best directorial careers of all time
by mgodd | created - 06 Jul 2011 | updated - 14 Nov 2019 | PublicDirectors who have made 10 or more good films in their career.
Calculated from manipulation of IMDB data.
To qualify a film must have 100 views by top 1000 voters and score 7.0 or more from top 1000 voters. Feature films only and no Documentaries included.
1. Alfred Hitchcock
Director | Psycho
Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone, Essex, England. He was the son of Emma Jane (Whelan; 1863 - 1942) and East End greengrocer William Hitchcock (1862 - 1914). His parents were both of half English and half Irish ancestry. He had two older siblings, William Hitchcock (born 1890) and ...
27 films
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog
The 39 Steps
Sabotage
Young and Innocent
The Lady Vanishes
Rebecca
Foreign Correspondent
Suspicion
Saboteur
Shadow of a Doubt
Lifeboat
Spellbound
Notorious
Rope
Strangers on a Train
Rear Window
Dial M for Murder
To Catch a Thief
The Trouble with Harry
The Man Who Knew Too Much
The Wrong Man
Vertigo
North by Northwest
Psycho
The Birds
Marnie
Frenzy
2. William Wyler
Director | The Best Years of Our Lives
William Wyler was an American filmmaker who, at the time of his death in 1981, was considered by his peers as second only to John Ford as a master craftsman of cinema. The winner of three Best Director Academy Awards, second again only to Ford's four, Wyler's reputation has unfairly suffered as the...
20 films
Dodsworth
These Three
Dead End
Jezebel
Wuthering Heights
The Letter
The Westerner
The Little Foxes
Mrs Miniver
The Best Years of Our Lives
The Heiress
Detective Story
Carrie
Roman Holiday
The Desperate Hours
Friendly Persuasion
The Big Country
Ben-Hur
The Children's Hour
The Collector
3. John Ford
Director | The Quiet Man
John Ford came to Hollywood following one of his brothers, an actor. Asked what brought him to Hollywood, he replied "the train". He became one of the most respected directors in the business, in spite of being known for his westerns, which were not considered "serious" film. He won six Oscars, ...
19 films
The Lost Patrol
The Informer
The Whole Town's Talking
The Hurricane
Stagecoach
Young Mr Lincoln
Drums Along the Mohawk
The Grapes of Wrath
How Green Was My Valley
They Were Expendable
My Darling Clementine
Fort Apache
Rio Grande
The Quiet Man
Mister Roberts
The Searchers
The Last Hurrah
Sergeant Rutledge
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
4. Ingmar Bergman
Writer | Smultronstället
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was born July 14, 1918, the son of a priest. The film and T.V. series, The Best Intentions (1992) is biographical and shows the early marriage of his parents. The film Sunday's Children (1992) depicts a bicycle journey with his father. In the miniseries Private Confessions (...
19 films
Summer with Monika
Sawdust and Tinsel
Smiles of a Summer Night
The Seventh Seal
Wild Strawberries
The Face
The Virgin Spring
Through a Glass Darkly
Winter Light
The Silence
Persona
Hour of the Wolf
Shame
The Passion of Anna
Cries and Whispers
Scenes from a Marriage
Face to Face
Autumn Sonata
Fanny och Alexander
5. Billy Wilder
Writer | The Apartment
Originally planning to become a lawyer, Billy Wilder abandoned that career in favor of working as a reporter for a Viennese newspaper, using this experience to move to Berlin, where he worked for the city's largest tabloid. He broke into films as a screenwriter in 1929 and wrote scripts for many ...
18 films
The Major and the Minor
Five Graves to Cairo
Double Indemnity
The Lost Weekend
A Foreign Affair
Sunset Blvd
Ace in the Hole
Stalag 17
Sabrina
The Seven Year Itch
Witness for the Prosecution
The Spirit of St Louis
Love in the Afternoon
Some Like It Hot
The Apartment
One, Two, Three
The Fortune Cookie
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
6. Steven Spielberg
Producer | Schindler's List
One of the most influential personalities in the history of cinema, Steven Spielberg is Hollywood's best known director and one of the wealthiest filmmakers in the world. He has an extraordinary number of commercially successful and critically acclaimed credits to his name, either as a director, ...
17 films
Duel
Jaws
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Raiders of the Lost Ark
ET : The Extra-Terrestrial
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
The Color Purple
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Schindler's List
Jurassic Park
Saving Private Ryan
Minority Report
Catch Me If You Can
Munich
Lincoln
Bridge of Spies
Ready Player One
7. Akira Kurosawa
Writer | Kakushi-toride no san-akunin
After training as a painter (he storyboards his films as full-scale paintings), Kurosawa entered the film industry in 1936 as an assistant director, eventually making his directorial debut with Sanshiro Sugata (1943). Within a few years, Kurosawa had achieved sufficient stature to allow him greater...
16 films
Drunken Angel
Stray Dog
Rashômon
Ikiru
Seven Samurai
Throne of Blood
The Hidden Fortress
The Bad Sleep Well
Yojimbo
Sanjuro
High and Low
Red Beard
Dodesukaden
Dersu Uzala
Kagemusha
Ran
8. Martin Scorsese
Producer | Killers of the Flower Moon
Martin Charles Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942 in Queens, New York City, to Catherine Scorsese (née Cappa) and Charles Scorsese, who both worked in Manhattan's garment district, and whose families both came from Palermo, Sicily. He was raised in the neighborhood of Little Italy, which later ...
16 films
Mean Streets
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Taxi Driver
Raging Bull
The King of Comedy
After Hours
The Last Temptation of Christ
Goodfellas
Cape Fear
Casino
Gangs of New York
The Aviator
The Departed
Shutter Island
Hugo
Wolf of Wall Street
9. François Truffaut
Writer | La nuit américaine
French director François Truffaut began to assiduously go to the movies at age seven. He was also a great reader but not a good pupil. He left school at 14 and started working. In 1947, aged 15, he founded a film club and met André Bazin, a French critic, who became his protector. Bazin helped the ...
16 films
The 400 Blows
Shoot the Pianist
Jules et Jim
La peau douce
Fahrenheit 451
Baisers volés
The Bride Wore Black
L'enfant sauvage
Domicile conjugal
Anne and Muriel
Day for Night
The Story of Adele H
Small Change
The Man Who Loved Women
Le dernier métro
Vivement dimanche!
10. Fritz Lang
Actor | Le mépris
Fritz Lang was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1890. His father managed a construction company. His mother, Pauline Schlesinger, was Jewish but converted to Catholicism when Lang was ten. After high school, he enrolled briefly at the Technische Hochschule Wien and then started to train as a painter. ...
15 films
Der müde Tod
Dr Mabuse: The Gambler
Die Nibelungen: Siegfried
Die Nibelungen: Kriemhilds Rache
Metropolis
M
Das Testament des Dr Mabuse
Fury
You Only Live Once
Man Hunt
Hangmen Also Die!
The Woman in the Window
Ministry of Fear
Scarlet Street
The Big Heat
11. Howard Hawks
Director | Rio Bravo
What do the classic films Scarface (1932), Twentieth Century (1934), Bringing Up Baby (1938), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), His Girl Friday (1940), Sergeant York (1941), To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Red River (1948) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) and Rio Bravo (1959) have in...
15 films
Scarface
Twentieth Century
Bringing Up Baby
Only Angels Have Wings
His Girl Friday
Sergeant York
Ball of Fire
Air Force
To Have and Have Not
The Big Sleep
Red River
Monkey Business
The Big Sky
Rio Bravo
El Dorado
12. Luis Buñuel
Writer | Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie
The father of cinematic Surrealism and one of the most original directors in the history of the film medium, Luis Buñuel was given a strict Jesuit education (which sowed the seeds of his obsession with both religion and subversive behavior), and subsequently moved to Madrid to study at the ...
15 films
L'âge d'or
Los olvidados
El
Robinson Crusoe
The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz
Nazarín
Viridiana
The Exterminating Angel
Diary of a Chambermaid
Belle de jour
The Milky Way
Tristana
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
The Phantom of Liberty
That Obscure Object of Desire
13. George Cukor
Director | My Fair Lady
George Cukor was an American film director of Hungarian-Jewish descent, better known for directing comedies and literary adaptations. He once won the Academy Award for Best Director, and was nominated other four times for the same Award.
In 1899, George Dewey Cukor was born on the Lower East Side of...
14 films
Dinner at Eight
Little Women
David Copperfield
Camille
Holiday
The Women
The Philadelphia Story
Gaslight
Phantom Lady
A Double Life
Adam's Rib
Born Yesterday
A Star Is Born
My Fair Lady
14. John Huston
Director | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
An eccentric rebel of epic proportions, this Hollywood titan reigned supreme as director, screenwriter and character actor in a career that endured over five decades. The ten-time Oscar-nominated legend was born John Marcellus Huston in Nevada, Missouri, on August 5, 1906. His ancestry was English,...
14 films
The Maltese Falcon
In This Our Life
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Key Largo
The Asphalt Jungle
The African Queen
The Red Badge of Courage
Moulin Rouge
Moby Dick
Heaven Knows, Mr Allison
The Misfits
The List of Adrian Messenger
Fat City
The Man Who Would Be King
15. Robert Wise
Director | West Side Story
Robert Earl Wise was born on September 10, 1914 in Winchester, Indiana, the youngest of three sons of Olive R. (Longenecker) and Earl Waldo Wise, a meat packer. His parents were both of Pennsylvania Dutch (German) descent. At age nineteen, the avid moviegoer came into the film business through an ...
13 films
The Body Snatcher
The Set-Up
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Executive Suite
Bad Day at Black Rock
Somebody Up There Likes Me
I Want to Live!
Odds Against Tomorrow
West Side Story
The Haunting
The Sound of Music
The Sand Pebbles
The Andromeda Strain
16. Michael Curtiz
Director | Casablanca
Curtiz began acting in and then directing films in his native Hungary in 1912. After WWI, he continued his filmmaking career in Austria and Germany and into the early 1920s when he directed films in other countries in Europe. Moving to the US in 1926, he started making films in Hollywood for Warner...
13 films Captain Blood The Charge of the Light Brigade Kid Galahad Angels with Dirty Faces The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex Dodge City The Sea Hawk The Sea Wolf Casablanca Yankee Doodle Dandy Mildred Pierce Life with Father We're No Angels
17. Michael Powell
Director | Peeping Tom
The son of Thomas William Powell and Mabel (nee Corbett). Michael Powell was always a self-confessed movie addict. He was brought up partly in Canterbury ("The Garden of England") and partly in the south of France (where his parents ran a hotel). Educated at Kings School, Canterbury and Dulwich ...
13 films (and Emeric Pressburger)
The Edge of the World
The Thief of Bagdad
49th Parallel
One of Our Aircraft Is Missing
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
A Canterbury Tale
'I Know Where I'm Going!'
A Matter of Life and Death
Black Narcissus
The Red Shoes
Young Man with a Horn
The Tales of Hoffmann
Peeping Tom
18. Sidney Lumet
Director | 12 Angry Men
Sidney Lumet was a master of cinema, best known for his technical knowledge and his skill at getting first-rate performances from his actors -- and for shooting most of his films in his beloved New York. He made over 40 movies, often complex and emotional, but seldom overly sentimental. Although ...
13 films
12 Angry Men
Long Day's Journey Into Night
Fail-Safe
The Pawnbroker
The Hill
Serpico
Murder on the Orient Express
Dog Day Afternoon
Network
Prince of the City
The Verdict
Running on Empty
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
19. Clint Eastwood
Actor | Million Dollar Baby
Clint Eastwood was born May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, to Clinton Eastwood Sr., a bond salesman and later manufacturing executive for Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and Ruth Wood (née Margret Ruth Runner), a housewife turned IBM clerk. He grew up in nearby Piedmont. At school Clint took interest in ...
13 films
Play Misty for Me
High Plains Drifter
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Pale Rider
Bird
Unforgiven
Mystic River
Million Dollar Baby
Flags of Our Fathers
Letters from Iwo Jima
Gran Torino
Changeling
Sully: Miracle on the Hudson
20. Elia Kazan
Director | On the Waterfront
Known for his creative stage direction, Elia Kazan was born Elias Kazantzoglou on September 7, 1909 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey). Noted for drawing out the best dramatic performances from his actors, he directed 21 actors to Oscar nominations, resulting in nine wins. He ...
12 films
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Gentleman's Agreement
Boomerang!
Panic in the Streets
A Streetcar Named Desire
Viva Zapata!
On the Waterfront
East of Eden
A Face in the Crowd
Wild River
Splendor in the Grass
America, America
21. Frank Capra
Director | It's a Wonderful Life
One of seven children, Frank Capra was born on May 18, 1897, in Bisacquino, Sicily. On May 10, 1903, his family left for America aboard the ship Germania, arriving in New York on May 23rd. "There's no ventilation, and it stinks like hell. They're all miserable. It's the most degrading place you ...
12 films
American Madness
Lady for a Day
The Bitter Tea of General Yen
It Happened One Night
Mr Deeds Goes to Town
Lost Horizon
You Can't Take It with You
Mr Smith Goes to Washington
Meet John Doe
Arsenic and Old Lace
It's a Wonderful Life
State of the Union
22. Jean Renoir
Writer | La règle du jeu
Son of the famous Impressionist painter Pierre Auguste, he had a happy childhood. Pierre Renoir was his brother, and Claude Renoir was his nephew. After the end of World War I, where he won the Croix de Guerre, he moved from scriptwriting to filmmaking. He married Catherine Hessling, for whom he ...
12 films
La Chienne
Boudu sauvé des eaux
Le Crime de Monsieur Lange
Les Bas Fonds
La grande illusion
La bête humaine
La règle du jeu
This Land Is Mine
The Southerner
The River
The Golden Coach
French Cancan
23. Woody Allen
Writer | Annie Hall
Woody Allen was born on November 30, 1935, as Allen Konigsberg, in The Bronx, NY, the son of Martin Konigsberg and Nettie Konigsberg. He has one younger sister, Letty Aronson. As a young boy, he became intrigued with magic tricks and playing the clarinet, two hobbies that he continues today.
Allen ...
12 Films
Love and Death
Annie Hall
Manhattan
Zelig
The Purple Rose of Cairo
Hannah and Her Sisters
Radio Days
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Bullets Over Broadway
Match Point
Midnight in Paris
Blue Jasmine
24. Joel Coen
Producer | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Joel Daniel Coen is an American filmmaker who regularly collaborates with his younger brother Ethan. They made Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, True Grit, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, Inside Llewyn Davis, Hail Caesar and other projects. Joel ...
12 films (and Ethan)
Blood Simple
Raising Arizona
Miller's Crossing
Barton Fink
Fargo
The Big Lebowski
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
The Man Who Wasn't There
No Country for Old Men
Burn After Reading
True Grit
Inside Llewyn Davis
25. David Lean
Director | Lawrence of Arabia
An important British filmmaker, David Lean was born in Croydon on March 25, 1908 and brought up in a strict Quaker family (ironically, as a child he wasn't allowed to go to the movies). During the 1920s, he briefly considered the possibility of becoming an accountant like his father before finding ...
12 films
This Happy Breed
Brief Encounter
Blithe Spirit
Great Expectations
Oliver Twist
Hobson's Choice
Summertime
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Lawrence of Arabia
Doctor Zhivago
Ryan's Daughter
A Passage to India
26. Orson Welles
Actor | Citizen Kane
His father, Richard Head Welles, was a well-to-do inventor, his mother, Beatrice (Ives) Welles, a beautiful concert pianist; Orson Welles was gifted in many arts (magic, piano, painting) as a child. When his mother died in 1924 (when he was nine) he traveled the world with his father. He was ...
11 films
Citizen Kane
The Magnificent Ambersons
The Stranger
The Lady from Shanghai
Macbeth
Othello
Mister Arkadin
Touch of Evil
The Trial
Chimes at Midnight
F for Fake
27. Raoul Walsh
Editor | The Birth of a Nation
Raoul Walsh's 52-year directorial career made him a Hollywood legend. Walsh was also an actor: He appeared in the first version of W. Somerset Maugham's "Rain" renamed Sadie Thompson (1928) opposite Gloria Swanson in the title role. He would have played the Cisco Kid in his own film In Old Arizona ...
11 films
The Thief of Bagdad
The Roaring Twenties
They Drive by Night
High Sierra
They Died with Their Boots On
Gentleman Jim
Objective, Burma!
Pursued
White Heat
Colorado Territory
Captain Horatio Hornblower RN
28. Yasujirô Ozu
Writer | Tôkyô monogatari
Tokyo-born Yasujiro Ozu was a movie buff from childhood, often playing hooky from school in order to see Hollywood movies in his local theatre. In 1923 he landed a job as a camera assistant at Shochiku Studios in Tokyo. Three years later, he was made an assistant director and directed his first ...
11 films
I Was Born But…
A Story of Floating Weeds
Late Spring
Early Summer
Tokyo Story
Equinox Flower
Floating Weeds
Good Morning
Late Autumn
The End of Summer
An Autumn Afternoon
29. Luchino Visconti
Writer | Il gattopardo
Born in his ancestral palazzo, situated in the same Milanese square as both the opera house La Scala and the Milan Cathedral, Luchino Visconti (1906 - 1976) was raised under the auspices of aristocratic privilege, theater and Catholicism. This triangulation of monuments would create an equally ...
11 films
Ossessione
La terra trema: Episodio del mare
Belissima
Senso
Le Notti Bianche
Rocco and His Brothers
The Leopard
The Damned
Death in Venice
Conversation Piece
L'innocente
30. Anthony Mann
Director | El Cid
Anthony Mann was born on June 30, 1906 in San Diego, California, USA. He was a director and writer, known for El Cid (1961), Men in War (1957) and The Glenn Miller Story (1954). He was married to Anna, Sara Montiel and Mildred Mann. He died on April 29, 1967 in London, England.
11 films
T-Men
Raw Deal
Winchester '73
The Tall Target
Bend of the River
The Naked Spur
Far Country
The Man from Laramie
The Tin Star
Man of the West
El Cid
31. Fred Zinnemann
Director | A Man for All Seasons
Initially grew up wanting to be a violinist, but while at the University of Vienna decided to study law. While doing so, he became increasingly interested in American film and decided that was what he wanted to do. He became involved in European filmaking for a short time before going to America to...
10 films
The Seventh Cross
Act of Violence
The Search
The Men
High Noon
The Nun's Story
The Sundowners
A Man for All Seasons
The Day of the Jackal
Julia
32. Robert Altman
Director | Gosford Park
Robert Altman was born on February 20th, 1925 in Kansas City, Missouri, to B.C. (an insurance salesman) and Helen Altman. He entered St. Peters Catholic school at the age six, and spent a short time at a Catholic high school. From there, he went to Rockhurst High School. It was then that he started...
10 films
MASH
McCabe & Mrs Miller
The Long Goodbye
Thieves Like Us
Nashville
3 Women
Secret Honor
Vincent & Theo
The Player
Short Cuts
33. Stanley Kubrick
Director | 2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick was born in Manhattan, New York City, to Sadie Gertrude (Perveler) and Jacob Leonard Kubrick, a physician. His family were Jewish immigrants (from Austria, Romania, and Russia). Stanley was considered intelligent, despite poor grades at school. Hoping that a change of scenery would ...
10 films
The Killing
Paths of Glory
Spartacus
Lolita
Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
2001: A Space Odyssey
A Clockwork Orange
Barry Lyndon
The Shining
Full Metal Jacket
34. William A. Wellman
Director | A Star Is Born
William Wellman, the Oscar-winning screenwriter-director of the original A Star Is Born (1937), was called "Wild Bill" during his World War I service as an aviator, a nickname that persisted in Hollywood due to his larger-than-life personality and lifestyle.
A leap-year baby born in 1896 on the 29th...
10 films
Wings
The Public Enemy
A Star Is Born
Nothing Sacred
Beau Geste
The Ox-Bow Incident
Story of GI Joe
Yellow Sky
Battleground
Westward the Women
35. George Stevens
Director | Giant
George Stevens, a filmmaker known as a meticulous craftsman with a brilliant eye for composition and a sensitive touch with actors, is one of the great American filmmakers, ranking with John Ford, William Wyler and Howard Hawks as a creator of classic Hollywood cinema, bringing to the screen ...
10 films
Swing Time
Gunga Din
The Talk of the Town
Woman of the Year
The More the Merrier
I Remember Mama
A Place in the Sun
Shane
Giant
The Diary of Anne Frank
Tell Your Friends