A Brief History of Kubrick

A Brief History of Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick was born on July 26th 1928 in Manhattan, NY. His parents were Jacques and Gertrude Kubrick who were both Jewish. His father was a doctor of Austrian and Romanian decent. At age 12, Kubrick’s father taught him chess and became a professional player throughout most of his life. This would later influence him to carefully study each move he would make in his films which later he became notorious for. In Kubrick’s teens, his father bought him his first Graflex camera on his birthday. Jacques had his own darkroom in their apartment and was a lover of photography himself. Fascinated by the concept, Kubrick began taken photographs throughout his neighbourhood and around the city. Kubrick was never a grade A student in school often failing classes and was unable to study at college.

At the age of 16 he began to work for LOOK! Magazine as a apprentice photographer. He was offered this job after he taken a photograph of an old man at a newsstand mourning the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945. After a few years working for LOOK! and occasionally playing chess for money in the park he become a full time photographer.

In 1951 he was persuaded by a friend to shoot a short documentary entitled ’Day of The Fight’. After the enjoyment of making the film, he quit his job at LOOK! and made an additional two documentaries called ‘Flying Padre’ (1951) and ‘The Seafarers’ (1953). He made his first feature ‘Fear and Desire’ in 1953 which was financed by his father. Kubrick met his wife, Christine Harlan on the set of his fourth feature ‘Paths of Glory’ (1957) [which she was hired to play a role in] and had a daughter. Together along with Christine’s previous children who Kubrick had adopted they moved to England in 1960 where they lived up until his death in 1999.