Chris Columbus

Chris Columbus (filmmaker)

Chris Joseph Columbus(born September 10, 1958) is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Columbus is known for such movies as Gremlins (1984), The Goonies (1985), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), and Home Alone (1990), the last receiving a British Comedy Award for Best Comedy Film. He is also known as the director who began the Harry Potter film series by directing the first two films and producing the third in the series of eight. As a producer, he received an Academy Award nomination for his film The Help (2011).

Early Life: Columbus was born in Spangler, Pennsylvania and raised in Champion, Ohio, the son of Mary Irene (née Puskar), a factory worker, and Alex Michael Columbus, an aluminum plant worker and coal miner. Columbus is of Italian and Czech descent. He graduated from John F. Kennedy High School in Warren, Ohio and from New York University's film school at the Tisch School of the Arts. There he was a schoolmate of writer/director Charlie Kaufman.

Career:Columbus worked as a screenwriter with Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, working on Gremlins (1984), The Goonies (1985) and Young Sherlock Holmes (1985). He wrote the first episodes of the animated series Galaxy High (1986) and later made his directorial debut with the teen comedy Adventures in Babysitting (1987) and Heartbreak Hotel (1988). His directorial work includes Home Alone (1990), Only the Lonely (1991), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Nine Months (1995), Stepmom (1998), Bicentennial Man (1999), Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Rent (2005), I Love You Beth Cooper (2009) and Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010). He was the producer of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), the third film in the Harry Potter film series, and received an Academy Award nomination for producing The Help (2011). He is also adapting Erich Segal's novel Acts of Faith into a movie in 2014. Columbus founded his production company named 1492 Pictures in 1995, intended as a play to Columbus's more famous namesake, Christopher Columbus, with 1492 being the year of the explorer's first voyage. The character types preferred by Columbus are the everyday American men, women and children who struggle to uphold family traditions against a changing, sometimes intimidating society. In 1993 he said: "I can understand the validity of showing people the ugliness of the world, but I also think there is a place for movies to leave people with a sense of hope. If your film isn't going to do that, I just don't think it's worth making." Columbus is currently writing the House of Secrets book series with Ned Vizzini.

Personal Life:Columbus married Monica Devereux in 1983, with whom he has four children: Eleanor, Violet, Brendan, and Isabella. Columbus lives in San Francisco's Pacific Heights, where his children attend or previously attended Saint Ignatius College Preparatory. He donated money to the school for a new building, and the school's Piazza is named after him. Many of Columbus's family members—including his children, his wife, his father-in-law and his cousin Robert Ayres—have appeared in cameo roles in his films.

Year	Title	Director	Producer	Writer	Actor	Role
1984	Reckless			Yes
	Gremlins			Yes
1985	The Goonies			Yes
	Young Sherlock Holmes			Yes
1987	Adventures in Babysitting	Yes
1988	Heartbreak Hotel	Yes		Yes
1989	Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland			Yes
1990	Home Alone	Yes
1991	Only the Lonely	Yes		Yes
1992	Home Alone 2: Lost in New York	Yes			Yes	Man in Toy Store (uncredited)
1993	Mrs. Doubtfire	Yes
1995	Nine Months	Yes	Yes	Yes
1996	Jingle All the Way		Yes
1998	Stepmom	Yes	Yes
1999	Bicentennial Man	Yes	Yes
2001	Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone	Yes	Yes
	Monkeybone		Yes
2002	Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets	Yes	Yes
2004	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban		Yes
	Christmas with the Kranks		Yes	Yes
2005	Fantastic Four		Yes
	Rent	Yes	Yes		Yes	Angry Man in Car (uncredited)
2006	Night at the Museum		Yes
2007	Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer		Yes
2009	Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian		Yes
	I Love You, Beth Cooper	Yes	Yes	Yes
2010	Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief	Yes	Yes
2011	The Help		Yes
2012	Applebaum	Yes	Yes
2013	Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Sea Of Monsters		Yes
2014	Acts of Faith	Yes	Yes