Stanley Kubrick
Kubrick was born in Manhattan, New York City and grew up in the Bronx during his youth. Stanley was a poor student in school but his father, who was a doctor, taught Stanley how to play chess and gave him a camera. Kubrick finished high school in 1946 and could not get into a college. This was because of his poor grades in school and because colleges were full with many American soldier's who returned from World War II that same year. During this time, Kubrick played games of chess with people for money. He was a good chess player and won many games. He used the money he won from playing chess to buy food and photography equipment. Kubrick got a job at a magazine in New York City that was called Look Magazine. Kubrick also enjoyed watching movies and thought that he could make better movies than the movies that were being made at the time. He first made two small documentaries. One of them was about a boxer and was called Day of the Fight. The other documentary was about a religious man and was called Flying Padre. He then made two full-length movies (called feature films) that made other people interested in his work. The first feature film was called Fear and Desire and the other was called Killer's Kiss. His third feature film, called The Killing, was a success. The success of The Killing allowed Stanley to work on a bigger movie, called Paths of Glory, that was about World War I and was made with the famous actor Kirk Douglas. At this time Kubrick became well known in the movie industry and had started to create his own style.