Sam Mendes was born in Reading, England in August 1965. Mendes’ love of theater and film started at an early age, right out of high school where he decided to pursue the arts in college – Mendes fell in love with film after seeing movies such as ‘Paris, Texas’, ‘Repo Man’, and ‘True Stories’.
After graduation Mendes found work in the theater and this would lead to his first successful productions of the works of Anton Chekhov which then led to Mendes joining the Donmar Warehouse where he would help usher in a new wave of stage productions on the West End – Mendes has returned to the stage many times even as his film career has also progressed.
Mendes found success immediately in film with his first picture 1999’s ‘American Beauty’ which would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture and Mendes would win for Best Director marking only the sixth time a director would win the award with his debut film.
Mendes has gone on to direct some this century’s best movies including 2019’s war epic ‘1917’ which would go on to win multiple Oscars.
Mendes has also left his mark on The James Bond franchise directing two recent installments 2012’s ‘Skyfall’ and 2015’s ‘Spectre’.
Did you know that Sam Mendes was the first to direct back-to-back Bond movies since John Glen, who directed five in a row?
‘Skyfall’ is the most successful Bond film ever made grossing over $1.1 billion dollars – many also consider it the best Bond movie as well.
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