1. Stephen Gyllenhaal is the father of actors Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
14 Facts About Stephen Gyllenhaal
2.
Stephen Gyllenhaal is of Swedish and English descent; through his father, he is a member of the Gyllenhaal family, and a descendant of the cavalry officer Nils Gunnesson Haal, who was ennobled in 1652 when Queen Christina of Sweden conferred upon him the crest and family name, "Gyllenhaal".
3.
Stephen Gyllenhaal grew up in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia in a close-knit Swedenborgian family.
4.
Stephen Gyllenhaal graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut in 1972, with a degree in English.
5.
Stephen Gyllenhaal was married to screenwriter Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal for 32 years, from 1977 until their divorce was finalized in 2009.
6.
Stephen Gyllenhaal directed the film version of the Pete Dexter novel Paris Trout, which was nominated for five Emmy Awards and won him a DGA Award.
7.
In 1990, Stephen Gyllenhaal directed Family of Spies, which was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and an Emmy.
8.
Stephen Gyllenhaal directed his son, Jake, then 14 years old, in an episode of NBC's Homicide: Life on the Street that aired in 1994.
9.
Stephen Gyllenhaal directed several episodes of the CBS series Numb3rs, The Mentalist, Hawthorne, Army Wives, Rectify, and Blue Bloods.
10.
In 2011, Stephen Gyllenhaal directed Girl Fight which starred Anne Heche and earned Stephen Gyllenhaal a DGA Nomination for outstanding directorial achievement in movies for television.
11.
Stephen Gyllenhaal is a poet, who has been published in literary journals such as Prairie Schooner and Nimrod.
12.
In 2013, Stephen Gyllenhaal directed a backdoor pilot originally titled Sworn to Silence that aired as the Lifetime TV movie An Amish Murder.
13.
Stephen Gyllenhaal is in post-production on a documentary about dream interpretation titled Exquisite Continent.
14.
In 2019, Stephen Gyllenhaal was on the "Social Impact Advisory Board" of the San Diego International Film Festival with Susan Sarandon and Cecelia Peck.