Tracking Spielberg's Career Journey
With multiple Oscars and Golden Globe awards, Steven Spielberg went from a California college student to a Hollywood icon, becoming one of the Golden State's adopted sons.
"I love making films in L.A.," says Spielberg, who had already made between "15 and 18 pictures by the time [he] became a freshman at Long Beach State University."
Starting out with features like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Spielberg later expanded his canon to explore historical subjects in Schindler's List and last year's Lincoln.
"When you think about what you are going to leave behind for your kids, this was a subject I wanted to leave for them," says Spielberg, who continues to give back through organizations like the Shoah Foundation, which gives a voice to the witnesses of the Holocaust.