Julie Taymor

Innovative film director of stage and screen, Julie Taymor has made a name for herself through outlandish costumes, colorful image motifs, and stunning visual effects both on and off stage.

Julie Taymor was born December 15, 1952 in Newton, Massachusetts. Raised in a Jewish household, her mother was Elizabeth Bernstein, and her father was Melvin Lester Taymor, a political science teacher and gynecologist respectively.

Taymor expressed an interest in filmmaking from an early age, becoming involved with the Boston Children’s Theater when she was just nine years old. By her high school days, she became enchanted with the idea of travel, resulting in excursions to both Sri Lanka and India.

In order to better pursue her artistic aesthetic, she studied in Paris at the L’Ecole de Mime Jacques Lecoq. She pursued her secondary education at Oberlin College where she majored in mythology and folklore.

When she joined her new troupe, she was exposed to various techniques such as masked dance and shadow puppetry, both of which would be featured prominently in her later work.

Her first directorial work came in 1986 with a film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. She went on to direct Fool’s Fire in 1992 based on the Edgar Allen Poe work. This was followed quickly by Oedipus Rex the following year.

Moving from film to stage, Taymor received her highest praise to date for the 1997 Broadway adaptation of The Lion King. Employing many of the mask dance and puppetry techniques she studied so intensely, the play was a phenomenal hit. It went on to receive countless awards, securing Taymor two Tony Awards for Directing and Costume Design.

On top of rave reviews, Taymor’s work established an important milestone. She became the first female to win a Tony for directing a musical.

Continuing to push the envelope in all mediums, her controversial film Titus was released in 1999. Starring Jessica Lange, Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and Alan Cumming, the work is considered one of the most accurate Shakespeare translations from play to film. Sparing no detail, which included many disturbing elements, many appreciated the film’s aesthetic but were shocked by its graphic nature.

Continuing on her critically successful run, 2002 brought the Oscar darling Frida. Based on the life of Frida Kahlo, the film starred Salma Hayek, Diego Luna, Alfred Molina, Ashley Judd, and Antonio Banderas. It earned six Oscar nods and took away two statuettes for Best Makeup and Best Original Score.

Her most recent work, the visually innovative film Across the Universe, opened in September 2007 to rave reviews. Starring Jim Sturgess and Evan Rachel Wood, the work is set entirely to a score by The Beatles.

She currently resides in New York City with the composer Elliot Goldenthal. They have been together for over twenty years.