Stanley Kubrick

(1929 - 1999)

Raised in the Bronx, the director Stanley Kubrick loved editing film—and he always had a lot of material to work with, being notorious for making actors do dozens of takes—calling it the “only unique aspect of filmmaking which does not resemble any other art form.” He would listen to public-domain recordings until he found the perfect score for a scene, and the music of Richard Strauss, George Frideric Handel, Gioachino Rossini, and Bela Bartok appears in some of his most well-known films. Kubrick’s movies often debuted technological innovations: the cameras on the sets of Barry Lyndon used lenses developed by NASA that allowed shooting in candlelight, and The Shining was one of the first films to use the Steadicam. He permanently moved to England in 1974, and died of a heart attack at his estate days after a screening of his last film, Eyes Wide Shut.