and successful and all that, then it went the other way – everything had to be grand."
  
  Sydney Pollack: "People say he had these phobias, he wouldn't go here and wouldn't go there. The truth is he lived in a paradise – there wasn't any reason for him to go anywhere. It was a kind of a heaven."

Interests

• Photography, chess

• Writers

  William Faulkner, William Shakespeare, Honore de Balzac, Stendhal

• Sport & Clubs

  American football, New York Yankees

• Music & Bands

  Jazz, classical, pop

Connections

Stanley Kubrick married Toba Metz on May 29, 1948. The couple lived together in Greenwich Village and divorced three years later in 1951. In 1955, Kubrick married Ruth Sobotka who was the art director for his film, The Killing. They divorced in 1957. Later Kubrick met and romanced the German actress Christiane Harlan. He married Harlan in 1958, and the couple remained together for 40 years, until his death in 1999. Besides his stepdaughter, they had two daughters together.

Father:

Jacques Leonard Kubrick

Mother:

Gertrude Kubrick

Sister:

Barbara Kubrick

ex-wife:

Toba Metz

ex-wife:

Ruth Sobotka

Wife:

Christiane Kubrick

Daughter:

Vivian Kubrick

Vivian Vanessa Kubrick, also credited under the pseudonym Abigail Mead, is an American-born filmmaker and composer.

Daughter:

Anya Kubrick

stepdaughter:

Katarina Kubrick

colleague:

Steven Spielberg

References

• Stanley Kubrick Photographs. Through a Different Lens Before becoming the critically acclaimed filmmaker responsible for such iconic films as Dr. Strangelove and The Shining, Stanley Kubrick spent five years as a photographer for Look magazine. The Bronx native joined the staff in 1945, when he was only 17 years old, and shot humanist slice-of-life features that celebrate and expose New York City and its inhabitants.
  2018
• Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick, director of the acclaimed films Path of Glory, Spartacus, Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, 2001: Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, and Full Metal Jacket, is arguably one of the greatest American filmmakers.
  1999
• Stanley Kubrick: Interviews From his first feature film, Fear and Desire (1953), to his final, posthumously released Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Stanley Kubrick excelled at probing the dark corners of human consciousness. In doing so, he adapted such popular novels as The Killing, Lolita, A Clockwork Orange, and The Shining and selected a wide variety of genres for his films.
  2001
• Eyes Wide Shut: Stanley Kubrick and the Making of His Final Film Twenty years since its release, Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut remains a complex, visually arresting film about domesticity, sexual disturbance, and dreams. It was on the director's mind for some 50 years before he finally put it into production.
  2019
• Stanley Kubrick: New York Jewish Intellectual Stanley Kubrick is generally acknowledged as one of the world’s great directors. Yet few critics or scholars have considered how he emerged from a unique and vibrant cultural milieu: the New York Jewish intelligentsia.   Stanley Kubrick reexamines the director’s work in context of his ethnic and cultural origins.
  2018
• A.I. - Artificial Intelligence David, a highly advanced robotic boy, longs to become a human child so that he can regain the love of his foster mother who abandoned him. He soon embarks on a journey to make his dreams come true.
  2001
• Filmworker Leon Vitali was a rising actor when Stanley Kubrick picked him for a role. That first encounter proved decisive - he resolved to devote the rest of his life working for the director, this time behind the scenes, and took on just about every job available: casting director, acting coach, location scouter, sound engineer, color corrector, A.D., promoter, and eventually restorer of Kubrick's films.
  2017
• Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures Fascinating footage glimpses Kubrick in his early years, at work on film sets and at home, augmented by candid commentary from colleagues and family.
  2001