Philip Kaufman (born October 23, 1936) is an American film director and screenwriter who has directed fifteen films over a career spanning nearly five decades. He has received numerous accolades including a BAFTA Award along with nominations for an Academy Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. He has been described as a "maverick" and an "iconoclast," One of his grammar and high school friends was William Friedkin, who also became a director.
He attended the University of Chicago where he received a degree in history, and then enrolled at Harvard Law School where he spent a year. He returned to Chicago for a postgraduate degree, hoping to become a professor of history.
He met Saugus, Massachusetts-born Rose Fisher in 1957, when he was 21 and she was 18, and both were undergraduates at the University of Chicago. A year later, in 1958, they married. They had one son, Peter, born in 1960. Rose Kaufman was also a screenwriter and had bit roles in two of her husband's films. After spending time working on a kibbutz in Israel, he taught English and math for two years in Greece and Italy.
;The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972)
In 1972, Kaufman wrote and directed The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid starring Robert Duvall as Jesse James, in what was his first commercial film after the previous two independent ones. He spent a lot of time researching the real life characters when writing the screenplay, although the film took some liberties portraying some of the factual details.
;The White Dawn (1974)
Kaufman directed The White Dawn in 1974, a drama based on the novel of the same name by James Houston. Shot in documentary style, a story about whalers, played by Warren Oates, Louis Gossett Jr., and Timothy Bottoms, stranded in the Arctic at the turn of the century. To survive they battle polar bears and take advantage of the Eskimos who had originally saved them. The enmity between Kaufman and Eastwood also stemmed from their mutual pursuit of actress Sondra Locke, then 32 and married to Gordon Leigh Anderson.
1978–1983
;Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Kaufman directed the science fiction thriller, Invasion of the Body Snatchers in 1978, which became his first box office hit. It was a remake of the 1956 version. In this version, Kaufman moved the setting to San Francisco and recreated the alien threat as more a horror film than science fiction, and in a way that was disturbing, humorous, and believable. Critics from the San Francisco Chronicle stated that unlike other Hollywood depictions of San Francisco, this representation was "geographically correct to the Powell Street line."
;The Wanderers (1979)
In 1979, he directed The Wanderers, based on comic novel by Richard Price. The direction of the film illustrated Kaufman's mastery of genre quite different from his previous films. It is the story of a benign Italian gang of teenagers in the Bronx of 1963, with Ken Wahl and Karen Allen.
;Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) co-writer
In 1981, Kaufman became involved with the first Indiana Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, for which he received story credit. The story and character of Indiana Jones were created by George Lucas, while Kaufman came up with the MacGuffin in the story being the Ark of the Covenant. And Shepard's biographer, Don Shewey, explains that "though its chief subject is the astronauts, Yeager is the apple of Kaufman's heroic eye." Critic David Thomson agrees:
Historian Michael Barson considers it one of the more ambitious pictures of the 1980s. Roger Ebert said the film was "impressive," noting that the way Kaufman had organized the material into one of the "best recent American movies, is astonishing." The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards (including Best Picture) and won four, yet failed at the box office.
1988–2000
;The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being was directed and co-written by Kaufman in 1988. The film is based on the novel by Milan Kundera which takes place during the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Kaufman was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
;Henry & June (1990)
In 1990, he wrote and directed Henry & June, a re-creation of the affairs among and between Henry Miller, June Miller, and Anaïs Nin in 1931 Paris. The film created some controversy when it was released. Their only son, Peter, was born in March 1960. Rose, appeared in bit roles in Henry & June and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. She co-wrote the screenplays of The Wanderers and Henry & June. Peter Kaufman was the producer of Henry & June, Rising Sun, Quills, Twisted, and Hemingway & Gellhorn. She died in 2009, aged 70, from cancer.
Kaufman lives in San Francisco, where he also runs his production company, Walrus and Associates.
Filmography
Film
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Year
!Film
!Director
!Writer
!Producer
!Notes
|-
|1964
|Goldstein
|
|
|
|Co-writer and director Benjamin Manaster
|-
|1967
|Fearless Frank||||||
|
|-
|1972
|The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid||||
|
|
|-
|1974
|The White Dawn||
|
|
|
|-
|1976
|The Outlaw Josey Wales
|
|
|
|Based on the novel The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales
|-
|1978
|Invasion of the Body Snatchers||
|
|
|Remake of the 1956 film
|-
|1979
|The Wanderers||||
|
|Based on the 1974 novel, adapted with Rose Kaufman
|-
|1981
|Raiders of the Lost Ark
|
|
|
|With George Lucas
|-
|1983
|The Right Stuff||||
|
|Based on the 1979 novel
|-
|1988
|The Unbearable Lightness of Being||||
|
|Based on the 1984 novel, adapted with Jean-Claude Carrière
|-
|1990
|Henry & June||||
|
|Written with Rose Kaufman
|-
|1993
|Rising Sun||||
|
|Based on the 1992 novel, adapted with Michael Backes and Michael Crichton
|-
|1994
|China: The Wild East
|
|
|
|Documentary film
|-
|2000
|Quills||
|
|
|Based on the play of the same name
|-
|2004
|Twisted||
|
|
|
|}
Also credited as "Based on characters created by" for many post-Raiders Indiana Jones films and video games.
Television
{| class="wikitable unsortable"
!Year
!Film
!Director
!Writer
!Producer
!Notes
!Ref.
|-
|2012
|Hemingway & Gellhorn
|
|
|
| HBO Television film
|
|-
|}
Appearances
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Year
!Film
!Role
!Notes
!class=unsortable|Ref.
|-
|1978
|Invasion of the Body Snatchers
|City Official on Phone
|Voice cameo
|
|-
|1988
|The Unbearable Lightness of Being
|Man walking on street outside Sabina's flat
|Cameo
|
|-
|2004
|Lumps of Joy
|Himself
|Short film
|
|-
|2017
|Adventures in Moviegoing
|Host
|Episode: "Kareem Abdul-Jabbar"
|
|-
|}
Awards and nominations
{| class="wikitable"
!Year
!Association
!Category
!Project
!Result
|-
|1972 || rowspan=3|Writers Guild of America || Best Drama Written for the Screen || The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid ||
|-
|1981 || Best Comedy Written for the Screen || Raiders of the Lost Ark ||
|-
|1983 || Best Adapted Screenplay || rowspan=2|The Right Stuff ||
|-
|1983 || Directors Guild of America || Outstanding Direction of a Motion Picture ||
|-
|rowspan=3|1988 || Writers Guild of America || Best Adapted Screenplay || rowspan=3|Unbearable Lightness of Being ||
|-
| Academy Award || Best Adapted Screenplay ||
|-
| BAFTA Award || BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay ||
|-
|rowspan=2|2012 || Primetime Emmy Award || Outstanding Directing for TV Movie or a Dramatic Special || rowspan=2|Hemingway and Gellhorn ||
|-
| Directors Guild of America || Outstanding Direction of a Miniseries or Movie ||
|-
|}
{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|+Accolades received by Kaufman's directed films
|-
!rowspan="2"|Year
!rowspan="2"|Film
!colspan="2"|Academy Awards
!colspan="2"|BAFTAs
!colspan="2"|Golden Globes
|-
!Nominations
!Wins
!Nominations
!Wins
!Nominations
!Wins
|-
|1983
!scope="2"|The Right Stuff
|align=center|8
|align=center|4
|
|
|align=center|1
|
|-
|1988
!scope="2"|The Unbearable Lightness of Being
|align=center|2
|
|align=center|1
|align=center|1
|align=center|2
|
|-
|1990
!scope="2"|Henry & June
|align=center|1
|
|
|
|
|
|-
|2000
!scope="2"|Quills
|align=center|3
|
|align=center|4
|
|align=center|2
|
|-
!colspan="2"|Total
!14
!4
!5
!1
!5
!
|-
|}
Reception
According to film historian Annette Insdorf, "no other living American director has so consistently and successfully made movies for adults, tackling sensuality, artistic creation, and manipulation by authorities."