George Stevens, Jr., Writer-Producer-Director-Episode #250

Storybeat with Steve Cuden

George Stevens, Jr. has crafted an extraordinary creative legacy over a career spanning more than 60 years as a screenwriter, director, producer, playwright and author. He’s enriched the film and television arts as a filmmaker and is widely credited with bringing style and taste to the high-profile, national television events that he has conceived. In doing so he’s lived one of the most profoundly influential American lives ever.

As a writer, director and producer, George has earned many accolades, including 15 Emmys, two Peabody Awards, the Humanitas Prize and 8 awards from the Writers Guild of America, including the Paul Selvin Award for writing that embodies civil rights and liberties. In 2012, George received an Honorary Academy Award for “extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement.”

George served for eight years as Co-chairman of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities following his appointment by President Obama in 2009.

He’s the Founding Director of the American Film Institute. During his tenure, more than 10,000 irreplaceable American films were preserved and catalogued for future generations. He also established the AFI’s Center for Advanced Film Studies, which gained a reputation as the finest learning opportunity for young filmmakers.

With Nick Vanoff, George created the annually televised Kennedy Center Awards in 1978, which he wrote and produced for more than 35 years.

George executive produced Terrence Malick’s film, The Thin Red Line, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. He co-wrote and produced The Murder of Mary Phagan, starring Jack Lemmon, which received the Emmy for Outstanding Mini-Series. He wrote and directed Separate But Equal starring Sidney Poitier and Burt Lancaster which also won the Emmy for Outstanding Mini-Series. He produced two acclaimed films about his highly revered, Oscar-winning father, George Stevens: A Filmmaker’s Journey and George Stevens: D-Day to Berlin. In collaboration with his son and partner, Michael Stevens, he produced the feature length documentary Herblock – The Black & The White on the famed political cartoonist Herbert Block.

In 2008, George made his Broadway playwriting debut with Thurgood, starring Tony nominee Laurence Fishburne as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

As an author, George has published: Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood’s Golden Age, and Conversations with the Great Moviemakers – The Next Generation, featuring interviews with notable filmmakers from the AFI’s Harold Lloyd Master Seminar Series. In 2022 he published his autobiography, My Place in the Sun. I’ve read My Place in the Sun and can tell you it’s a truly entertaining memoir of his family’s show business legacy as well as his own top-tier life in Washington, Hollywood and beyond. I highly recommend this most excellent book to you.
George Stevens, Jr. resides in Washington, D.C. For more information, please consult: www.georgestevensjr.com