Sam Mendes Sam Mendes Samuel Alexander Mendes (born 1 August 1965) is an English stage and film director best known for directing the drama film "American Beauty" (1999), which earned him the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Director, the crime film "Road to Perdition" (2002), and the "James Bond" films "Skyfall" (2012) and "Spectre" (2015). He also is known for dark re-inventions of the stage musicals "Cabaret" (1994), "Oliver!" (1994), "Company" (1995), and "" (2003). He directed an original West End stage musical for the first time with "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (2013). In 2000 Mendes was appointed
Sam Mendes and Miles Anderson as Bill Sikes. Mendes, Pryce and Dexter received Olivier Award nominations for their work on "Oliver!". He has also directed productions of Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie", Stephen Sondheim's "Company" (which had the first ever African American Bobby), Alan Bennett's "Habeas Corpus" and his farewell duo of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" and "Twelfth Night", which transferred to the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In 2003 Mendes directed a revival of the musical "Gypsy". Originally, he planned to stage this production in London's West End with an eventual Broadway transfer, but when negotiations fell through, he brought it to New