Anecdotes About Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg is the most successful director/producer in the history of motion pictures. Legendary film star Joan Crawford had even predicted his success when she starred in his first Hollywood film, the pilot episode for Rod Serling's television series, "Night Gallery." When Detroit Free Press reporter Shirley Eder visited the set, Crawford told her, "Go interview that kid because he's going to be the biggest director of all time."

"Jaws" was Spielberg's first break-out hit film. One day fellow director George Lucas, a close friend of Spielberg, visited the "Jaws" set with writer/director John Milius to get a close look at the big shark nicknamed "Bruce" in Universal's special-effects department. When Lucas stuck his head inside "Bruce's" mouth to see how it operated, Milius and Spielberg snuck to the control room and clamped the mouth down on Lucas's head as a practical joke. Unfortunately, the special effects shark malfunctioned and trapped Lucas in its grasp. After Spielberg and Milius pried Bruce's mouth open and freed Lucas, the three men fled the special effects workshop, fearing that they had broken the shark.

After George Lucas's break-out film "Star Wars" was released, Lucas and Spielberg celebrated by going on vacation in Hawaii together. In a conversation on the beach, Spielberg mentioned that he had always fantasized about directing a James Bond movie. It was at that moment when Lucas pitched him the story for "Raiders of the Lost Ark", Spielberg's next big hit.

When Spielberg was filming "Raiders" in Tunisia, everyone in the cast and crew got sick from the food, except for Spielberg, who only ate can after can of Spaghetti-os.

Screenwriter/director Paul Schrader wrote the first draft of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", but Spielberg thought it was too dark and rewrote it. When Schrader refused any screen credit for writing the film, Spielberg didn't want to release the film without a screenplay credit, so he took sole writing credit.