Chris Columbus

Writer, director, and producer Chris Columbus developed an interest in movies at the age of fifteen after seeing The Godfather on film. He had been born on September 10, 1958, in Spangler, Pennsylvania, and later moved to Warren, Ohio. After graduating from JFK High School, Columbus enrolled in Tisch School of the Arts, studying at the New York University Film School. He sold a screenplay while attending the film school, but to this date, it hasn't been filmed.

Columbus got his big break working for Steven Spielberg's Amblin Productions as a screenwriter. His script for the movie Gremlins, originally written as a satire of It's a Wonderful Life, was initially rejected, but Spielberg decided to give the young man a start, and Columbus moved into Spielberg's bungalow at Universal in Los Angeles, California, to work on the rewrites of the script for a year. This led to him writing another project for Spielberg, The Goonies. A year later he shared in the writing credits for the film Young Sherlock Holmes.

Moving on to television, Columbus created Galaxy High, an animated series, and also wrote the first episode. Getting away from television and science fiction, yet staying in a younger genre, Columbus directed his first movie, Adventures in Babysitting, starring a young Elisabeth Shue and Penelope Ann Miller. Columbus now lives in River Forest, Illinois, a Chicago suburb that shares a high school with Oak Park, Illinois, where the movie was based. The high school, River Forest High School, was renamed to Hemingway High for the film, as it was Ernest Hemingway's high school.

Columbus returned to writing for Heartbreak Hotel, Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, and Gremlins 2: The New Batch. He also directed Heartbreak Hotel. He followed these with the director's role in the extremely successful Home Alone, the movie that launched Macaulay Culkin's career. Columbus filled the same role in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and he also appeared in a very minor acting role as a customer in the toy store. He was holding his daughter, Eleanor.

Making a switch to more mature-themed films, Columbus wrote and directed Only the Lonely, starring John Candy and Maureen O'Hara, and directed Robin Williams and Sally Field as divorced parents in Mrs. Doubtfire. After writing, directing, and producing Nine Months, starring Hugh Grant, Columbus stuck with producing, and did so in the films Jingle All the Way, Stepmom, Bicentennial Man, and Monkeybone.

Columbus's old friend Steven Spielberg passed on an offer to be the executive producer for the first Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and Columbus then expressed a desire to take on the project. After looking at other prospective producers, writer J.K. Rowling agreed to allow Columbus to produce if he would film in the United Kingdom and us an all-British cast. He went on to live in the United Kingdom for a year and half while he produced Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone as well as Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. He returned once again to produce Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Producing seems to be Columbus's desired role now; however, he does occasionally do work writing or directing movies if he is producing as well. He stuck solely with producing with Fantastic Four, its upcoming sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and Night at the Museum. Yet, he produced as well as wrote Christmas with the Kranks; and in the film version of Rent, Columbus produced, directed, and also had a minor role as the angry man in a car.

YUDDY