On This Day

Birthday of Sam Mendes

August 1st 1965

10:37 1 August 2024

English film and stage director, producer and screenwriter Sam Mendes was born on this day in 1965. Mendes began his career in theatre with stage musicals before moving to film and making his directorial debut with 'American Beauty' (1999) for which he won the Academy Award and Golden Globe Awards for Best Director.

Further acclaim followed with 'Road to Perdition' (2002), 'Jarhead' (2005) and 'Revolutionary Road' (2012). In 2010 Mendes was asked to direct the twenty-third James Bond film 'Skyfall' (2012), the success of which led him to return to direct the next instalment in the 007 franchise: 'Spectre' (2015). His World War One epic drama '1917' (2019) was a critical and box office hit as well as being a hugely impressive technical achievement and more recently he directed the romantic drama ‘Empire of Light’ (2022). Happy Birthday Sam.