Chris Columbus

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Christopher "Chris" Columbus (born September 10, 1958) is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Columbus had most success with the Home Alone film (1990), winning a British Comedy Award for Best Comedy Film.

Life and career

Columbus was born in Spangler, Pennsylvania and raised in Youngstown, Ohio, the son of Irene, a factory worker, and Alex Columbus, an aluminum plant worker and coal miner.^[1] Columbus is of Italian and Czech descent. His father died in 1995 and his mother died of cancer in 1997. Columbus married Monica Devereux in 1983 with whom he had four children: Eleanor, Violet, Brendan, and Isabella.

Columbus graduated from Tisch School of the Arts and made his directorial debut with the teen comedy Adventures in Babysitting (1987). Columbus also created and wrote the first episodes of the animated series Galaxy High (1986–87).

His later directorial work includes Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Stepmom (1998), Bicentennial Man (1999), the first two Harry Potter films and Rent (2005), an adaptation of the popular Broadway musical. His upcoming films are Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), The Last Campaign (2010) and Ripley's Believe It or Not! (2011) starring Jim Carrey.

Success and criticism

The characters best loved by the blue-chip director are the everyday American men, women and children who struggle to uphold family traditions against a changing, sometimes intimidating society.^[2] But as Columbus's career to date shows, his sentimental and mainstream style often shown that he is a director with few sociological leanings and certainly none of the reckless box office abandon that often characterise the works of such contemporaries as Tim Burton and Bryan Singer.

In an industry overwhelmed by focus groups, Columbus can occasionally sound defensive of his audience-friendly and almost neighbourly directing style. In 1993 he said: "I can understand the validity of showing people the ugliness of the world, but I also think there is a place for movies to leave people with a sense of hope. If you're film isn't going to do that, I just don't think it's worth making."

Even with a string of hits, in Hollywood terms Columbus seemed a controversial choice to helm the Potter franchise. The film's head of production, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, insinuated that Columbus got the job because he was the director who delivers mainstream hits with a proven record at securing all-important returning audiences at American multiplexes as well as a gift for drawing strong performances from children. Yet the Potter franchise couldn't be in safer hands. The translation of Rowling's source material has been helped onto the screen by the near constant presence of the author on set. In 2001 he said: "Everybody thought I was this cuddly, sentimental guy. My films have always been brightly lit and never as visually exciting as I wanted them to be. I don't know why. I didn't realise how liberating it would be."

One of Columbus upcoming film is "The Last Campaign", a huge shift from his previous work. The story about Kennedy's idealistic campaign, which focused squarely on poverty, racism and ending the unpopular Vietnam War, resonated with Columbus and his 1492 partners. While losing his iconic brother made him wary of crowds, Kennedy refused to insulate himself from the public during his run.

Columbus founded his production company named 1492 Pictures in 1995, intended as a play to Columbus's more famous namesake, Christopher Columbus.

Family and cameo appearances

His brother in law, Clarke Devereux, attended Boston College and was roommates with Ed Rabasco a lawyer who went to see "Reckless", Columbus' first film, with Columbus and other friends and at the end of the movie they all got up and clapped. Other viewers at the movie asked "why are you clapping" and they responded with "This is the writer right here".

His daughter Eleanor Columbus appeared as the character Susan Bones in the two Potter films he directed, making her one of only two Americans cast as students, along with cousin Robert Ayres (Boy in Study Hall #2 in his second Harry Potter film). She also appeared as an infant in Home Alone with her mother, and had a small cameo along with her father in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.

Two of his other children, Violet and Brendan, appeared in unnamed cameo roles in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Devereux made a small appearance in Home Alone as the red-headed flight attendant, and in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York as the Plaza telephone operator.

Columbus lives in San Francisco's Pacific Heights, where his children attend or previously attended Saint Ignatius College Preparatory. He donated money to the school for a new building, which is named after him.

Filmography

References

External links

• Chris Columbus at the Internet Movie Database
• BBC Movies article about Chris Columbus
• Chris Columbus biography from The New York Times
• Elementary, My Dear Potter - Young Sherlock Holmes / Harry Potter article