Sir Samuel Alexander Mendes (born 1 August 1965) is an English director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his directoral debut movie "American Beauty" (1999), which earned him the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Director, the crime movie "Road to Perdition" (2002) the James Bond movies "Skyfall" (2012) and "Spectre" (2015), and the war movie "1917" (2019).