Ang Lee

Filmmaker

Name at birth: Li An

Ang Lee has directed a remarkably diverse series of films, including the clash-of-cultures comedy The Wedding Banquet (1993), the Jane Austen period romance Sense and Sensibility (1995), the 1970s suburban drama The Ice Storm (1997), and the martial arts epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). The latter film was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including best director and best film. Sense and Sensibility was also nominated for best picture of 1995, and The Wedding Banquet was nominated as best foreign picture of 1993. Born in Taiwan, Lee attended college at the University of Illinois and film school at New York University. In 2003 he released the blockbuster comic book film Hulk (starring Eric Bana and Nick Nolte). Always one for new challenges, he followed Hulk with Brokeback Mountain, the 2005 film based on Annie Proulx's short story about two cowboys who fall in love. Lee won the Academy Award as best director for the film.

Other film directors of Lee's era: Spike Lee (no relation), Roman Polanski, Martin Scorsese and Curtis Hanson.