Oliver Stone

William Oliver Stone (born ) is an American filmmaker. Stone is an acclaimed director, tackling subjects ranging from the Vietnam War and American politics to musical biopics and crime dramas. He has received numerous accolades including three Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and five Golden Globe Awards.

Stone was born in New York City and later briefly attended Yale University. In 1967, Stone enlisted in the United States Army during the Vietnam War. He served from 1967 to 1968 in the 25th Infantry and 1st Cavalry Divisions and was twice wounded in action. For his service, he received military honors including a Bronze Star with "V" Device for valor, Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster (to denote two wounds), an Air Medal and the Combat Infantryman Badge. His service in Vietnam would be the basis for his films depicting the brutality of war.

Stone started his film career writing the screenplays for '' Midnight Express'' (1978), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay; ''Conan the Barbarian'' (1982); and '' Scarface'' (1983). He then rose to prominence as writer and director of the Vietnam War film dramas ''Platoon'' (1986) and '' Born on the Fourth of July'' (1989), receiving Academy Awards for Best Director for both films, the former of which also won Best Picture. He also directed '' Salvador'' (1986), '' Wall Street'' (1987) and its sequel '' Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps'' (2010), '' The Doors'' (1991), '' JFK'' (1991), '' Heaven & Earth'' (1993), '' Natural Born Killers'' (1994), '' Nixon'' (1995), '' Any Given Sunday'' (1999), '' W.'' (2008) and '' Snowden'' (2016). Collectively, his films have grossed $1.3 billion worldwide.

Many of Stone's films focus on controversial American political issues during the late 20th century, and as such were considered contentious at the times of their releases. Stone has been critical of the American foreign policy, which he considers to be driven by nationalist and imperialist agendas. Like his subject matter, Stone is a controversial figure in American filmmaking, with some critics accusing him of promoting conspiracy theories.

Early life

WIlliam Oliver Stone was born on September 15, 1946 at Doctors Hospital in New York City, the only child of Jacqueline (née Goddet) and Louis Stone (born Abraham Louis Silverstein), a stockbroker. His parents met in his mother's hometown of Paris during World War II where his father, a U.S. Army colonel, served as a financial officer on General Eisenhower's staff. Stone's paternal great-grandparents were Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from Poland. His grandfather, Joshua Silverstein, owned and operated successful skirt-making companies in New York City and New Jersey. His aunt was author and editor Babette Rosmond and his cousins are writer Gene Stone and former chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission James Stone. The family changed its surname from Silverstein to Stone in the 1920's due to rampant antisemitism in the United States. Stone himself grew up in Manhattan and Stamford, Connecticut. While his American father was Jewish, his French mother was Roman Catholic, though both were non-practicing. Stone was raised in the Episcopal Church and now practices Buddhism.

Stone attended kindergarten through eighth grade at Trinity School in New York City before being sent to The Hill School, a college-preparatory boarding school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. In 1962, his parents divorced abruptly while he was at The Hill and this, because he was an only child, marked him deeply. Stone’s father was awarded sole physical and legal custody and, because his mother was often absent, his father had a dominant influence on his life. This may explain why father-son relationships are a recurring theme in Stone's films. Stone's main caregiver in childhood was his male nanny, Karlo Stojanac. A Yugoslavian Holocaust survivor, Stojanac was openly gay and a Socialist, both unusual for the time period. Describing their relationship as "extraordinarily close," Stone added that Stojanac "was my mentor in many ways. He took care of me and he loved me."

He often spent summers with his maternal grandparents in France, both in Paris and La Ferté-sous-Jouarre in Seine-et-Marne, where he was fascinated by his grandfather's stories of serving in the French Army during World War I. At 17, Stone worked as a runner in the Paris Commodities Exchange, a job that later proved inspirational for his film '' Wall Street''. He speaks French fluently.

Stone graduated from The Hill School in 1964 and was admitted to Yale University, but left in June 1965 at age 18 to teach high school students English for six months in Saigon at the Free Pacific Institute in South Vietnam. Afterwards, he worked for a short while as a wiper on a United States Merchant Marine ship in 1966, traveling from Asia to the US across the rough Pacific Ocean in January. He returned to Yale, where he dropped out a second time (in part due to working on an autobiographical novel ''A Child's Night Dream'', published in 1997 by St. Martin's Press). During this period, Stone also battled severe depression and suicidal ideation. He would continue to have episodes of major depression throughout his life: “I was lost for a long time, and I stayed lost."

U.S. Army

In April 1967, Stone enlisted in the United States Army and requested combat duty in Vietnam. Upon arrival, he first served (from September 27, 1967-February 23, 1968) with 2nd Platoon, B Company, 3rd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. In October 1967, he was medevaced for the first time after being shot in the neck during a night ambush, a wound which nearly severed his jugular vein and carotid artery. Later, while fighting with that unit in the New Year's Battle of 1968, he was knocked unconscious and had his eardrum perforated by the concussive blast of a beehive round, which resulted in permanent hearing damage. (As he did not leave duty or receive medical treatment, this injury did not qualify for a Purple Heart. As a result, Stone often refers to himself as "twice wounded," referencing only the injuries for which he did receive Purple Hearts.) On January 15, 1968, Stone was wounded and evacuated from the 25th Infantry Division for the final time when, while attempting to aid other injured personnel, a satchel charge implanted in a tree detonated, causing a blast concussion and shrapnel wounds to his legs and buttocks.

In the 1990s, biographer James Riordan discovered correspondence to Louis Stone from the Treasury Department of the American Consulate in Hong Kong dated 1968, revealing that Louis had used his government connections to request a noncombat transfer for his son following his injuries. However, the Consulate's letter stated that, when offered a support position with the CIA, Oliver emphatically declined, adding that he was staying in the Army and "looking forward to his transfer to the 1st Cavalry Division to complete his tour of duty in combat."

Following a month-long hospital stay, Stone briefly served transitional duty as a military policeman in Saigon. He was then transferred to the 1st Cavalry Division, participating in long-range reconnaissance patrols, before being transferred to Troop D, 1st Squadron of the 9th Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Cav for the rest of his tour. While serving with that unit on August 21, 1968, Stone charged and killed a North Vietnamese sniper who had several squads pinned down during a crossfire firefight near My Khe beach (nicknamed "China Beach" by the U.S.). For that action, he was awarded the Bronze Star with "V" Device for "heroism in ground combat."

Following a voluntary three month extension of his tour, Stone was separated from active duty on November 15, 1968 and (after five years of Individual Ready Reserve status) officially discharged from the Army on April 1, 1973. In addition to the Bronze Star, his military awards include the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster to denote two awards, the Air Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, Sharpshooter Badge with Rifle Bar, Marksman Badge with Auto Rifle Bar, the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal with one Silver Service Star, the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Unit Citation with Palm, two Overseas Service Bars, the Vietnam Campaign Medal and the Combat Infantryman Badge.

After the war

On June 30, 1969, the French news program ''Voila'' interviewed a then-unknown Stone while filming "on the street" interviews about the war in Central Park. In fluent French, he told them, "My name is Oliver Stone, I’m 22 years old, I’m from New York, and my mother is French from Paris. I served in Vietnam with the American Army for 15 months and I returned to the United States six months ago. It changed me. It changes a lot of boys." He added that drug use was rampant among American soldiers.

Following the war, Stone suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. His PTSD was compounded by a violent mugging he experienced in the East Village in the summer of 1969, during which he sustained defensive knife wounds. Stone has also described long-term physical complications from his military service, specifically combat induced hearing loss and tinnitus, minor discomfort from shrapnel still embedded in his body, and fertility issues he believes were caused by Agent Orange exposure. He commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War's conclusion by sharing his reflections during panel discussions at the Harvard Institute of Politics and San Diego State University's Center for War and Society and in an interview with ''The Hollywood Reporter.'' When asked in 2025 how the war altered his perspective, Stone replied, "My life changed....My perception has changed. My values of life changed. Everything changed."

Awards and honors (while with the U.S. Army)

Source:

Writing and directing career

1970s and 1980s

Stone attended New York University on the G.I. Bill, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in film in 1971, where his teachers included director and fellow NYU alumnus Martin Scorsese. The same year, he had a small acting role in the comedy '' The Battle of Love's Return''. In Scorsese's class, Stone made a short, well received 12-minute film about a disabled veteran, ''Last Year in Viet Nam''. He also worked as a taxi driver, production assistant, messenger, and salesman before making his mark in film as a screenwriter in the late 1970's.

In 1979, Stone was awarded his first Oscar, after adapting true-life prison story '' Midnight Express'' into the successful film of the same name for British director Alan Parker (the two men would later collaborate on the 1996 movie of stage musical '' Evita''). The original author, Billy Hayes, around whom the film is set, said the film's depiction of prison conditions was accurate and that the "message of ''Midnight Express'' isn't, 'Don't go to Turkey. It's, 'Don't be an idiot like I was, and try to smuggle drugs.' " Stone later apologized to Turkey for over-dramatizing the script, while standing by the film's stark depiction of the brutality of Turkish prisons.

After his breakthrough, Stone continued his successful career as a screenwriter, most notably Brian De Palma's drug lord epic '' Scarface,'' loosely inspired by his own addiction to cocaine, which he successfully kicked while working on the screenplay.' He also penned '' Year of the Dragon'' (co-written with Michael Cimino) featuring Mickey Rourke, before his career took off as a writer-director in 1986. Like his contemporary Michael Mann, Stone is unusual in having written or co-written most of the films he has directed. In 1986, Stone directed two films back to back: the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful '' Salvador'', shot largely in Mexico, and his long in-development Vietnam project ''Platoon'', shot in the Philippines.

''Platoon'' brought Stone's name to a much wider audience. It also kick-started a busy directing career which saw him direct nine films over the next decade. ''Platoon'' won rave reviews ( Roger Ebert named it the best film of 1986 and later called it the ninth best film of the decade), massive commercial success, and Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director. In 2007, a film industry vote ranked it at number 83 in an American Film Institute " AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies" poll of the previous century's best American movies. British TV channel Channel 4 voted ''Platoon'' as the sixth greatest war film ever made. In 2019, ''Platoon'' was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

While ''Platoon'' was about Stone's own experience in combat, he followed it with two other films showing different perspectives of the Vietnam War. In 1989, he co-wrote and directed '' Born on the Fourth of July,'' based on the autobiography of Ron Kovic, a Marine who became an anti-war activist after being paralyzed in combat. The film was a critical success, receiving eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and earning Stone his second Best Director Oscar. It was also a commercial success, grossing $161 million against a budget of just $17.8 million to become the tenth highest-grossing film of that year. ''Heaven & Earth'' (1993) was the final film in his unofficial Vietnam trilogy, written and directed by Stone based on the memoirs of Le Ly Hayslip, a Vietnamese woman whose life was drastically changed by the war and its aftermath.

Immediately following the success of ''Platoon'', Stone co-wrote and directed another hit, 1987's '' Wall Street'', starring Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglas, who received the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as ruthless corporate raider Gordon Gekko. After ''Wall Street'', Stone co-wrote and directed '' Talk Radio'', based on Eric Bogosian's Pulitzer-nominated play. The film was nominated for the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and earned Stone his third Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Director.

1990s and 2000s

In 1990, Stone produced the Oscar-winning movie '' Reversal of Fortune''. The following year, he co-wrote and directed '' The Doors.'' The film received criticism from former Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek and Jim Morrison's former girlfriend, Patricia Kennealy-Morrison, who was a consultant on the movie (she also makes a cameo appearance). However, she later wrote in her memoir ''Strange Days: My Life With and Without Jim Morrison'' that Stone ignored her feedback and proceeded with his own version of events. The other surviving former members of the band, John Densmore and Robby Krieger, also cooperated with the filming of ''The Doors'', but Krieger distanced himself before the film's release. However, Densmore thought highly of the film, and celebrated its DVD release on a panel with Oliver Stone.

During the same year, Stone co-wrote and directed one of his most ambitious, controversial and successful films: '' JFK'', depicting the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 and its aftermath. The film was a huge commercial success and earned eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Stone also published an annotated version of the screenplay shortly after the film's released, adding, "I make my films like you're going to die if you miss the next minute. You better not go get popcorn." Due to public reaction to the film, Congress passed the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 ("JFK Records Act"), directing the National Archives and Records Administration to collect and house all assassination-related records and release them by 2017. The act also established the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB), whose work was the subject of Stone's 2021 documentary miniseries ''JFK: Destiny Betrayed''. On April 27, 1992 Stone testified before the House Government Operations Subcommittee on Legislation and National Affairs in support of the act's passage. In introducing Stone at the hearing, chairman Rep. John Conyers Jr. stated: "You are probably the reason that we're all here today. You've moved the country and your Congress to immediate activity."

In 1994, Stone co-wrote and directed '' Natural Born Killers'', a violent crime film intended to satirize the modern media. The film had originally been based on a screenplay by Quentin Tarantino, but underwent significant rewriting by Stone, Richard Rutowski, and David Veloz. Before it was released, the MPAA gave the film a NC-17 rating; this caused Stone to cut four minutes of film footage to obtain an R rating (he eventually released the unrated version on VHS and DVD in 2001). The film was the recipient of the Grand Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival. That same year, Stone appeared in a cameo as himself in the presidential comedy '' Dave'' and produced '' The Joy Luck Club,'' the second American film to feature a majority Asian cast telling a contemporary Asian-American story.

Stone went on to co-write and direct the 1995 Richard Nixon biopic '' Nixon'', which received Oscar nominations for the script, John Williams' score, Joan Allen's performance as Pat Nixon and Anthony Hopkins' portrayal of the title role. In 1996, Stone produced the films ''Freeway'' and '' The People vs. Larry Flynt'' and was credited as co-writer of '' Evita'' (as it was based on his original adaptation of the stage musical). He finished the decade by co-writing and directing the 1997 film noir '' U Turn'' and 1999's '' Any Given Sunday'', a film about power struggles within an American football team.

After over a decade (1986-1999), wherein he wrote and directed a new film almost every year, Stone slowed his pace at the turn of the century. He first released his historical epic ''Alexander'' in 2004, but it was a notorious box office flop. He later re-edited it into a two-part, 3-hour 37-minute film ''Alexander Revisited: The Final Cut'', which became one of the highest-selling catalog items from Warner Bros. He further refined the film and in 2014 released the two-part, 3-hour 26-minute ''Alexander: The Ultimate Cut''. After ''Alexander'', Stone directed '' World Trade Center'', based on the true story of two PAPD policemen who were trapped in the rubble and survived the September 11 attacks. The film was a commercial success. Stone then wrote and directed the George W. Bush biopic '' W.'', which chronicles the president's life up until the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

2010s and 2020s

In 2010, Stone directed his only sequel, '' Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps''. Two years later, he directed the crime thriller '' Savages'', based on the novel by Don Winslow.

In 2016, Stone directed '' Snowden'', starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as whistleblower Edward Snowden. The film received mixed reviews from critics and was not a commercial success. As of 2025, it remains Stone's final narrative feature film. On May 22, 2017, various industry papers announced that Stone was going to direct his first scripted television series about the Guantanamo detention camp for Weinstein Television. However, Stone quit the project after sexual misconduct allegations surfaced against Harvey Weinstein in October 2017 and it was never made.

In 2020, Stone announced his semi-retirement from film-making, though he still occasionally makes documentaries. In July of that same year, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt published his first memoir, ''Chasing the Light: Writing, Directing, and Surviving Platoon, Midnight Express, Scarface, Salvador, and the Movie Game'', which chronicles his turbulent upbringing in New York City, volunteering for combat in Vietnam, and the trials and triumphs of moviemaking in the 1970s and '80s. The book, which ends on his Oscar-winning ''Platoon'', was praised by ''The New York Times'': "The Oliver Stone depicted in these pages – vulnerable, introspective, stubbornly tenacious and frequently heartbroken—may just be the most sympathetic character he's ever written... neatly sets the stage for the possibility of that rarest of Stone productions: a sequel." In 2024, he announced that he was writing a follow-up memoir for Simon & Schuster. Also in 2024, Stone donated his archives to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Unrealized projects

Documentaries

In the 21st century, Stone increasingly shifted to making documentaries. His first, ''Comandante'' (2003), about Cuban leader Fidel Castro, was followed by two sequels: ''Looking for Fidel'' (2004) and ''Castro in Winter'' (2012). Also in 2003, Stone made '' Persona Non Grata'', an HBO documentary on Israeli-Palestinian relations, in which he interviewed several notable Israeli leaders, including Ehud Barak, Benjamin Netanyahu and Shimon Peres, as well as Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

In 2009 Stone completed a feature-length documentary, '' South of the Border'', about the rise of left-wing governments in Latin America, featuring seven presidents: Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Bolivia's Evo Morales, Ecuador's Rafael Correa, Cuba's Raúl Castro, the Kirchners of Argentina, Brazil's Lula da Silva, and Paraguay's Fernando Lugo, all of whom are critical of US foreign policy in South America. Stone hoped the film would get the rest of the Western world to rethink socialist policies in South America, particularly as it was being applied by Venezuela's Hugo Chávez. Chávez joined Stone for the premiere of the documentary at the Venice International Film Festival in September 2009. Stone defended his decision not to interview Chávez's opponents, stating that oppositional statements and TV clips were scattered through the documentary and that the documentary was an attempt to right a balance of heavily negative coverage. He praised Chávez as a leader of the Bolivarian Revolution, a movement for social transformation in Latin America, and also praised the six other presidents in the film. The documentary was also released in several cities in the United States and Europe in the mid-2010.Stone: Film an intro to Chávez and his movement
, by Ian James, Associated Press, May 29, 2010

In 2012, the documentary miniseries '' Oliver Stone's Untold History of the United States'' premiered on Showtime, Stone co-wrote, directed, produced, and narrated the series, having worked on it since 2008 with co-writers American University historian Peter J. Kuznick and British screenwriter Matt Graham. The 10-part series was supplemented by a 750-page companion book of the same name, also written by Stone and Kuznick, published on October 30, 2012 by Simon & Schuster. Stone described the project as "the most ambitious thing I've ever done. Certainly in documentary form, and perhaps in fiction, feature form." The project received positive reviews from former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, ''The Guardian'' journalist Glenn Greenwald, and reviewers from IndieWire, '' San Francisco Chronicle'', and '' Newsday''. Hudson Institute adjunct fellow historian Ronald Radosh accused the series of historical revisionism, while journalist Michael C. Moynihan accused the book of "moral equivalence" and said nothing within the book was "untold" previously. Stone defended the program's accuracy to TV host Tavis Smiley by saying: "This has been fact checked by corporate fact checkers, by our own fact checkers, and fact checkers iredby Showtime. It's been thoroughly vetted ... these are facts, our interpretation may be different than orthodox, but it definitely holds up."

Stone was interviewed in Boris Malagurski's documentary film '' The Weight of Chains 2'' (2014), which deals with neoliberal reforms in the Balkans.

On March 5, 2014, Stone and teleSUR premiered the documentary film '' Mi amigo Hugo'' (''My Friend Hugo''), a documentary about Venezuela's late president, Hugo Chávez, one year after his death. The film was described by Stone as a "spiritual answer" and tribute to Chávez.

In 2016, Stone was executive producer and interviewer for Ukrainian-born director Igor Lopatonok's film '' Ukraine on Fire.'' The film was regarded by critics as presenting a "Kremlin-friendly version" of the 2014 Maidan Revolution in Kyiv. It was also criticized for advancing the Russian narrative about the revolution.

Stone filmed a series of interviews with Russian president Vladimir Putin over the span of two years, which was released as '' The Putin Interviews'', a four episode miniseries, on Showtime on June 12, 2017. On June 13, Stone and Professor Stephen F. Cohen joined John Batchelor in New York to record an hour of commentary on ''The Putin Interviews''. In 2019, he released ''Revealing Ukraine'', another film produced by Stone, directed by Lopatonok and featuring Stone interviewing Putin. During these interviews, Putin made an unproven claim about Georgian snipers being responsible for the February 20 killings of protesters during the Euromaidan demonstrations, a hypothesis Stone himself had earlier supported on Twitter.

In June 2021, Stone's documentary '' JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass'' was selected to be shown in the Cannes Premiere section at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. An expanded version of the documentary called ''JFK: Destiny Betrayed'' premiered as a television miniseries later that same year.

In 2021, he produced and featured in ''Qazaq: History of the Golden Man'', directed by Lopatonok, a miniseries about Kazakh politician and former leader Nursultan Nazarbayev. The series was criticized for its perceived promotion of the authoritarian rule and positive portrayal of Nazarbayev. and for allegedly receiving $5 million in funding from Nazarbayev's own charitable foundation, Elbasy, via the country's State Center for Support of National Cinema, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. Stone and Lopatonok denied any Kazakhstani government involvement. According to ''Rolling Stone'', "What little attention ''Qazaq'' did receive was largely negative, with critics decrying the film for its glowing depiction of Nazarbayev."

In 2022, Stone directed and co-wrote '' Nuclear Now'', a climate change documentary based on the book ''A Bright Future: How Some Countries Have Solved Climate Change and the Rest Can Follow'' written by the US scientists Joshua S. Goldstein and Staffan A. Qvist. The movie argues that nuclear energy is needed to fight climate change, as renewables alone will not be sufficient for the planet to obtain carbon neutrality before climate change becomes irreversible. Of the film, Stone stated, "People worry about nuclear waste and meanwhile the whole world is choking on fossil fuel waste. That’s silly. Trillions of dollars have been invested in solar and wind and hydropower. Everything possible is being discussed, except for nuclear... It ''has'' to be on the agenda."

Other work

On September 15, 2008, Stone was named the artistic director of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts Asia in Singapore. Stone is also an honorary board member of the nonprofit organizations Veterans for Peace and The National Veterans Foundation.

In November 1997, Stone won an episode of the game show ''Jeopardy!'' during "Power Players" theme week, playing on behalf of charity Rock the Vote. As of 2025, that makes him one of only three Academy Award winners who have also won ''Jeopardy!'' Calling it one of the most fun experiences of his career, he later admitted that he was high on ecstasy during the game.

Stone has contributed forewords or introductions to multiple non-fiction books, including ''Last Word: My Indictment of the CIA in the Murder of JFK'' by Mark Lane,''The JFK Assassination'', ''A Portrait of Vietnam'' by Lou Dematteis, ''Reclaiming Parkland: Tom Hanks, Vincent Bugliosi, and the JFK Assassination in the New Hollywood'', ''The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela: How the US is Orchestrating a Coup for Oil, JFK: The Last Dissenting Witness'' and '' JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy,'' which features a quote from Stone on its cover that it "blows the lid right off our 'Official History. He has also occasionally written film and literary criticism, beginning in 1972 with a freelance review of Jean Luc-Godard's '' Breathless'' for ''The Village Voice.'' For ''The New York Times'', he reviewed '' The Last Emperor'' and Tom Clancy's novel '' Executive Orders'' and, in 1998, wrote an article about conspiracies for John F. Kennedy Jr.'s political magazine ''George.''

In 2022, he appeared in the documentary '' Theaters of War'', discussing the role of the military in Hollywood. Stone was also interviewed in the 2021 ESPN 30 for 30 documentary ''Once Upon a Time in Queens'' about the 1986 New York Mets.

Directorial style

Many of Stone's films focus on controversial American political issues during the late 20th century, and as such were considered contentious at the times of their releases. They often combine different camera and film formats within a single scene, as demonstrated in '' JFK'' (1991), '' Natural Born Killers'' (1994) and '' Nixon'' (1995). Roger Ebert called Stone "a filmmaker of feverish energy and limitless technical skills, able to assemble a bewildering array of facts and fancies and compose them into a film without getting bogged down." Owen Gleiberman, who named ''Nixon'' the best film of 1995, called Stone, "the most exciting filmmaker of his time. You don’t just watch his movies—they get inside you, like drugs. ..More than any director before him, he has captured the violent free-associative rhythms of a feral, jagged modern mind."

According to Quentin Tarantino, " tonewants to make an impact. He wants to punch you in the face with this stuff and when you leave the theater, he wants you to leave with a big idea. ..To me, Oliver Stone's films are very similar to the kind of films that Stanley Kramer used to make in the '50s and '60s, the big difference being that Stanley Kramer was kind of a clumsy filmmaker and Oliver Stone is cinematically brilliant." In a retrospective essay, writer and professor Kiese Laymon argued that Stone constantly subverted portrayals of white saviorism and American masculinity in his filmography.

Influences

Stone has listed Luis Buñuel, Jean-Luc Godard and Claude Chabrol as early film-making heroes, as well as fellow combat veteran turned director Samuel Fuller. Stone has particularly cited Greek-French director Costa-Gavras, to whom he is often compared, as a primary influence on his work, recalling that he "was certainly one of my earliest role models...I was a film student at NYU when '' Z'' came out, which we studied. Costa actually came over with Yves Montand for a screening and was such a hero to us." When interviewing Costa-Gavras at the 2025 Los Angeles Greek Film Festival, Stone remembered that visit as one of the most significant events of his life. In his memoir ''Chasing the Light'', Stone additionally described the profound influence of Elia Kazan's films on his work, as well as the parallels he saw between their life experiences. He also detailed a significant friendship with one of his other idols, Billy Wilder, during the final two decades of Wilder's life.

Personal life

Family

Stone has been married three times, first to Najwa Sarkis Stone, a United Nations protocol attache, on May 22, 1971. They divorced in 1977. He then married Elizabeth Burkit Cox, an assistant in film production, on June 7, 1981. They had two sons, Sean (b. 1984, who took the middle name Ali upon conversion to Islam) and Michael Jack (b. 1991). As a child, Sean acted in supporting roles in several of his father's films, and later worked for the Russia state media company RT America as a program host from 2015 to 2022. Oliver and Elizabeth divorced in 1993. Stone has been married to Sun-jung Jung (from South Korea) since 1996, and the couple have a daughter, Tara Chong (b. 1995). All of Stone's children had cameos in his films, first as babies and continuing at various ages, though only ''Any Given Sunday'' features all three. Stone and Sun-jung live in Los Angeles. Stone holds dual U.S. and French citizenship.

Religion and humanism

Stone has been a practicing Buddhist since 1993. He was given the Dharma name Minh Duc after receiving the five precepts from a Buddhist monk. Stone is also mentioned in Pulitzer Prize-winning American author Lawrence Wright's book '' Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief'' as having been a member of Scientology for about a month, saying "It was like going to college and reading Dale Carnegie, something you do to find yourself." In 1997, Stone was one of 34 celebrities to sign an open letter to then- German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, published as a newspaper advertisement in the ''International Herald Tribune'', which protested against the treatment of Scientologists in Germany and compared it to the Nazis' oppression of Jews in the 1930s.Drozdiak, William (January 14, 1997)
U.S. Celebrities Defend Scientology in Germany
, ''The Washington Post'', p. A11 In 2003, Stone was a signatory of the third Humanist Manifesto.

Legal issues and drug use

Ten days after returning from Vietnam in November 1968, Stone was arrested and jailed for two weeks in San Diego for attempting to smuggle two ounces of marijuana across the border from Mexico, where he had been partying. The charges were eventually dismissed. While in the San Diego jail, law enforcement found Stone’s military ID among his possessions and, suspecting he was AWOL, turned him over to the Army upon his release. He admitted to keeping the ID card as a souvenir instead of surrendering it during active duty out-processing as required. After spending one night in custody while the Army confirmed his separation status, he was released without penalty.

In 1999, Stone was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and possession of drugs, including fenfluramine, phentermine, meprobamate and a small amount of hashish. He pled guilty to two counts of driving while intoxicated and was ordered into a rehabilitation program. He was arrested again on the night of May 27, 2005, in Los Angeles for possession of marijuana. He was released the next day on a $15,000 bond. In August 2005, Stone pleaded no contest and was fined $100.

For a brief period in the early 1970s, Stone both used and sold phencyclidine (PCP) out of his apartment in New York. Describing it as "a brief period of employment," he noted, "I was too intellectual a drug dealer, but I met some interesting people." He quit dealing after anarchist writer Emmett Grogan stole his entire supply during a visit.

From the late 1970s to the early 1980s, Stone was addicted to cocaine. During that time, he also frequently took Quaaludes and was an occasional heroin user. Stone is a long-time and frequent user of marijuana, referring to it as "God's gift" to humanity. He is also an advocate for the use of psychedelics, citing his positive experiences with substances such as LSD, mescaline, psilocybin mushrooms, ayahuasca, and MDMA (ecstasy). For a time, he took what he described as "too much" Prozac but stopped when he felt the antidepressant was no longer effective for him.

Sexual harassment allegations

In 2017, former '' Playboy'' model Carrie Stevens alleged that in 1991, Stone had "walked past me and grabbed my boob as he waltzed out the front door of a party."Maane Khatchatourian
Oliver Stone Accused of Groping Former Playboy Model in '90s
, ''Variety'' (October 13, 2017).

The allegation Stevens made surfaced after Stone announced he would no longer direct the Weinstein Company's television series '' Guantanamo'' following the revelation of the Harvey Weinstein sexual misconduct allegations. Stone also drew criticism for his comments on Harvey Weinstein himself, saying:

I'm a believer that you wait until this thing gets to trial. I believe a man shouldn't be condemned by a vigilante system. It's not easy what he's going through, either. During that period he was a rival. I never did business with him and didn't really know him. I've heard horror stories on everyone in the business, so I'm not going to comment on gossip. I'll wait and see, which is the right thing to do.

Later that day he withdrew his remarks, saying that he had been unaware of the extent of the allegations due to his travel schedule. "After looking at what has been reported in many publications over the last couple of days, I'm appalled and commend the courage of the women who've stepped forward to report sexual abuse or rape," he said.

Melissa Gilbert accused Stone of "sexual harassment" during an audition for '' The Doors'' in 1991. Gilbert alleged that she was told unexpectedly to recite sexually explicit dialogue from the script (as character Pamela Courson), refused and left the audition in tears, calling it humiliating. Stone released a statement denying the accusation. The film's casting director, Risa Bramon Garcia, also denied the story, noting that all actresses and their agents were warned about the explicit dialogue when given the pages prior to the audition, adding, "No actor was forced or expected to do anything that might have been uncomfortable, and most actors embraced the challenge".

Political views

Stone has been described as having left-wing political views. Per FEC data, he has an extensive history of political donations, almost exclusively to Democratic candidates and PACs. In a December 2024 podcast interview, Stone defined himself as an independent opposed to neoconservatism and a "real liberal" influenced by John Stuart Mill. He has also drawn attention for his opinions on controversial world leaders such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Hugo Chávez and Vladimir Putin. In Showtime's ''The Putin Interviews'', Stone called Joseph Stalin "the most famous villain in history, next to Adolf itler, who "left a horrible reputation, and stained the ommunistideology forever ... it's mixed with blood, and terror." Stone has endorsed the works of author and United States foreign policy critic William Blum, saying that his books should be taught in schools and universities. In an April 2025 social media post explaining his politics, Stone wrote that his experiences as a soldier and combat veteran were foundational to his beliefs, vowing to "vote for peace, always and against anyone," and denouncing George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump by name.

U.S. presidential politics

Stone voted for Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election, but his travels across Central America left him disillusioned with the president's policies by the time of Reagan's 1984 reelection. Stone later campaigned for Michael Dukakis for President in the 1988 presidential election. In 1992, he served as a delegate for Jerry Brown's campaign in the Democratic Party presidential primaries and spoke at that year's Democratic National Convention. In an interview with Bill Maher, Stone claimed that he met President Bill Clinton at the White House in 1995, but that Clinton kept the visit off the official agenda due to Stone's controversial reputation.

Stone has suggested a link between 9/11 and the controversies of the 2000 election: "Does anybody make a connection between the 2000 election and the events of September 11th? ... Look for the thirteenth month!" In 2024, Stone reflected that the day the U.S. Supreme Court ended the Florida recount in the 2000 presidential election was "the worst moment, for me, of this century," as he supported Al Gore and believes that George W. Bush was the worst president in U.S. history.

Stone endorsed Democratic candidate John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election.

According to ''Entertainment Weekly'', Stone voted for Barack Obama as President of the United States in both the 2008 and 2012 elections. Stone was quoted as saying at the time: "I voted for Obama because...I think he's an intelligent individual. I think he responds to difficulties well...very bright guy...far better choice, yes." In 2012, Stone endorsed Ron Paul for the Republican nomination for president, citing his support for a non-interventionist foreign policy. He said that Paul is "the only one of anybody who's saying anything intelligent about the future of the world." He later added: "I supported Ron Paul in the Republican primary...but his domestic policy...made no sense!" In March 2016, Stone wrote on '' The Huffington Post'' indicating his support for Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders for the 2016 Democratic nomination. In September 2016, Stone said he was voting for Green Party candidate Jill Stein for president. He added that, as a progressive leftist, he felt forced to vote third party, as he believed neoconservatives like Hillary Clinton had taken over the Democratic Party.

Speaking at the San Sebastián film festival, Stone said that many Americans had become disillusioned with Barack Obama's policies, having originally thought he would be "a man of great integrity." He said: "On the contrary, Obama has doubled down on the (George W.) Bush administration policies," and "has created...the most massive global security surveillance state that's ever been seen, way beyond East Germany's Stasi".

In April 2018, Stone attended a press conference at the Fajr Film Festival in Tehran, where he likened President Donald Trump to " Beelzebub", the biblical demonic figure.Oliver Stone Compares Trump to "Beelzebub" at Iranian Film Festival
". ''The Hollywood Reporter''. April 25, 2018. Although Stone voted for Joe Biden in 2020, he criticized what he perceived to be the hypocrisy of the Democratic Party; Stone argued that the Democrats were not as concerned about Russian interference as they had been in 2016 when Trump won. He reflected, "I sense the neoconservatives are jumping around Washington, getting their ammunition ready because they know this man, in the end, will come over to their bidding." On his social media, Stone detailed eleven reasons why he could never vote for Trump, including his policies on Israel, Cuba and Venezuela, the assassination of Qasem Soleimani and his pardons of three court-martialed U.S. military officers who were accused or convicted of war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. He additionally cited Trump's stances on climate change and immigration.

On November 22, 2021, Stone penned an op-ed on ''The Hollywood Reporter'', criticizing both Trump and Biden for not declassifying all records on the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In July 2023, during an interview with Russell Brand, Stone stated that he regretted voting for Biden, because he feared that Biden could start World War III over the Russo-Ukrainian war. Also in 2023, Stone donated to personal friend Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s campaign for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination. In the 2024 general presidential election, Stone again voted for Kennedy who, after failing to secure the Democratic nomination, appeared on the ballot as the American Independent Party candidate.

In response to Trump's 2025 executive order to release the final three percent of the investigative files related to the John F. Kennedy assassination, Stone wrote that Trump "deserves praise," especially for also "ordering the release of still classified files on the Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy assassinations." However, Stone noted that the files should have been originally released in October of 2017, and cautioned that he supported the oversight committee proposed by Congressmen Steve Cohen, David Schweikert and Tim Burchett. On April 1, 2025, Stone testified before a House Oversight subcommittee on federal compliance with the JFK Records Act, having previously testified in April 1992 to support the legislation, which was inspired by his film ''JFK''. In his statement to the committee, he urged Congress "in good faith, outside all political considerations," to re-open the investigation of Kennedy's assassination.

Holocaust controversy

In a January 2010 press conference announcing his documentary series on the history of the United States, Stone said, "Hitler is an easy scapegoat throughout history and it's been used cheaply. He's the product of a series of actions. It's cause and effect." Just before commenting about Hitler, he mentioned Stalin: "We can't judge people as only 'bad' or 'good. In response to Stone's comment about his intention to place Hitler "in context," Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said it "is like placing cancer in context, instead of recognizing cancer for what it really is—a horrible disease."

Interviewed by ''The Sunday Times'' on July 25, 2010, Stone was further quoted: "Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people, 25 or 30 illion killed" He objected to what he termed "the Jewish domination of the media," appearing to be critical of the coverage of the Holocaust by adding: "There's a major lobby in the United States. They are ''hard'' workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington. Israel has fucked up United States foreign policy for years." The remarks were criticized by Jewish groups, including the American Jewish Committee, which compared his comments negatively to those of Mel Gibson. Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said, "Oliver Stone has once again shown his conspiratorial colors with his comments about 'Jewish domination of the media' and control over U.S. foreign policy. His words conjure up some of the most stereotypical and conspiratorial notions of undue Jewish power and influence."

Yuli Edelstein, the speaker of Israel's Knesset and the leading Soviet refusenik, described Stone's remarks as what "could be a sequel to '' The Protocols of the Elders of Zion''",Hoffman, Gil Stern
"Israel Slams Oliver Stone's Interview"
Archived fro
the original
. '' The Jerusalem Post'', July 26, 2010. as well as from Israel's Diaspora Affairs and Public Diplomacy Minister.

A day later, Stone stated:

In trying to make a broader historical point about the range of atrocities the Germans committed against many people, I made a clumsy association about the Holocaust, for which I am sorry and I regret. Jews obviously do not control media or any other industry. The fact that the Holocaust is still a very important, vivid and current matter today is, in fact, a great credit to the very hard work of a broad coalition of people committed to the remembrance of this atrocity—and it was an atrocity."Oliver Stone 'Sorry' About Holocaust Comments"
. ''The Wall Street Journal'', July 26, 2010.

Two days later, Stone issued a second apology to the ADL, which was accepted. "I believe he now understands the issues and where he was wrong, and this puts an end to the matter," Foxman said.

WikiLeaks

Oliver Stone is a vocal supporter of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Stone signed a petition in support of Assange's bid for political asylum in June 2012. In August 2012, he penned a ''New York Times'' op-ed with filmmaker Michael Moore on the importance of WikiLeaks and free speech. Stone visited Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in April 2013 and commented, "I don't think most people in the US realize how important WikiLeaks is and why Julian's case needs support." He also criticized the documentary '' We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks'' and the film '' The Fifth Estate'', saying "Julian Assange did much for free speech and is now being victimised by the abusers of that concept".

In June 2013, Stone and numerous other celebrities appeared in a video showing support for Chelsea Manning.

Foreign policy

Stone called Saudi Arabia a major destabilizer in the Middle East. He also criticized the foreign policy of the United States, saying: "We made a mess out of Iraq, Syria, Libya, but it doesn't matter to the American public. It's okay to wreck the Middle East." Stone has also been critical of Israel's foreign policy, particularly during the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he has interviewed. In March 2002, Stone was filming a documentary in the West Bank when Operation Defensive Shield was launched. He and his crew were forced to flee Ramallah with assistance from the Representative Office of Canada to the Palestinian Authority.

Stone has had an interest in Latin America since the 1980s, when he directed '' Salvador'', and later returned to make his documentary '' South of the Border'' about the left-leaning movements that had been taking hold in the region. He has expressed the view that these movements are a positive step toward political and economic autonomy for the region. He supported Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and admired the Colombian militant group FARC. Stone skipped the 68th Academy Awards ceremony, where his film ''Nixon'' received three nominations, to visit the Zapatistas of southern Mexico. Joking that he had no Oscar statuettes to give, guerrilla leader Subcomandante Marcos presented Stone with a tobacco pipe instead.

Stone has also criticized the U.S.-supported Operation Condor, a state terror operation that carried out assassinations and disappearances in support of South America's right-wing dictatorships in Argentina (see Dirty War), Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

In the early 1980's, Stone visited the Soviet Union for the first time to interview Soviet dissidents, anti-Communist dissidents as research for a screenplay''.'' He also used the trip to covertly smuggle Western goods into the USSR on behalf of a French human rights organization. His activities eventually drew the attention of Soviet authorities and he was briefly detained in Tbilisi, Tbilisi, Georgia before being allowed to leave the country. The resulting screenplay, ''Defiance,'' was never made.

In December 2014, Stone made statements supporting the Russian government's narrative on Ukraine, portraying the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity as a Propaganda in Russia, CIA plot. He also rejects the claim that former Ukrainian president (who was overthrown as a result of that revolution) Viktor Yanukovych was responsible for the List of people killed during Euromaidan, killing of protesters as claimed by the succeeding Ukrainian government. Stone said Yanukovych was the legitimate president who was forced to leave Ukraine by "well-armed, neo-Nazism in Ukraine, neo-Nazi radicals". He said that in "the tragic aftermath of this coup, the West has maintained the dominant narrative of 'Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, Russia in Crimea' whereas the true narrative is 'USA in Ukraine'". James Kirchick of ''The Daily Beast'' criticized Stone's comments. After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Stone wrote, "Although the United States has many wars of aggression on its conscience, it doesn’t justify Mr. Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. A dozen wrongs don’t make a right. Russia was wrong to invade," an opinion he reiterated in March 2025. However, he continued to blame the source of the conflict on the U.S. and NATO, emphasizing his fear of a potential nuclear war and accusing the U.S. of seeking to dominate the world. In a May 2023 interview discussing ''Nuclear Now'', Stone declined to comment on Russia's foreign policy, but praised the country (along with China) as a leader in nuclear energy, and added that Putin was a "great leader for his country and the people love him."

In a June 2017 interview with ''The Nation'' to promote his documentary on Vladimir Putin, Stone rejected the narrative of the United States' intelligence agencies that Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, Russia sought to influence the 2016 United States presidential election, 2016 presidential election. Stone accused the CIA, Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, and National Security Agency, NSA of cooking the intelligence. He said: "The influence on the election from the Russians to me is absurd to the naked eye. Israel has far more influence on American elections through AIPAC. Saudi Arabia has influence through money... Sheldon Adelson and the Koch family, Koch brothers have much more influence on American elections... And the prime minister of Israel comes to our country and addresses Congress to criticize the president's policy in Iran at the time—that's pretty outrageous."

Russia passed Russian gay propaganda law, a law in 2013 banning "gay propaganda" to minors, which has been criticized as being used for a crackdown on LGBTQ support. In a 2019 interview with Putin, Stone said of the law that "It seems like maybe that's a sensible law." Stone later denied being homophobia, homophobic. In 2025, Stone met Putin again when both attended an educational event commemorating the End of World War II in Europe, end of World War II at Moscow's WWII Museum of the Great Patriotic War, Moscow, Victory Museum.

Stone took the Russian Gam-COVID-Vac, Sputnik V vaccine for the COVID-19 virus while filming in Russia and the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, Pfizer vaccine upon his return to the return to the United States, calling himself "a pin cushion for American-Russian peace relations."

Filmography

Film

Other credits

Television

Executive producer
* ''Wild Palms'' (1993)
* ''Indictment: The McMartin Trial'' (1995) (TV movie)
* ''The Day Reagan Was Shot'' (2001) (TV movie)

Documentary works

Film

TV series

Awards and honors

Directed Academy Award performances

Under Stone's direction, these actors have received Academy Awards, Academy Award nominations (and wins) for their performances in their respective roles.

Honors
* Commander of the Order of Intellectual Merit (Morocco, 2003)
* 2007: Lifetime Achievement Award of Zurich Film Festival
* On July 4, 2024, Stone was awarded the rank of List of members of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Order of Arts and Letters, the highest civilian honor in France, for cultural contributions to both the country and the film industry. He was previously awarded the rank of Chevalier in 1992.

Bibliography

Books

Oliver Stone's ''Platoon'' & ''Salvador''
Co-authored with Richard Boyle. New York: Vintage Books, 1987. . 254 pages.

''JFK: The Book of the Film: The Documented Screenplay''
Co-authored with Zachary Sklar. Hal Leonard Corporation, 1992. .

''A Child's Night Dream: A Novel''
New York: Macmillan Publishers, Macmillan, 1998. .

''Oliver Stone: Interviews''
University Press of Mississippi, 2001. .

''Last Word: My Indictment of the CIA in the Murder of JFK''
Co-authored with Mark Lane & Robert K. Tanenbaum. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2012. .

''The Untold History of the United States''
Co-authored by Peter Kuznick. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012. .

''The Putin Interviews''
New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2017. .
* '' Chasing the Light: Writing, Directing, and Surviving Platoon, Midnight Express, Scarface, Salvador, and the Movie Game'' (July 2020)

Interviews

* Crowdus, Gary. "Clarifying the Conspiracy: An Interview with Oliver Stone". ''Cineaste (magazine), Cinéaste'', Vol. 19, No. 1, 1992. pp. 25–27. .
* Long, Camilla. "Oliver Stone: Lobbing Grenades in All Directions". Archived from the original. ''The Sunday Times'', July 25, 2010.
* (Omits mention of: Stone's support for whistleblower Julian Assange; "JFK")

Screenplays

''Snowden: Official Motion Picture Edition''
Co-authored with The Ballad of Esequiel Hernandez, Kieran Fitzgerald. Skyhorse Publishing, 2016. .

References

Further reading

Articles
* Garry Wills, Wills, Garry. "Dostoyevsky Behind a Camera: Oliver Stone is Making Great American Novels on Film". ''The Atlantic Monthly'', Vol. 280, No. 1, July 1997. pp. 96–101.

Books
* Hamburg, Eric
''Nixon: An Oliver Stone Film''
New York: Hachette Books#Hyperion Books, Hyperion Books. . 598 pages.
* Riordan, James
''Stone: The Controversies, Excesses, and Exploits of a Radical Filmmaker''
New York: Hachette Books#Hyperion Books, Hyperion Books, 1996. . 618 pages.
* Salewicz, Chris
''Oliver Stone: The Making of His Movies''
New York: Thunder's Mouth Press. . 143 pages.
* Scott, Ian and Henry Thompson
''The Cinema of Oliver Stone: Art, Authorship and Activism''
Manchester University Press, 2016.

External links

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