Ridley Scott

Sir
Ridley Scott
GBE
Scott in 2015
Born (1937-11-30) 30 November 1937 (age 86)
South Shields, Tyne and Wear, England
Alma mater
Occupation(s)Film director, producer
Years active1963–present
WorksFull list
Spouses
  • Felicity Heywood
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1964; div. 1975)​
  • Sandy Watson
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1979; div. 1989)​
  • ​
    (m. 2015)​
Children
RelativesTony Scott (brother)
AwardsFull list

Sir Ridley Scott GBE (born 30 November 1937) is a British film director and producer. He is best known for directing films in the science fiction, crime, and historical drama genres. His work is known for its atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style.[1][2][3] He ranks among the highest-grossing directors and has received many accolades, including the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement in 2018, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Golden Globe Award.[4] He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003,[5] and appointed a Knight Grand Cross by King Charles III in 2024.[6]

An alumnus of the Royal College of Art in London, Scott began his career in television as a designer and director before moving into advertising as a director of commercials. He made his film directorial debut with The Duellists (1977) and gained wider recognition with his next film, Alien (1979). Though his films range widely in setting and period, they showcase memorable imagery of urban environments, spanning 2nd-century Rome in Gladiator (2000), 12th-century Jerusalem in Kingdom of Heaven (2005), medieval England in Robin Hood (2010), ancient Memphis in Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014), contemporary Mogadishu in Black Hawk Down (2001), and the futuristic cityscapes of Blade Runner (1982) and different planets in Alien, Prometheus (2012), The Martian (2015) and Alien: Covenant (2017).

Scott has been nominated for three Academy Awards for Directing for Thelma & Louise, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down.[2] Gladiator won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and he received a nomination in the same category for The Martian. In 1995, both Scott and his brother Tony received a British Academy Film Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema.[7] Scott's films Alien, Blade Runner and Thelma & Louise were each selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being considered "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In a 2004 BBC poll, Scott was ranked 10 on the list of most influential people in British culture.[8] Scott is also known for his work in television, having earned 10 Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He won twice, for Outstanding Television Film for the HBO film The Gathering Storm (2002) and for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special for the History Channel's Gettysburg (2011).[9] He was Emmy-nominated for RKO 281 (1999), The Andromeda Strain (2008), and The Pillars of the Earth (2010).[10]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference commercials was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b "Ridley Scott". Encyclopædia Britannica. 25 June 2023. Archived from the original on 24 December 2019. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  3. ^ Matthews, Jack (4 October 1992). "Regarding Ridley : For 15 years Ridley Scott has dazzled us with expressive imagery. 'Every time you make a film, really you're making a novel,' says the director". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 8 May 2016. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
  4. ^ "Sir Ridley Scott gets top Bafta honour". BBC News. 31 January 2018. Archived from the original on 20 July 2019. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
  5. ^ "Queen knights Gladiator director". BBC News. 8 July 2003. Archived from the original on 8 August 2017. Retrieved 6 March 2010.
  6. ^ Gecsoyler, Sammy (29 December 2023). "New year honours 2024: awards for Shirley Bassey, Mary Earps and Michael Eavis". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 30 December 2023. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
  7. ^ "Outstanding British Contribution To Cinema". BAFTA. 12 October 2015. Archived from the original on 8 October 2017. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  8. ^ "iPod's low-profile creator tops cultural chart". The Independent. 18 March 2017. Archived from the original on 21 August 2017. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  9. ^ "Why Albert Finney Was the Perfect Winston Churchill: 'An English Bulldog of an Actor'". Variety. 9 February 2019. Archived from the original on 11 June 2023. Retrieved 11 June 2023.
  10. ^ "Ridley Scott – Emmy Awards, Nominations, and Wins". www.emmys.com. Archived from the original on 11 June 2023. Retrieved 11 June 2023.