In Vietnam Stone won the Bronze Star for Valor and the Purple Heart with First Oak Leaf Cluster. Stone was jailed for marijuana possession in Mexico at the age of 21.
Children: With Elizabeth Stone (divorced) Sean Stone, Michael Jack Stone. With Chong Son Chong (girlfriend), Tara Chong Stone.
His father Lou Stone was a successfully stockbroker on Wall Street then he suffered some financial setbacks due to bad investments and a bitter divorce to Oliver's mother Jacqueline. The movie Wall Street is supposed to be modeled after Lou.
Oliver's father met his mother while he was in Eisenhower's cabinet in WWII in France. As a child Oliver was raised by a nanny because his mother frequently took vacations to France. Oliver grew up as a child of privilege.
Arrested for drunken driving and possession of hashish. [June 1999]
Says he kicked a cocaine habit by moving to France while writing Scarface (1983).
Friends with Lloyd Kaufman, founder and president of Troma.
Speaks French fluently.
Underwent infantry training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina.
Shares the exact same birthday as good friend and star of some his films, Tommy Lee Jones. Both were born on September 15, 1946.
The same drum theme playing in the beginning of "JFK" (for which he was a producer), plays three times in "The Day Reagan Was Shot" ( for which he was an executive producer).
Is a friend and admirer of Cuban Premier Fidel Castro, and recently shot a documentary about the world's longest reigning Communist leader, titled Comandante (2003). It was to air on HBO in May 2003, but due to protests by anti-Castro Cuban-American activists, it was shelved until 2003.
Directed two comedians/comic actors in their first and only dramatic roles; John Candy in JFK (1991) and Rodney Dangerfield in Natural Born Killers (1994).
On September 14, 1967 he left for Vietnam and was assigned to the 2nd Platoon of Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Infantry, stationed near the Cambodian border as "Private Bill Stone" (fearing that "Oliver" was too effeminate).
Wrote a collegiate letter of recommendation for Claire Danes when she applied for Stone's alma mater, Yale University. She was quickly accepted.
Often talks about the experience of his father Louis Stone taking him to lose his virginity to a prostitute in his mid-teens.
Was voted the 43rd Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
All the feature-length commercial films he's directed have been rated "R", except for Seizure (1974), which was rated "PG".
His mother is French.
Was taught by Martin Scorsese at New York University Film School.
His 11-minute student film made at NYU is called 'Last Year in Viet Nam'.
As of 2004, Oliver stone is attached to direct several projects. "Spite House", which he wrote and will direct about Vietnam. "The Fountainhead", based on the Ayn Rand novel. "Lennon", a biopic of 'John Lennon' , and a biopic of Margaret Thatcher, and a biopic of sorts about an attempted assassination plot by the Republican party against FDR in the 1930s. Plus a script is being written specifically for Stone to direct.
Directed 8 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: James Woods, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Michael Douglas, Tom Cruise, Tommy Lee Jones, Anthony Hopkins and Joan Allen. Douglas won an Academy Award for Wall Street (1987).
Known for the political content of his films, Stone was a member of the Class of 1968 at Yale University along with Clinton administration adviser Strobe Talbot and future President George W. Bush (John F. Kerry was also there at the same as Stone, though he was several classes ahead of '68). Stone left Yale after only one year (he failed all his second semester freshman classes) and ended up joining the military and fighting in Vietnam. He never returned to graduate from Yale.
Was attached to direct "American Psycho" with Leonardo DiCaprio in talks to star as Patrick Bateman. After DiCaprio left the project to make "The Beach", Stone abandoned ship.
Received two Academy Award nominations for best original screenplay in the same year (1987 - Salvador & Platoon) but lost to Woody Allen for Hannah and Her Sisters.
Has directed 4 actors into best lead role nominations, and 3 actors to best supporting role nominations. Lead roles were James Woods (Salvador), Michael Douglas (Wall Street), Tom Cruise (Born On The Fourth of July), and Anthony Hopkins (Nixon). Supporting roles were Willem Dafoe & Tom Berenger (Platoon) and Tommy Lee Jones (JFK).
Attended the first Ivy League Film Festival at Brown University in 2002 where he gave a conference to then-college student Kai Wong.
Oliver Stone Detailed Biography
William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946), known simply as Oliver Stone, is an Academy Award-winning American film director.
Stone was born in New York City. His father was Jewish and his mother a Roman Catholic of French birth. He was raised an Episcopalian as a compromise. His parents divorced when he was in high school, and only then did Stone learn of his father's extramarital affairs with the wives of several family friends.
Stone attended The Hill School, Yale University and New York University. He attended Yale, dropping out after one year. He then taught English at the Free Pacific Institute in South Vietnam for six months after which he worked as a merchant marine, and traveled to Oregon and Mexico, before returning to Yale, where he dropped out a second time.
A veteran of the Vietnam conflict, Stone served with the United States Army from April 1967 to November 1968. He specifically requested combat duty and was assigned to the 25th Infantry Regiment, and was wounded twice in action. His personal awards include the Bronze Star with "V" device for valor for "extraordinary acts of courage under fire", and the Purple Heart with one Oak Leaf Cluster.
He has made three films about Vietnam —Platoon (1986), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), and Heaven & Earth (1993). He has called these films a trilogy, though they each deal with different aspects of the war. Platoon is a semi-autobiographical film about Stone's experience in combat. Born on the Fourth of July is a biography of Ron Kovic, a veteran of the war who was paralyzed in Vietnam and subsequently became a political activist against the war. Heaven and Earth is a true story of a Vietnamese girl whose life is drastically affected by the war.
Stone has won two Academy Awards for Directing for Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July, as well as a best adapted screenplay Oscar for Midnight Express (1978), which he wrote but did not direct. Other films he had a hand in the screenplays for are Conan the Barbarian (1982), Scarface (1983), Year of the Dragon (1985), 8 Million Ways to Die (1986) and Evita (1996). He has also written or taken part in the writing of every film he has directed, except for U Turn (1997). The very first film that he directed professionally was the obscure horror picture Seizure (1974).
A distinct feature in Oliver Stone's movies is the use of a multitude of different cameras and film formats, from VHS to 8mm film to 70mm film. He sometimes uses several formats in a single scene, as in JFK (1991) and Natural Born Killers (1994).
Stone won his first Academy Award in 1978 for Midnight Express, but many scenes in the movie, which were supposedly based on the true story of Billy Hayes, in fact never occurred. In 2004, while visiting Turkey, he apologised for the film and admitted that he did not do any research before he wrote the script.
Stone's films often deal with political matters and are sometimes critical of the government. JFK, for instance, hypothesizes about many high-level government officials, including Lyndon B. Johnson, having a hand in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In 1991, he showed the film to Congress on Capitol Hill, which helped lead to passage of the Assassination Materials Disclosure Act of 1992. The film was widely criticized in the media as being a mixture of truth and fiction, prompting Stone to publish an annotated version of the screenplay, in which he cites references for his claims. Similarly, he published an annotated version of his screenplay for the film Nixon, which was criticized for its portrayal of President Richard M. Nixon.
Stone has admitted to using drugs while making films. On the DVD of Natural Born Killers: The Director's Cut, a member of cast recounts stories of taking psylocibin mushrooms with Stone and some of the cast and crew and almost getting pulled over by a police officer—a situation which Stone later wrote into the film. Natural Born Killers is filmed and edited in a frenzied style where animation, grainy black and white 8mm film, color 35mm film, and VHS are intercut and juxtaposed in a psychedelic montage of images showing not only the story's action, but also conveying the characters thoughts and feelings. The film was criticized by some for its apparent glorification of violence. Stone refutes this claim, saying that it is a satire of the American media's glorification of violence and violent people. In fact, the original screenwriter of Natural Born Killers, Quentin Tarantino, was unhappy with the end result of the film because of the attention Stone gave to the aspects of the story involving the media, and asked that his name be removed from the credits.
In 1999, Stone was arrested and pleaded guilty to drug possession and no contest to driving under the influence. He was ordered into a rehabilitation program. He was arrested again on the night of May 27, 2005 in Los Angeles for drug possession and driving under the influence.
Stone's Law
Stone's Law is a short, humorous quip attributed to film director Oliver Stone. It goes as follows:
Any evidence which opposes (or tends to oppose) a conspiracy theory was in fact fabricated by the conspirators, and shows just how large the conspiracy really is.
