Ang Lee: Movie Director Biography

Ang Lee

This prolific director has created a plethora of award winning movies over the past thirty years, catapulting him into a level of success few directors ever acquire. He has won numerous awards for his movies, his most recent success being Brokeback Mountain (2005) starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. Lee has been known to constantly push the envelope and has the ability to create independent films with mainstream success.

Ang Lee is best known for making serious subject matter seem lighthearted and sometimes even comical. This has allowed him to present serious issues through his films and still attract mainstream audiences to his work. The diversity of the films he has chosen to direct is also something to be admired. From Brokeback Mountain to The Hulk (2003) with Eric Bana and Jennifer Connelly to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) with Yun Fat Chow and Michelle Yeoh, Lee is able to create a variety of film types.

Ang Lee was born in an agricultural area of Taiwan, and was instilled with an importance of education and Chinese classical studies from an early age. Thanks to his father’s pushing and status as principal at Tainan First Senior High School , Ang was able to attend this well known school. Instead of following the path his father desired--for Ang to attend a University and become a professor--Ang developed an interest in art and chose to attend an art school instead. It was during this time that he began toying with the idea of performance art.

After completing the three year degree program in , Lee set his sights for and chose to study theater at the University of Illinois . He earned his Bachelor’s degree in 1980 he then continued on to graduate school at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University where he began experimenting with film.

Ang Lee and award winning director, Spike Lee, were classmates and worked on the crew of their thesis projects together. Ang’s first short film, Shades of the Lake, was completed in 1982 and went on to win the Best Drama Award in a Short Film in his home country of Taiwan.

Although his work in graduate school was award winning, Lee was unable to find work for six years following his graduation. Instead, his wife, Jane Lin, was responsible for financially supporting their family of four with her work as a molecular biologist. This was considered to be a great embarrassment in traditional Chinese culture and was a very hard time for Lee and his family.

It was not until 1991 that Lee’s first big break came. After winning first place in a screenplay competition sponsored by the Taiwan Government Information Office, he was approached by a young producer who asked him to direct his screenplay, Pushing Hands (1992). The film was not only a success in but was also a hit internationally; it was after this break that doors started opening for Lee.

By 1995, with three successful films under his belt, Lee was ready to tackle Hollywood , beginning with Sense and Sensibility (1995) which starred Tom Wilkinson, Kate Winslet, Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant. His adaptation of the Jane Austen British classic was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture.