Oliver Stone

Oliver Stone, born in 1946, American director and screenwriter, whose motion pictures examine various aspects of American society. Stone has raised controversy with the interpretations of history in his works.

Born in New York City, Stone attended Yale University in the mid-1960s but did not graduate. After working as a teacher in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) and as a merchant seaman, Stone enlisted in the United States Army in 1967. He served and was wounded during the Vietnam War (1959-1975). After leaving the army in 1968, Stone took film courses at New York University, graduating from the school in 1971. He also made the independent films Street Scenes (1970) and Seizure (1974). In 1978 Stone won an Academy Award for best screenplay for Midnight Express (1978), a film based on the true story of a young American arrested and imprisoned in Turkey for attempting to smuggle hashish out of the country.

After writing and directing the horror film The Hand (1980), Stone wrote screenplays for Conan the Barbarian (1982), Scarface (1983), Year of the Dragon (1985), and 8 Million Ways to Die (1986). He then gained recognition as an important director with two motion pictures set in war zones. Platoon (1986), a realistic look at combat during the Vietnam War, was inspired by Stone’s own experiences. The motion picture won an Academy Award for best picture, and Stone won the Oscar for best director. Salvador (1986), a film based on the experiences of an American journalist in El Salvador, criticizes U.S. military and political involvement in Central America.

Stone subsequently wrote and directed Wall Street (1987), about insider trading and other misdealing in the world of high finance; Talk Radio, about a controversial talk-show host (1988); and Born on the Fourth of July (1989), the story of a man paralyzed in the Vietnam War, for which Stone won another Academy Award as best director. The Doors (1991) is about 1960s rock music star Jim Morrison. JFK (1991), which examines the investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, portrays a broad-based conspiracy among the government, military, and intelligence communities involved with the inquiry. The motion picture’s release provoked heated debate over Stone’s conspiratorial interpretation of the assassination.

After JFK, Stone continued to explore issues in modern American life with such works as Heaven and Earth (1993), the third installment (after Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July) in Stone’s trilogy focusing on the Vietnam War; Natural Born Killers (1994), which examines the fascination of the media and the public with serial killers; and Nixon (1995), which depicts the rise and fall of American president Richard M. Nixon. Stone then directed U Turn (1997), about a deadly romantic entanglement, and Any Given Sunday (1999), about life in the National Football League (NFL). In 2003 he released Comandante, a documentary of his meeting with Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Stone’s $150-million historical epic Alexander (2004), about the life of Alexander the Great, was attacked by critics and was a conspicuous box-office failure. In World Trade Center (2006), he adopted a simpler, nonconfrontational style to tell the real-life story of two police officers who survived the destruction of the twin towers following the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York City.