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===Personal life===
===Personal life===
Mendes married British actress [[Kate Winslet]] on [[24 May]] [[2003]] in [[Anguilla]] in the [[Caribbean]]. Their first child, Joe Alfie Mendes, was born on [[22 December]] [[2003]]. Mendes also has a stepdaughter, Mia Honey Threapleton, from Winslet's first marriage to assistant director [[Jim Threapleton]]. The family now lives in [[New York City]] and Church Westcote Manor, Church Westcote, [[Gloucestershire, England]]. Mendes was made a [[Order of the British Empire|Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] in 2000.
Mendes married British actress [[Kate Winslet]] on [[24 May]] [[2003]] in [[Anguilla]] in the [[Caribbean]]. Their first child, Joe Alfie Mendes, was born on [[22 December]] [[2003]]. Mendes also has a stepdaughter, Mia Honey Threapleton, from Winslet's first marriage to assistant director [[Jim Threapleton]]. The family now lives in [[New York City]] and Church Westcote Manor, Church Westcote, [[Gloucestershire, England]]. Mendes was made a [[Order of the British Empire|Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] in 2000.

===Trivia===
Both Sam Mendes and his spouse, Kate Winslet will rarely be on the same plane if they travel to a destination as a result of both being involved in terrorist plane events. Mendes was originally booked in to fly on the ill-fated American Airlines flight that was hijacked on September 11th 2001 and was flown into the Pentagon killing all passengers.


==Work==
==Work==

Revision as of 12:17, 9 February 2009

Sam Mendes
Born
Samuel Alexander Mendes
Occupation(s)Theatre director, Film director
Years active1993–present
Spouse(s)Kate Winslet (2003-Present)
One Son

Samuel Alexander Mendes CBE (born 1 August 1965) is an English stage, film and commercial director at RSA US. He is known for his 1998 production of Cabaret, starring Alan Cumming, and his debut film, American Beauty, for which he won an Academy Award for Directing.

Biography

Early years

Mendes was born in Reading, Berkshire, England to Jameson Peter Mendes, a university professor, and Valerie Helene Barnett, an author of children's books.[1] His father is from Trinidad's ethnic Portuguese community, and his mother an English Jew.[2] His grandfather is the Trinidad writer Alfred Mendes. He attended Magdalen College School in Oxford and graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1987 (B.A.).

Mendes first attracted attention for his production of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard in the West End starring Judi Dench before he was twenty-five years old. Soon he was directing plays for the Royal Shakespeare Company where his productions, many of them featuring Simon Russell Beale, included Troilus and Cressida, Richard III and The Tempest.

He has also worked at the Royal National Theatre, directing Edward Bond's The Sea, Jim Cartwright's The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party, and Othello with Simon Russell Beale as Iago.

Career

Stage

In 1992 Mendes was appointed artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, an intimate studio space in London's West End which he quickly transformed into one of the most exciting venues in the city. His opening production was Stephen Sondheim's Assassins which reveled in the show's dark, comic brilliance and rescued it from the critical opprobrium it had suffered on its American opening. He followed this with a series of excellent classic revivals, many of which attracted some of the finest actors and biggest stars of the decade. Among Mendes's best productions were John Kander and Fred Ebb's Cabaret, Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie, Stephen Sondheim's Company, Alan Bennett's Habeas Corpus and his farewell duo of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night, which transferred to the Brooklyn Academy of Music. As artistic director Mendes also gave some of the country's finest younger directors the opportunity to do some of their best work: Matthew Warchus's production of Sam Shepard's True West, Katie Mitchell's of Beckett's Endgame, David Leveaux's of Sophocles's Elektra and Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing were amongst the most critically acclaimed of the decade. The Donmar's present artistic director Michael Grandage directed some of the key productions of the later part of Mendes's tenure, including Peter Nichols's Passion Play and Privates on Parade and Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along.

Film

Mendes made his directorial debut with the box office/critically acclaimed film American Beauty, starring Kevin Spacey. The film grossed US$356.3 million worldwide and had a 2373% ROI. The film won the Golden Globe Award, the BAFTA Award and the Academy Award for Best Picture. Mendes won a Director's Guild of America Award, a Golden Globe Award, and the Academy Award for directing American Beauty.

Mendes' second film, in 2002, was Road to Perdition, which grossed US$181 million. The aggregate review score on Rotten Tomatoes was 82%; critics praised Paul Newman for his performance. The film was nominated for 6 Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actor, and won one for Best Cinematography.

In 2005, Mendes directed the war film Jarhead. The film received mixed reviews, receiving a Rotten Tomatoes aggregate of 60%, and a gross revenue of US$96.9 million worldwide. The film focused on the boredom and other psychological challenges of wartime, instead of being a traditional combat-action film.

In 2008, Mendes directed Revolutionary Road, starring his wife Kate Winslet, along with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kathy Bates.

Mendes is in post-production on a comedy called Away We Go, about a couple searching across North America for the perfect community in which to settle down and start a family. The film stars John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph. Mendes is also starting pre-production on a film adaption of the acclaimed 1971 Tony-winning Broadway musical Follies and has announced his intentions to film an adaptation of the novel Middlemarch in the near future.

According to ComingSoon.net, Columbia Pictures has purchased the rights to the Preacher graphic novel series and have hired Sam Mendes to direct it.[3]

Personal life

Mendes married British actress Kate Winslet on 24 May 2003 in Anguilla in the Caribbean. Their first child, Joe Alfie Mendes, was born on 22 December 2003. Mendes also has a stepdaughter, Mia Honey Threapleton, from Winslet's first marriage to assistant director Jim Threapleton. The family now lives in New York City and Church Westcote Manor, Church Westcote, Gloucestershire, England. Mendes was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2000.

Trivia

Both Sam Mendes and his spouse, Kate Winslet will rarely be on the same plane if they travel to a destination as a result of both being involved in terrorist plane events. Mendes was originally booked in to fly on the ill-fated American Airlines flight that was hijacked on September 11th 2001 and was flown into the Pentagon killing all passengers.

Work

Stage productions

Filmography

Director

Year Film Oscar nominations Oscar wins
1999 American Beauty 8 5
2002 Road to Perdition 6 1
2005 Jarhead –
2008 Revolutionary Road 3
2009 Away We Go
2010 Middlemarch
2012 Follies
TBA Preacher

Producer

Year Film Notes
2002 Road to Perdition
2006 Starter for 10 (executive producer)
2007 The Kite Runner (executive producer)
Things We Lost in the Fire
2008 Revolutionary Road

Awards and nominations

Awards
Nominations

References

  1. ^ Sam Mendes Biography. - FilmReference.com. - Retrieved: 2008-09-01
  2. ^ Sam Mendes Biography. - Netglimse.com. - Retrieved: 2008-09-02
  3. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preacher_(film)#Film_adaptation
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Academy Award for Best Director
1999
for American Beauty 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Golden Globe Award for Best Director
1999
for American Beauty 		Succeeded by

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