Harrison Ford (right) and Sean Connery star in Paramount's "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," a Lucasfilm Ltd. production directed by Steven Spielberg. The film, featuring the long-awaited return of the daring archaeologist, will introduce moviegoers to Indiana's father, Dr. Henry Jones. It's the first movie teaming Ford and Connery, who have portrayed some of the world's best known movie heroes.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

Director STEVEN SPIELBERG has directed and/or produced seven of the top 20 grossing films of all time. In recognition of his consistent excellence in filmmaking, he was presented the Irving G. Thalberg Award at the 1987 Academy Award ceremonies.

In addition to the first two motion picture adventures of Indiana Jones, Spielberg's films include "Empire of the Sun," "The Color Purple," "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," and "Jaws." Spielberg won the Director's Guild Award for "The Color Purple."

Born in Cincinnati and raised in Phoenix, Spielberg made his first film at the age of 13. While a student at California State Long Beach, he made his first 35mm short film, "Amblin," which so impressed Universal Studios that they put the young filmmaker under contract.

Following his award-winning telefilm "Duel" (which became a hit European theatrical release), Spielberg directed his first feature film, "The Sugarland Express." His next two films, "Jaws" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," were phenomenally successful and were nominated for multiple Academy Awards.

Following his big-scale comedy "1941," he teamed with long-time friend George Lucas to make "Raiders of the Lost Ark," which became that year's top grossing film and won five Oscars.

In 1982 Spielberg co-wrote and co-produced the thriller "Poltergeist" while concurrently directing "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial," the number one box office success of all time.

After directing one segment of "Twilight Zone -- The Movie" (which he co-produced), Spielberg directed the second motion picture adventure of Indiana Jones, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom."

He next directed "The Color Purple," a film that was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, followed by "Empire of the Sun," which was named Best Picture of the Year by the National Board of Review and for which Spielberg was named Best Director. The film also brought him another Directors Guild of America nomination.

Spielberg formed his production company, Amblin Entertainment, in 1984 and has since gone on to executive produce, with Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, "Gremlins," "The Goonies," "Back to the Future," "Young Sherlock Holmes," "The Money Pit," "An American Tail," "Innerspace," and "Batteries Not Included." For television Spielberg was executive producer of the anthology series "Amazing Stories," for which he directed two episodes.

"Who Framed Roger Rabbit," released by Touchstone Pictures, presented by The Walt Disney Company and Steven Spielberg, is the biggest grossing film released by any company in 1988. Spielberg executive produced with Kennedy the film, which received four Academy Awards.

Spielberg is also executive producer for "The Land Before Time," the animated feature from Universal, presented by George Lucas and Spielberg. Filming has begun on the Amblin productions "Back to the Future II" and "Dad."

Spielberg will next direct "Always."

Executive producer and co-story writer GEORGE LUCAS was an executive producer and the co-author of the story for "Raiders of the Lost Ark," which won five Academy Awards; and he was executive producer and story author for "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." Lucas is the creator of the phenomenally successful "Star Wars" saga, which consists of the epic adventures "Star Wars," "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi," each among the most popular films of all time. In addition to writing the stories, Lucas directed "Star Wars" and served as executive producer for "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi."

Lucas was born in Modesto, California, where he attended Modesto Junior College before enrolling in the University of Southern California film school. As a student at USC, Lucas made several short films including "THX-1138," which took first prize at the 1967-68 National Student Film Festival. In 1967 Warner Bros. awarded him a scholarship to observe the filming of "Finian's Rainbow," directed by Francis Coppola. The following year, Lucas worked as Coppola's assistant on "The Rain People" and made a short film entitled "Filmmaker" about the directing of a movie.

In 1969 Lucas and Coppola moved to Nothern California, where they founded American Zoetrope. The company's first project was a full-length version of "THX-1138" directed by Lucas.

In 1973 Lucas co-wrote and directed "American Graffiti." The hit film won the Golden Globe, the New York Film Critics and National Society of Film Critics awards and received five Academy Award nominations.

Following this work on the "Star Wars" saga and the first two Indiana Jones films, Lucas has completed the building of Skywalker Ranch and developed the six divisions within his company, Lucasfilm Ltd.: film production, Licensing, theatre operations, special effects, post-production, and computer games.

Exploring the teaching potential of new technologies, the computer games division is currently working with Apple Computer, the National Audubon Society, and the Smithsonian Institute on interactive projects for high school science instruction. The games division is also collaborating with the Geographic Society to develop a multimedia historical geography curriculum for schools.

Exploring new forms of entertainment, Lucas served as executive producer for Disneyland's 3-D musical space adventure "Captain EO," and he was the co-creator of Disneyland's most popular attraction, Star Tours.

Recently Lucas was the executive producer of "Tucker: The Man And His Dream"; and story author and executive producer for "Willow."

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