One of the most promising directors of the late 1970s, Ridley Scott displayed stylistic flair and remarkable storytelling abilities with films like The Duellists (1977) and his landmark Alien (1979). Although he remained a respected director on both sides of the Atlantic, his career suffered repeated blows throughout the 1980s and 1990s with a series of critical and commercial missteps, beginning with the costly and unsuccessful 1492: Conquest of Paradise.
Born November 30, 1937 in Northumberland, England, Scott was educated at the West Hartpool College of Art and London's Royal College of Art. After completing his education, he became a set designer for the British Broadcasting Company in the early 1960s, eventually getting promoted to director of such popular BBC series as the long-running police adventure Z Cars. With the establishment of his own firm, Ridley Scott Associates, Scott was in on the ground floor of some of the most inventive European TV commercials of the 1970s.
The director's transition to the big screen came with his direction of 1977's The Duellists, a visually striking Napoleonic war film that won the Jury Prize for Best First Feature at the Cannes Film Festival. Further success followed with 1979's Alien, which established Scott as both an important director and a shining knight for horror and sci-fi devotees. In 1982, the director found himself at the center of a storm around his production of Blade Runner. After repeated clashes with studio executives over the film's complex content and downbeat finale, Scott added a voiceover narration and a more positive ending. The results sparked an outcry from film purists, and Blade Runner fell victim to negative reviews and poor box office. It wasn't until the early 1990s that the director's cut was finally released on videocassette, and the film was recognized as a science-fiction masterpiece.
In the meantime, Scott continued to direct such films as the 1986 fantasy Legend, starring Tom Cruise, and 1989's Black Rain, which featured Michael Douglas as a vice cop on a mission to Japan. In 1991, he encountered critical and commercial triumph with Thelma and Louise. Starring Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon, the film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Director for Scott. After the film's success, it seemed that the director could do no wrong. Unfortunately, he did just the opposite with his next project, 1992's 1492: Conquest of Paradise. The film proved to be a complete flop, and for the next few years Scott relinquished his directorial duties in favor of producing such films as Monkey Trouble and The Browning Version (both 1994). He got back in the director's chair in 1996 with White Squall, an action-adventure film set on a boat full of troubled teenage boys. Unfortunately, the film performed poorly among critics and at the box office, and Scott's next feature, G.I. Jane (1997), suffered a similar fate. He then returned to producing, working on the 1997 TV series The Hunger, which was based on the 1983 movie directed by his brother, Tony Scott, best-known for such action fare as Top Gun (1986) and Enemy of the State (1998). He also went on to produce the 1998 black comedy Clay Pigeons.