35 Facts About Philip Kaufman

Philip Kaufman was born on October 23,1936 and is an American film director and screenwriter who has directed fifteen films over a career spanning nearly five decades.

Philip Kaufman has received numerous accolades including a BAFTA Award along with nominations for an Academy Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award.

Philip Kaufman has been described as a "maverick" and an "iconoclast," notable for his versatility and independence, often directing eclectic and controversial films.

Philip Kaufman is considered an "auteur" whose films have always expressed his personal vision.

Philip Kaufman earned his breakthrough for the film The Unbearable Lightness of Being which earned him the BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Philip Kaufman gained prominence for The Right Stuff, which received eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.

Philip Kaufman was born in Chicago in 1936, the only son of Elizabeth, a housewife, and Nathan Philip Kaufman, a produce businessman.

Philip Kaufman developed an early love of movies, and during his youth he would often go to double features.

Philip Kaufman attended the University of Chicago where he received a degree in history, and then enrolled at Harvard Law School where he spent a year.

Philip Kaufman returned to Chicago for a postgraduate degree, hoping to become a professor of history.

Philip Kaufman took various jobs there, including postal worker, and befriended a number of influential people, such as writer Henry Miller.

Philip Kaufman met Saugus, Massachusetts-born Rose Fisher in 1957, when he was 21 and she was 18, and both were undergraduates at the University of Chicago.

Philip Kaufman returned to Chicago, ready to make his first feature film.

Philip Kaufman went around town looking for funding for his directorial debut, Goldstein, co-written and co-directed with Benjamin Manaster.

Philip Kaufman initially conceived of the story in an unfinished novel, but at the urging of Anais Nin he then made it into a "mystical comedy" film.

Philip Kaufman recalled that Truffaut "leaped to his feet" in the middle of the screening and began applauding.

Philip Kaufman spent four years trying to find a distributor, but the film was a box-office failure when it finally played.

In 1972, Philip Kaufman wrote and directed The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid starring Robert Duvall as Jesse James, in what was his first commercial film after the previous two independent ones.

Philip Kaufman spent a lot of time researching the real life characters when writing the screenplay, although the film took some liberties portraying some of the factual details.

Philip Kaufman directed The White Dawn in 1974, a drama based on the novel of the same name by James Houston.

Philip Kaufman wrote and began directing The Outlaw Josey Wales in 1975, but was fired as director after artistic differences with its star Clint Eastwood, who then directed the film himself.

Philip Kaufman directed the science fiction thriller, Invasion of the Body Snatchers in 1978, which became his first box office hit.

In 1981, Philip Kaufman became involved with the first Indiana Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, for which he received story credit.

The story and character of Indiana Jones were created by George Lucas, while Philip Kaufman came up with the MacGuffin in the story being the Ark of the Covenant.

In 1983, Philip Kaufman directed and wrote the screenplay for the critically acclaimed film, The Right Stuff, an adaptation of the best-selling book of the same name by Tom Wolfe.

Philip Kaufman hired William Goldman to write the screenplay, but after a number of disputes about the focus of the story, Goldman quit and Philip Kaufman wrote the screenplay himself.

Goldman wanted the story to portray patriotism and center mostly on the astronauts, whereas Philip Kaufman wanted much of the story to focus on Chuck Yeager, whom Goldman's script left out completely.

That is an arresting image, and Shepard is all that Philip Kaufman wanted in The Right Stuff.

Philip Kaufman earned the Writers Guild and Directors Guild nomination for his satiric adaptation of the astronaut program.

Philip Kaufman was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Philip Kaufman directed Rising Sun in 1993, an adaptation of Michael Crichton's thriller which takes place in Los Angeles.

Crichton angrily withdrew early on as a result of Philip Kaufman softening the book's more anti-Japan posturing.

In 1995, Philip Kaufman narrated China: The Wild East a documentary directed by his son, Peter Philip Kaufman.

In 2000, Philip Kaufman directed Quills, a film about the increasingly desperate efforts of the Marquis de Sade's jailers to censor his licentious works, starring Geoffrey Rush, Joaquin Phoenix, Kate Winslet and Michael Caine.

In 1958, Philip Kaufman met Rose Fisher and the couple married the following year.