Samuel Alexander “Sam” Mendes, CBE (born 1 August 1965) is an English stage and film director. He is best known for his Academy Award-winning work on his debut film American Beauty (1999) and his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret (1994), Oliver! (1994), Company (1996) and Gypsy (2003).
Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes
Is a big cricket fan and is said to have incorporated the ideas of former England cricket captain Mike Brearly in his direction.
Educated at Cambridge University in Cambridge, England, UK.
He was awarded the C.B.E. (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2000 Queen’s Birthday Honors List for his services to drama.
Taught cricket (his passion) at Summer Fields School, Oxford, UK after leaving school for a year.
Ranked #91 in Premiere’s 2003 annual Power 100 List.
Sam married English actress Kate Winslet in the West Indies in May 2003.
Resides in both New York City and London, England.
Son, Joe Alfie Winslet Mendes, was born on December 22, 2003, in New York, and weighed 7 pounds and 13 ounces.
He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1996 (1995 season) for Best Director for both “Company” and “The Glass Menagerie” at the Donmar Warehouse.
He was nominated for Best Director at the 1999 Laurence Olivier Theatre Awards for the 1998 production of “The Blue Room”.
He was nominated for a 1998 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Director of the 1997 season for “Othello” at the Royal National Theatre.
He was awarded the 2003 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award: Special for his services and contributions as Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse for the past ten years.
He was awarded the 2003 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Director of 2002 for “Twelfth Night” and “Uncle Vanya” in repertory company at the Donmar Warehouse in London.
He was awarded the 2002 London Critics Circle Theatre Award (Drama) for Best Director for both “Uncle Vanya” and “Twelfth Night” performed at the Donmar Warehouse.
He was awarded the 1995 London Critics Circle Theatre Award (Drama Theatre) for Best Director for “The Glass Menagerie”.
He was awarded the 1989 London Critics Circle Theatre Award (Drama Theatre Award) for Most Promising Newcomer as Director of Minerva Studio in Chichester, England.
He was awarded the 2002 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Director for “Uncle Vanya” and “Twelfth Night” performed at the Donmar Warehouse.
Has a home in Cotswolds, England.
Was nominated for Broadway’s 1998 Tony Award as Best Director (Musical), along with collaborator Rob Marshall, for a revival of “Cabaret.”
Was born in the same small Reading hospital where his wife, Kate Winslet, was born 10 years later.
In 2000, he won his first Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play for his production of “The Real Thing”.
In 1999, he was Nominated for a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play for “Electra”.
Stepfather of Kate Winslet’s daughter Mia
Childhood friend of Tom Hollander.
Ranked #15 in the 2008 Telegraph’s list “the 100 most powerful people in British culture”.
Suggested the idea for initiating production on “Shrek the Musical” to Jeffrey Katzenberg of DreamWorks Animation during the creation of Shrek 2 (2004). Is a big fan of the first “Shrek” film.
His father is Trinidadian.
Directed 4 actors in Oscar nominated performances: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Paul Newman, and Michael Shannon. Spacey won for his performance in American Beauty (1999).
To date (2009), all of the leading actresses in his films are in relationships with film directors: American Beauty (1999)’s Annette Bening (Warren Beatty), Road to Perdition (2002)’s Jennifer Jason Leigh (Noah Baumbach), Away We Go (2009)’s Maya Rudolph (Paul Thomas Anderson), and his own wife, Kate Winslet, in Revolutionary Road (2008). The only exception is Jarhead (2005), in which the leading actors are all male.
Brother-in-law of Anna Winslet, Beth Winslet, Joss Winslet and Edmund Harcourt.
Son-in-law of Roger Winslet.
It was announced in March 2010 that he and Kate Winslet had separated earlier the same year.
His paternal grandparents were of Trinidad’s ethnic Portuguese community. His grandfather is famed West Indian writer Alfred H. Mendes.
