Facts about Paul Anderson
Paul Thomas Anderson Biography
Filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson is known for complex, critic-pleasing dramas, including 1999’s Magnolia and 2008’s There Will Be Blood.
A child of the cinema, Anderson went about making movies right out of school, and by the time he was 25 he was directing his first feature, Hard Eight (1996, also known as Sydney).
His provocative 1997 movie, Boogie Nights, made a splash, and Anderson’s Oscar-nominated script got just as much attention as Mark Wahlberg‘s performance as a porn star.
Anderson’s next film, Magnolia (1999), earned him even more praise for his mature dramatic sensibilities, and brought him a second Oscar nomination for screenwriting.
He then made Punch-Drunk Love (2002), a dramatic feature with comedian Adam Sandler, and oversaw parts of the Robert Altman film A Prairie Home Companion (2006), before embarking on the American epic There Will Be Blood (starring Daniel Day-Lewis).
Anderson’s 2008 drama earned eight Oscar nominations, including two for Anderson, for best director and best adapted screenplay.
He was nominated again for an Oscar for his screenplay to Inherent Vice (2014, starring Joaquin Phoenix), and 2017’s Phantom Thread (starring Day-Lewis) brought another two nominations, this time for best picture and best director.
One of the few directors whose films are treated as an “event,” Anderson continued his streak of Oscar nominations with his 2021 film Licorice Pizza. Anderson was nominated as writer and as director, and the movie was nominated for best picture.
Extra credit
His dad was Ernie Anderson (1923-1997), an ABC television voice talent (“…the LOVE Boat…”) and, for a time in the 1960s, a Cleveland, Ohio TV host known as “Ghoulardi.”