Ever since he introduced Reservoir Dogs to audiences in 1992, Quentin Tarantino has become a household name in filmmaking and the ultimate example of the successful independent filmmaker.
He has won at Cannes, he has won at the Oscars and now he’s off to Germany to take on the Nazis in his upcoming WWII flick, Inglourious Basterds. But before you head to the theater to indulge in one of this summer’s last blockbusters, it’s time to learn a little more about who the man behind some of our generation’s greatest, most influential and often controversial films — Quentin Tarantino.
1 - Tarantino’s mother was 16 when she gave birth to him
Whether it’s starting a family or starting a career, the Tarantino’s like to begin early. Quentin Tarantino was born to Tony Tarantino, an actor and amateur musician from Queens, and Connie Zastoupil, a health-care exec and nurse who was just 16 years old at the time she gave birth to the would-be auteur.By the time Quentin was 16 years old, he had already dropped out of Narbonne High School in Harbor City, California, to study acting at the James Best Theater Company. At 22, he landed a job recommending (and restocking) films at the Video Archives in Hermosa Beach, which is where he developed his encyclopedic knowledge of film alongside fellow filmmaker Roger Avary (Pulp Fiction, The Rules Of Attraction, Beowulf).
2 - One of Tarantino’s first acting roles was as an Elvis impersonator
Quentin frequently makes cameos in his own movies and in movies directed by friend and fellow filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, but one of his first real acting gigs came in 1988 when he played an Elvis impersonator on the popular television show The Golden Girls. Despite performing in the back row of the 10-man “Elvis ensemble,” Quentin still manages to stick out like a sore thumb. Quentin Tarantino has also appeared in four episodes of Alias in addition to his several cameos in feature films.3 - Tarantino passed on directing Speed
After making a name for himself with Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino was offered the directors chair on the 1994 adrenaline flick Speed, but passed and gave the job to career cinematographer Jan de Bont (Twister,Lara Croft: Tomb Raider). Speed grossed over $350 million worldwide, but Quentin doesn’t regret turning down the offer. The same year he unveiledPulp Fiction and took the Palme d'Or at Cannes along with an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. In addition to Speed, Quentin Tarantino was also asked to direct Men In Black but he passed and long-time TV director/producer Barry Sonnenfeld took the wheel.4 - Every Tarantino movie features a cast member from Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets
Tarantino admits he’s a Scorsese fan, citing Taxi Driver as one of his favorite films, but he also has an affinity for Scorsese’s choice of actors. Every one of his movies (with the exception of his 2007 featurette Death Proof) has someone from the cast of Martin Scorsese's early take on organized crime, Mean Streets. Harvey Keitel leads the gang in Reservoir Dogs (1992) and plays “The Wolf“ in Pulp Fiction (1994), Robert De Niroplays a supporting role in Jackie Brown (1997), David Carradine did battle in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), and David Proval is inFour Rooms (a film he directed a segment for in 1995).
5 - Tarantino spent 10 days in jail
When Quentin Tarantino was a broke aspiring filmmaker he spent 10 days in an L.A. County jail for failing to pay off $7,000 worth of parking tickets. Quentin said of his arrest: "I was actually in jail three different times for tickets. I was picking up some dialogue, but I wasn't in there for that. It was easier when you're broke to do the time."
But when it comes to run-ins with the law (and picking up some Academy Award winning dialogue), parking tickets are not the only cause. When he was 15, Quentin was arrested for stealing a book from a bookstore in California. The irony? The high-school dropout/book-thief stole crime novel The Switch by Elmore Leonard. Then, in 1997, Quentin Tarantino was sued by producer Don Murphy (Natural Born Killers, Transformers) for $5,000,000, on charges of assault. Tarantino allegedly went Marsellus Wallace on Murphy in a restaurant: He threw him against a wall and punched him.
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