Oliver Stone Biography

After serving in Vietnam, Stone returned to the US in 1968, and attended film school at New York University, where he was tutored by Martin Scorsese.

After graduating, he directed a short student film entitled 'Last Year in Vietnam', and worked as a New York taxi driver.

He first gained acclaim as a writer, when he won an Oscar, a Writers Guild Award and a Golden Globe for his screenplay, 'Midnight Express'. This movie earned him a shot at directing a major studio movie - 'The Hand'. However, its failure gave him a temporary career setback.

Oliver concentrated on screenwriting for a while, with 'Conan the Barbarian', 'Scarface', and 'Year of the Dragon'. He then directed the low budget political drama, 'Salvador', which brought an Oscar-nomination for co-writing the screenplay. He received an Oscar for 'Platoon', and returned to the subject of Vietnam, to win a Best Director Oscar for 'Born on the Fourth of July'.

Perhaps Stone's most ambitious and controversial work was 'JFK', a dramatization of the attempts by Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) to uncover a conspiracy behind the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It earned Oliver Oscar nominations as Best Director and co-writer of the screenplay.

That same year, he appeared as himself in the political comedy, 'Dave', and had his first TV credit as executive producer, with the sci-fi miniseries, 'Wild Palms'. Stone then made a sharp turn a year later, with his next project, the dark comedy, 'Natural Born Killers'.

Two years later, Oliver returned to politics and history, with his controversial study of US President Nixon, with Anthony Hopkins in lead, then he directed, produced, and wrote the football-themed drama, 'Any Given Sunday'.