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' (1978). This movie earned him a shot at directing a major studio movie - 'The Hand'. However, its failure gave him a temporary career setback.

Stone 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' (1989).

Perhaps Stone's most ambitious and controversial work was 'JFK' (1991), a dramatisation of the attempts by Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) to uncover a conspiracy behind the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It earned him 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, he returned to politics and history with his controversial study of US President Richard Nixon, with Anthony Hopkins in the lead, then he directed, produced, and wrote the football-themed drama, 'Any Given Sunday'. The 1999 drama featured an ensemble cast including Al Pacino, Dennis Quaid, Cameron Diaz, Jamie Foxx and LL Cool J and paved the way for Stone to work on his next political project. 'Comandante', which was released in 2003, was unlike Stone's previous work as it was a documentary featuring interviews with Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Returning to the big budget field, Stone went on to direct the epic movie 'Alexander' (2004), which explored the life of Alexander the Great. The movie featured Colin Farrell in the title role, with Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer, Rosario Dawson, Anthony Hopkins and Christopher Plummer supporting. Stone then went on to work on 2006 disaster drama 'World Trade Center', which was based on the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks in New York. As well as getting largely positive reviews, the movie was a commercial hit.

Two years later Stone returned to the political genre with 'W.', a biographical film based on the life and presidency of George W. Bush. Starring Josh Brolin as the president, the production was followed by 'South of the Border', a documentary about Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and issues affecting Latin America. 'Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps' (2010) saw Stone return with a sequel to one of his earlier hits, which landed him a Golden Globe nomination.