Born in Chicago, Ill., on May 14, 1952, Robert Zemeckis began making short films with an 8mm camera while still in high school. He attended Northern Illinois University before transferring to the University of Southern California film school.

Zemeckis first gained attention with the Beatles love letter I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978) and the comedy Used Cars (1980). His first blockbuster was Romancing the Stone (1984), which was followed by a nearly endless parade of hits that included the Back to the Future trilogy (1985, 1989, 1990), Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988), Death Becomes Her (1992) and Forrest Gump (1994), for which Zemeckis won the Best Director Oscar.

Although his more recent films have taken a serious turn (1997's Contact, 2000's What Lies Beneath and Cast Away), he also managed to find the child inside himself with the 2004 computer-animated Christmas tale The Polar Express.