Biography for
Richard Linklater More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

30 July 1960, Houston, Texas, USA

Birth Name

Richard Stuart Linklater

Height

5' 9" (1.75 m)

Mini Biography

Self-taught writer-director Richard Linklater was among the first and most successful talents to emerge during the American independent film renaissance of the 1990s. Typically setting each of his movies during one 24-hour period, Linklater's work explored what he dubbed "the youth rebellion continuum," focusing in fine detail on generational rites and mores with rare compassion and understanding while definitively capturing the 20-something culture of his era through a series of nuanced, illuminating ensemble pieces which introduced any number of talented young actors into the Hollywood firmament. Born in Houston, Texas, Linklater suspended his educational career at Sam Houston State University in 1982, to work on an offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. He subsequently relocated to the state's capital of Austin, where he founded a film society and began work on his debut film, 1987's It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books (1988). Three years later he released the sprawling Slacker (1991), an insightful, virtually plotless look at 1990s youth culture that became a favorite on the festival circuit prior to earning vast acclaim at Sundance in 1991. Upon its commercial release, the movie, made for less than $23,000, became the subject of considerable mainstream media attention, with the term "slacker" becoming a much-overused catch-all tag employed to affix a name and identity to America's disaffected youth culture.

IMDb Mini Biography By: goodtanin@yahoo.com

Trade Mark

His films often take place within a single day

His movies often take place in Texas

His movies often reference Little League baseball

Frequently casts Ethan Hawke

Frequently writes and/or directs movies starring children or teens, e.g., Dazed and Confused (1993), The School of Rock (2003), and Bad News Bears (2005).

Trivia

Cut his directorial teeth on a $3,000 Super-8 feature.

Father of Lorelei Linklater.

7 October 2004: Three former friends of Linklater--Bobby Wooderson, Andy Slater, and Richard "Pink" Floyd--sued him for the unauthorized use of their names and images in the film Dazed and Confused (1993) and for their representation as stoners, which they say has damaged their reputation.

Has been a vegetarian since his early 20s.

Inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame on March 9, 2007 in Austin, Texas.

Kevin Smith said that it was Linklater's Slacker (1991) that made him want to be a director.

Was member of the dramatic jury at the Sundance Film Festival in 1999.

Profiled in "Conversations with Directors: An Anthology of Interviews from Literature/Film Quarterly", E.M. Walker, D.T. Johnson, eds. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2008.

First became passionate about film while working on an oil rig during college and realized he wanted to be a Director.

Personal Quotes

Most of us are losers most of the time, if you think about it.

[Terrence Malick] is a guy who sees his movies and thinks, "I would have done that differently". I see mine and say, "Given the circumstances, that's what I did and that's what I'd do again". I don't know how much of a free-will guy I am.

But nothing is going to knock me off my game. Because I have some pretty low-budget films I want to do.

I would have loved to have been a '40s studio director like Vincente Minnelli. You ended up with a real diverse career. Now you don't get a call from [Darryl F. Zanuck] saying, "Come do this movie on Monday". So you have to do it on your own.

We all give ourselves a lot of leeway, but we want consistency from other people.

These days we can be sued for disparaging an industry. It's like it's a felony to say something bad. I think they should make it a felony to criticize a film product. Particularly my film product. It's anti-American. I'd like to see people get sued if they wrote a bad review of my movie. If you can't say something nice you shouldn't say anything at all.

My plan B has always been to make a film about people who talk a lot.

It's tough, man. Unless it's a tentpole, sequel, remake, or over-the-top comedy, that's all the studios are even doing. They've kind of admitted they're not in the business of doing anything else. The slightest level of irony or intelligence and, boom, you're out of the league, you're done.

{On Raging Bull (1980)] It made me see movies as a potential outlet for what I was thinking about and hoping to express. At that point, I was an unformed artist. At that moment, something was simmering in me, but "Raging Bull" brought it to a boil.

We get a lot of cautionary tales about the dangers of getting exactly what you want in life. You know, if you take out the striving and the incompleteness, then where are you?

This whole notion of love being based on attraction is fairly recent in history and is not a very stable indicator. That's why, throughout history, most marriages have been arranged and not in the hands of the people themselves because you're not equipped to to make a good decision when you have the hots for someone. It feels good now, but where are you going to be in two years from now. You can't entrust love to two kids. Look at Romeo and Juliet. Tying love an romance together is really just something we've done in the last two or three hundred years.

[on 'Before Midnight] Each film is like doing a thesis, and this is an ongoing doctoral dissertation. I feel I could go back and get another degree. I read books about it and articles, and all that stuff. I know a lot on an intellectual level, but how it applies to my own life, I don't know...it's my exploration of being an adult male. It's a mystery how love redefines itself. There's the white heat of attraction that we interpret as a deep connection and love. But it's different from what makes a long-term partnership. love. But it's different fro what makes a long-term partnership.