biography of quentin tarantino

Quentin Tarantino

Who Is Quentin Tarantino?

Born in Tennessee in 1963, Quentin Tarantino moved to California at age 4. His love of movies led to a job in a video store, during which time he wrote the scripts for True Romance and Natural Born Killers . Tarantino's directorial debut came with 1992's Reservoir Dogs , but he received widespread critical and commercial acclaim with Pulp Fiction (1994), for which he won an Academy Award for best screenplay. Subsequent features included Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Vol. 2 (2004) and Grindhouse (2007). Tarantino earned several award nominations for Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Django Unchained (2012), the latter garnering him a second Oscar win for best screenplay, and he went on to write and direct The Hateful Eight (2015) and Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019).

Quentin Tarantino was born on March 27, 1963, in Knoxville, Tennessee. He is the only child of Connie McHugh, who is part Cherokee and part Irish, and actor Tony Tarantino, who left the family before Quentin was born.

Tarantino loathed school, choosing to spend his time watching movies or reading comics rather than studying. The only subject that appealed to him was history. "History was cool and I did well there, because it was kind of like the movies," he told Entertainment Weekly . After dropping out of high school, Tarantino worked as an usher at an adult film theater for a time. He also took acting classes. Tarantino eventually landed a job at Video Archives in Manhattan Beach, California. There he worked with Roger Avary, who shared his passion for film. The two even worked on some script ideas together.

Early Films: 'True Romance,' 'Natural Born Killers,' 'Reservoir Dogs'

During his time at Video Archives, Tarantino worked on several screenplays, including True Romance and Natural Born Killers . He also landed a guest spot on the popular sitcom The Golden Girls , playing an Elvis Presley impersonator. In 1990, Tarantino left Video Archives to work for Cinetel, a production company. Through one of the producers there, he was able to get his script for True Romance in the hands of director Tony Scott. Scott liked Tarantino's script, and bought the rights to it.

Working with producer Lawrence Bender, Tarantino was able to secure funding for his directorial debut, Reservoir Dogs (1992), for which he had also written the screenplay. Actor Harvey Keitel was impressed when he read the script, saying "I haven't seen characters like these in years." He signed on as an actor and a producer for the project. Other cast members included Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi and Tarantino himself.

In 1992, audiences at the Sundance Film Festival were entranced by Reservoir Dogs , Tarantino's ultraviolent crime caper gone wrong. He drew inspiration for the project from such classic heist films as Rififi and City on Fire . The independent film helped make Tarantino one of the most talked-about figures in Hollywood. While not a big hit in the United States, it became a popular title on video and did well overseas.

Oscar Win for 'Pulp Fiction'

With Pulp Fiction (1994), Tarantino created an unpredictable thrill ride filled with violence and pop culture references. In one story in the film, John Travolta played Vincent Vega, a hit man assigned to look after his boss's girlfriend ( Uma Thurman )—a role that helped resuscitate his then-flagging career. Another part examined Vega's partnership with fellow hit man Jules Winnfield (played by Samuel L. Jackson ). And yet another storyline involved Bruce Willis as a boxer. Tarantino managed to successfully interweave all these different stories to make a fascinating film. "His mind works like the Tasmanian Devil on a bullet train. It's so fast that very few people can keep up with his references," actor Eric Stoltz, who played a drug dealer in the film, explained to Los Angeles magazine.

Pulp Fiction was both a commercial and critical success. In the United States, it earned over $108 million at the box office, becoming the first independent film to do so. Pulp Fiction won the prestigious Palme d'Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1994 and received seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. For his work on the film, Tarantino took home the award for Best Original Screenplay, an honor he had to share with former collaborator Roger Avary. The two had a falling out over the writing credits for the film.

'Natural Born Killers,' 'From Dusk Till Dawn,' 'Jackie Brown'

Known for his temper, Tarantino got into a public disagreement with director Oliver Stone . Stone directed Natural Born Killers (1994) and rewrote parts of Tarantino's script. Enraged by the rewrites, Tarantino fought to have his name taken off the film. Stone told the press that the changes were an improvement over the original, which had poor character development. In a related incident, Tarantino slapped one of the producers of Natural Born Killers when he ran into him at Los Angeles restaurant.

In 1995, Tarantino wrote and directed one of the four stories featured in Four Rooms . The other three were handled by other rising independent filmmakers Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell and Robert Rodriguez. After the release of Four Rooms , Tarantino and Rodriguez collaborated on From Dusk Till Dawn (1996). Tarantino wrote the screenplay for the film and starred opposite George Clooney , the two playing criminals who end up battle vampires. Rodriguez directed the film, which received negative reviews from critics.

Tarantino soon tackled Jackie Brown (1997), a crime thriller starring Pam Grier as a stewardess who gets caught smuggling money for an arms dealer (played by Jackson). A tribute to the blaxploitation films of the 1970s, the film was adapted from an Elmore Leonard novel. Grier herself had appeared in many blaxploitation classics, including Foxy Brown (1974). The film was well received, with many calling it a more mature work for Tarantino. Critic Leonard Matlin commented that there were "dynamite performances all around" for a cast that also included Michael Keaton , Robert De Niro , and Robert Forster. Not everyone loved the film, however. Fellow filmmaker Spike Lee objected to Tarantino's overuse of a derogatory term for African Americans in Jackie Brown , publicly complaining in Army Archerd's column in Variety .

Broadway's 'Wait Until Dark'

After Jackie Brown , Tarantino took a break from filmmaking. He starred on Broadway in 1998 in a revival of Wait Until Dark with Marisa Tomei . It was a bold move for him, as he had never done professional stage work before. Tarantino played a thug who terrorizes a blind woman (played by Tomei), and the critics were less than impressed. The reviews for the production were brutally harsh, and Tarantino was devastated. He felt people on the street were recognizing him as "the one whose acting sucks. I tried not to take it personally, but it was personal. It was not about the play—it was about me, and at a certain point I started getting too thin a skin about the constant criticism."

Tarantino worked on a World War II script during this period. The screenplay "became big and sprawling. It was some of the best stuff I've ever written, but at a certain point, I thought, 'Am I writing a script or am I writing a novel?' I basically ended up writing three World War II scripts. None of them had an ending," he later explained to Vanity Fair .

'Kill Bill'

Instead of tackling his war epic, Tarantino jumped into the world of martial arts films. The idea for Kill Bill was formed by Tarantino and Thurman in a bar during the filming of Pulp Fiction . In 2000, Thurman ran into Tarantino at an Oscar party and asked whether he had made any progress with the idea. He promised her that he would write the script as a birthday present for her, initially saying he would finish in two weeks, though it ended up taking a year. Tarantino had to learn on the fly how to make a kung fu film, working and reworking the sequences as he went along.

Tarantino originally wanted Warren Beatty for the titular "Bill," but he moved on to David Carradine from the television series Kung Fu . The plot focused on revenge, as a female assassin known as the Bride (Thurman) seeks to kill those involved in the savage attack on her and her wedding party. Running over budget and over schedule, Tarantino persevered with the project, shooting so much that he eventually had to create two films. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 was released in late 2003, with Kill Bill: Vol. 2 following a few months later.

'Grindhouse,' 'Inglorious Basterds'

After Kill Bill , Tarantino dabbled in television. He wrote and directed an episode of the drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in 2005, for which he received an Emmy Award nomination. Tarantino then worked with Robert Rodriguez again. The two filmmakers each made their own gory and graphic ode to the B-movies, which were shown together as a double-feature known as Grindhouse (2007). Critics and movie-goers alike were not quite certain what to make of this collaboration, and it flopped at the box office.

Tarantino finally returned to work on his World War II script. In 2009, he released the long-awaited Inglourious Basterds , which focused on a group of Jewish-American soldiers out to destroy as many Nazis as possible. He had wooed Brad Pitt to play the leader of the "Basterds." Some of the reviews were mixed, but Tarantino seemed unfazed by any negative comments. "I respect criticism. But I know more about film than most of the people writing about me. Not only that, I'm a better writer than most of the people writing about me," he explained to GQ magazine. He clearly may have known best in this case, as the film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including two for Tarantino (for best director and best original screenplay).

Second Oscar Win for 'Django Unchained'

Tarantino went on to meet with both commercial and critical success with his action Western Django Unchained , released in late 2012. In the film, Jamie Foxx starred as Django, a freed slave who teams up with a bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) to search for his wife, played by Kerry Washington . Django then has to face off against his wife's plantation owner, played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film. Other cast members include Jackson and Jonah Hill . At the 85th Academy Awards in 2013, Tarantino won an Academy Award for best original screenplay for Django Unchained. The film received several other Oscar nominations, including for best picture, cinematography and sound editing.

'The Hateful Eight,' 'Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood'

In 2015, the director revisited the Western theme for The Hateful Eight . Featuring such frequent Tarantino collaborators as Jackson, Roth and Madsen, the film snagged Golden Globe nominations in several categories.

Four years later, Tarantino delivered his follow-up effort, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood . Co-starring DiCaprio and Pitt, the film focuses on the former's struggles to remain relevant as an actor in 1969, presenting an twist on the real-life events that led to the infamous Charles Manson family murders. The feature reportedly drew a seven-minute standing ovation following its May 2019 premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, and went on to earn Golden Globe wins for Best Screenplay and Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy.

#MeToo and Harvey Weinstein

After a series of sexual assault accusations ended the career of producer Harvey Weinstein and sparked the #MeToo movement in late 2017, Tarantino admitted he knew about Weinstein's behavior toward women and expressed regret that he didn't do more to stop it. He was also forced to account for his own alleged misogynistic behavior as a director, including the rumor that he forced Thurman to drive a dangerous stunt car while filming Kill Bill , resulting in a life-changing accident for the actress.

In 2016, Tarantino began dating Daniella Pick, daughter of Israeli singer and songwriter Tzvika Pick. After getting engaged in 2017, they married in Los Angeles in November 2018. In August 2019, the couple announced they were expecting their first child together.

The filmmaker had previously been involved in a long-term relationship with actress Mira Sorvino.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Quentin Tarantino
• Birth Year: 1963
• Birth date: March 27, 1963
• Birth State: Tennessee
• Birth City: Knoxville
• Birth Country: United States
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Known for his unpredictable, violent films, Quentin Tarantino first earned widespread fame for 'Pulp Fiction,' before going on to direct 'Inglourious Basterds' and 'Django Unchained.'
• Writing and Publishing
• Astrological Sign: Aries
• Cultural Associations
• Irish American
• Occupations
• Screenwriter

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Quentin Tarantino Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/movies-tv/quentin-tarantino
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: September 23, 2020
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
• I don't believe in elitism. I don't think the audience is this dumb person lower than me. I am the audience.

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• Quentin Tarantino

IMDbPro Starmeter Top 500 58

• Contact info
• 171 wins & 286 nominations total

• Pre-production
• creator, writer
• characters, comic

• based on the novel b

• based on the film screenplay by
• screenplay "From Dusk till Dawn"
• 30 episodes

• based on the screenplay by

• written by (segment Death Proof)

• based on the character The Bride created by
• written by (as Q)

• based on the character "The Bride" created by

• 28 episodes
• producer (p.g.a.)

• executive producer
• 14 episodes

• executive producer (uncredited)

• Tarantino (voice)
• Director of Red Apple Cigarettes Commercial (voice, uncredited)
• Narrator (voice, uncredited)

• The LeQuint Dickey Mining Co. Employee
• Robert (Bag Head)
• First Scalped Nazi
• American Soldier in 'Pride of Nation' (uncredited)

• Newsreader (voice, uncredited)

• Zombie Eating Road Kill
• Warren (segment "Death Proof")
• Rapist #1 (segment "Planet Terror")

• Master Moloch (voice)

• Quentin Tarantino - Kermit's Director
• Director's Voice (voice, uncredited)

• McKenas Cole
• In-development projects at IMDbPro

Personal details

• 6′ 1″ (1.85 m)
• March 27 , 1963
• Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
• Daniella Pick November 28, 2018 - present (2 children)
• Children Adriana Tarantino
• Parents Tony Tarantino
• Relatives Dominic James Tarantino (Grandparent)
• Other works Founded his company (with Lawrence Bender ) A Band Apart Records, which issues music releases, concentrating mainly on soundtracks.
• 12 Print Biographies
• 1 Portrayal
• 28 Interviews
• 51 Articles
• 4 Pictorials
• 17 Magazine Cover Photos

Did you know

• Trivia Hates product placement hence, the use of the fictional cigarette Red Apple and now-defunct cereal Fruit Brute in his films.
• Quotes [at the MTV Movie Awards 1994 as he won Best Picture for Pulp Fiction (1994) ] Pop quiz, hotshot: you go to the awards ceremonies all year long; you keep losing to Forrest Gump (1994) ! It's really annoying the hell out of you - what do you do? You go to the MTV Awards!
• Trademarks Lead characters usually drive General Motors vehicles, particularly Chevrolet and Cadillac, such as Jules' 1974 Nova and Vincent's 1960s Malibu.

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Quentin Tarantino

American filmmaker (born 1963) / from wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, dear wikiwand ai, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:.

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Quentin Jerome Tarantino ( / ˌ t ær ən ˈ t iː n oʊ / ; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, screenwriter, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence , extended dialogue including a pervasive use of profanity, and references to popular culture .

Tarantino began his career as an independent filmmaker with the release of the crime film Reservoir Dogs in 1992. His second film, Pulp Fiction (1994), a dark comedy crime thriller, was a major success with critics and audiences winning numerous awards, including the Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay . In 1996, he wrote and starred in From Dusk till Dawn . Tarantino's third film, Jackie Brown (1997), paid homage to blaxploitation films.

In 2003, Tarantino directed Kill Bill: Volume 1 , inspired by the traditions of martial arts films ; it was followed by Volume 2 in 2004, with both volumes combined regarded as a single film. He then made the exploitation - slasher Death Proof (2007), part of a double feature with Robert Rodriguez released under the collective title Grindhouse . His next film, Inglourious Basterds (2009), follows an alternate account of World War II . He followed this with Django Unchained (2012), a slave revenge Spaghetti Western , which won him his second Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. His eighth film, The Hateful Eight (2015), is a revisionist Western thriller and opened to audiences with a roadshow release . His most recent film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), is a comedy drama set in the late 1960s about the transition of Old Hollywood to New Hollywood . A novelization of the film written by Tarantino was published in 2021, becoming his debut novel.

Tarantino's work has been subject to criticism, such as the depictions of violence and frequent inclusion of racial slurs . During Tarantino's career, his films have garnered a cult following ; as well as critical and commercial success, he has been considered "the single most influential director of his generation". Other major awards won by Tarantino include two BAFTAs and four Golden Globes .

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Breaking Down the Quentin Tarantino Cinematic Universe

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of pulp fiction , we dive deep into the interconnected world that qt has been building for decades..

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a wonder for many reasons, not least of which is the way it wove together an intricate continuity across all of its movies. Throughout 23 films (and counting), there are crossover characters, intersecting storylines, and resonant names, locations, and even brands. Of course, when you step back, you realize that the MCU was only doing what comic books have been doing in print for decades. Take another step back, and you’ll notice that what they’ve done isn’t all that unique to movies, either. Because Quentin Tarantino , for one, has been doing it for decades, too.

From his earliest days as a struggling screenwriter to his iconic and era-defining films, Tarantino has built his own world of interconnected characters and original brands. In honor of the 25th anniversary of his legendary opus Pulp Fiction   (released October 14, 1994), let’s take a look at the QTCU — the Quentin Tarantino Cinematic Universe.

A short film co-written, directed, and starring Tarantino while he was famously working at Video Archives in Manhattan Beach, California (it’s no longer there, so don’t plan a visit), My Best Friend’s Birthday only exists in a truncated 36-minute cut because large parts of it were destroyed in a fire. Still, the seeds of the QTCU are there. For one, Quentin plays a character named Clarence who, early on, discusses his love of Rockabilly music and Elvis’ acting ability. This would, of course, foreshadow Christian Slater’s character in True Romance , a script written by Tarantino but directed by the late Tony Scott. In Birthday , Tarantino’s Clarence hires a call girl to show his friend a good time on his special day — a sequence of events that would be flipped in True Romance , when Slater’s Clarence finds himself on the receiving end of a birthday call girl surprise.

Reservoir Dogs (1992) 90%

Tarantino’s signature work, the movie that launched him as a filmmaker. In this tale of a jewel heist gone wrong, the audience is treated to flashbacks that fill in the stories of each of the movie’s black clad, code-named criminals. We find out that Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) used to run with a partner named Alabama. Of course, a woman named Alabama Whitman (later, Worley) is seen getting a taste for a life of crime in True Romance , the Tony Scott film that Tarantino wrote (see below). We also learn that Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) is named Vic Vega, as in the brother of John Travolta’s Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction.

True Romance (1993) 93%

(Photo by Warner Bros. courtesy Everett Collection)

Apart from the obvious connections to earlier films — the Rockabilly-loving Clarence and call girl-turned-crook Alabama — there is a more subtle cinematic link in Tony Scott’s Tarantino-penned action adventure. The movie climaxes with a drug deal in the hotel suite of big time movie producer Lee Donowitz (Saul Rubinek, channeling real life producer Joel Silver). Donowitz is a producer of war movies — fitting because his father, Donny Donowitz, fought in WWII as part of the Inglourious Basterds . You might remember him as the baseball bat-wielding avenger known as “The Bear Jew” (played by Eli Roth).

Pulp Fiction (1994) 92%

(Photo by Miramax Films)

Pulp Fiction , which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, is arguably the Iron Man of the QTCU, because it’s really the one that takes the threads and begins to weave them together. The film introduces us to several brand names that would become central players in Tarantino’s world, starting with “that Hawaiian burger joint” Big Kahuna Burger — Samuel L. Jackson’s Jules takes the world’s most intimidating bite of one of these burgers and washes it down with “a tasty beverage” from the place early in the movie. Later, Bruce Willis’ Butch Coolidge orders a pack of Red Apple cigarettes, a brand that shows up in just about every subsequent QT movie. Finally, Christopher Walken’s Captain Koons — he of the legendary “gold watch” speech — is also a descendant of “Crazy” Craig Koons, one of Django’s bounties in Django Unchained .

Natural Born Killers (1994) 51%

(Photo by Warner Bros. Pictures)

Although Natural Born Killers was directed by Oliver Stone, the script was pure Tarantino. We mentioned earlier the brother connection between Vic and Vincent Vega, but there is another set of brothers that was first introduced in Reservoir Dogs , too. In Dogs , Vic complains about a pain-in-the-ass parole officer named Seymour Scagnetti (we never actually see him), whose own brother, Jack, would show up in Natural Born Killers (played by Tom Sizemore).

Four Rooms (1995) 13%

In the Tarantino-written and -directed segment of this anthology film, the characters are seen smoking Red Apple cigarettes. Tarantino’s character also refers to his drink as a “tasty beverage,” which echoes the same colorful turn of phrase Jules used in Pulp Fiction.

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) 63%

Tarantino wrote the script for this Robert Rodriguez-directed horror film and peppered in some of his signature touches. There are Red Apple cigarettes present and accounted for, and George Clooney’s Seth Gecko at one point makes a run for Big Kahuna Burgers. The movie also introduces gravelly-voiced, no-nonsense Texas Ranger Earl McGraw (played by Michael Parks), who would become a key player in the QTCU. It’s also worth noting that the movie features yet another pair of brothers (Seth and his brother, Richie, played by Tarantino) who have a thing for black suits.

Jackie Brown (1997) 88%

Beware of people who claim that, because it was based on an Elmore Leonard novel and not an original Tarantino idea, there are no overt connections to the QTCU in Jackie Brown . They’re just not paying attention. Midway through the film, we see Jackie in the Del Amo Mall food court, enjoying a meal from Teriyaki Donut — the same fictional fast food franchise whose food Ving Rhames’ Marcellus Wallace is carrying when Butch Coolidge runs him down in Pulp Fiction . In a second food court scene not long after, we not only see Jackie indulging in Teriyaki Donut again, but her accomplice Sheronda (LisaGay Hamilton) sits down at her table with a tray full of food from Acuña Boys, which would later be referenced in Kill Bill Vol. 2 and appear a couple of times in Grindhouse .

Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) 85% and  Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) 84%

We’ll treat this kung fu-inspired magnum opus as one film, with plenty of easter eggs to link it to the larger QTCU. For one, if you look at The Bride’s (Uma Thurman) old gang, the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, you’ll notice that they all fit a little too easily into Mia Wallace’s description of her failed TV pilot, Fox Force Five – the blonde leader, the Japanese kung fu master, the black demolition expert, the French seductress, and Mia’s. character, the deadliest woman in the world with a knife (or sword?). The first cop on the scene after the Bride’s wedding day massacre is, of course, Earl McGraw, and Red Apple and Big Kahuna also make appearances. And remember Acuña Boys from  Jackie Brown ? In Vol. 2 , they happen to be the name of the gang that Michael Parks’ Esteban Vihaio runs.

Grindhouse (2007) 84%

(Photo by The Weinstein Co./Dimension)

In both the Tarantino portion of this double feature homage, Death Proof , and the Rodriguez portion, Planet Terror, there are connections to the QTCU. Big Kahuna burgers are mentioned, and Red Apple cigarettes are smoked. On top of that, an ad for Acuña Boys “Authentic Tex-Mex Food” — first glimpsed in  Jackie Brown  — pops up during intermission, and one of Stuntman Mike’s early victims, Vanessa Ferlito’s Arlene, can be seen sipping from an Acuña Boys cup. Texas lawman Earl McGraw also reappears, along with his son, Ed, and we learn there is a sister named Dakota, too, who features in Planet Terror.  As kind of a bonus, Rosario Dawson’s Abernathy has a familiar ringtone on her phone  — it’s the same melody whistled by Elle Driver (Darryl Hannah) in Kill Bill Vol. 1 .

Inglourious Basterds (2009) 89%

(Photo by Francois Duhamel/©Weinstein Company)

In addition to Donny Donowitz, Michael Fassbender’s English soldier-turned-spy Archie Hicox has deep ties to the QTCU, it turns out. Late in the old west-set Hateful Eight , it is revealed that Tim Roth’s Oswaldo Mobray is actually a wanted man named “English Pete” Hicox, Archie’s great-great-grandfather.

Django Unchained (2012) 87%

(Photo by The Weinstein Co.)

We’ve already mentioned “Crazy” Craig Koons, but there is another deep cut reference to Django hidden in an earlier Tarantino movie. In Kill Bill Vol. 2 , Bill’s brother Budd (played by Michael Madsen – also another pair of QT brothers!) buries the Bride alive in the grave of Paula Schultz. This is the lonely final resting place for the wife of bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) in Django.

The Hateful Eight (2015) 75%

(Photo by The Weinstein Company)

In addition to the Hicox family tree, Red Apple tobacco — the early version of the soon-to-be ubiquitous (in the QTCU, anyway) cigarette brand — makes a couple of appearances here. Demián Bichir’s Bob smokes a “Manzana Roja” right after the intermission, and Channing Tatum gets a custom-rolled Red Apple cigarette — his “favorite” — from Dana Gourrier’s Miss Minnie.

Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood (2019) 86%

(Photo by Columbia Pictures)

At one point in Kill Bill Vol. 2 , The Bride drives a blue Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. That same car shows up (driven by Brad Pitt’s Cliff Booth) in Hollywood . And not only do Booth and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Rick Dalton smoke Red Apples (of course), but there’s an end-credits scene in the movie that shows Dalton doing a TV commercial for the cigarette brand.

Pulp Fiction was released in theaters on October 14, 1994.

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Quentin Tarantino

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Biography by AllMovie

Born March 27th, 1963, director/screenwriter/actor/producer Quentin Tarantino was perhaps the most distinctive and volatile talent to emerge in American film in the early '90s. Unlike the previous generation of American filmmakers, Tarantino learned his craft from his days as a video clerk rather than as a film-school student. Consequently, he developed an audacious fusion of pop culture and independent arthouse cinema; his films were thrillers that were distinguished as much by their clever, twisting dialogue as their outbursts of extreme violence. Tarantino initially began his career as an actor (his biggest role was as an Elvis impersonator on an episode of The Golden Girls), taking classes while he was working at Video Archives in Manhattan Beach, CA.

During his time at Video Archives, the fledgling filmmaker began writing screenplays, completing his first, True Romance, in 1987. With his co-worker, Roger Avary (who would later also become a director), Tarantino tried to get financial backing to film the script. After years of negotiations, he decided to sell the script, which wound up in the hands of director Tony Scott. During this time, Tarantino wrote the screenplay for Natural Born Killers. Again, he was unable to come up with enough investors to make a movie and gave the script to his partner, Rand Vossler. Tarantino then used the money he made from True Romance to begin pre-production on Reservoir Dogs, a film about a failed heist. Reservoir Dogs received financial backing from LIVE Entertainment after Harvey Keitel agreed to star in the movie. Word-of-mouth on Reservoir Dogs began to build at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival, which led to scores of glowing reviews, making the film a cult hit. While many critics and fans were praising Tarantino, he developed a sizable number of detractors. Claiming he ripped off the obscure Hong Kong thriller City on Fire, the critics only added to the director/writer's already considerable buzz. During 1993, Tarantino wrote and directed his next feature, Pulp Fiction, which featured three interweaving crime storylines; Tony Scott's big-budget production of True Romance was also released that year.

In 1994, Tarantino was elevated from a cult figure to a major celebrity. Pulp Fiction won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival that May, beginning the flood of good reviews for the picture. Before Pulp Fiction was released in October, Oliver Stone's bombastic version of Natural Born Killers hit the theaters in August; Tarantino distanced himself from the film and was only credited for writing the basic story. Pulp Fiction soon eclipsed Natural Born Killers in both acclaim and popularity. Made for eight million dollars, the film eventually grossed over 100 million dollars and topped many critics' top ten lists. Pulp Fiction earned seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay (Tarantino and Avary), Best Actor (John Travolta), Best Supporting Actor (Samuel L. Jackson), and Best Supporting Actress (Uma Thurman); it won one, for Tarantino and Avery's writing.

After the film's success, Tarantino was everywhere, from talk shows to a cameo in the low-budget Sleep With Me. At the beginning of 1995, he directed a segment of the anthology film Four Rooms and acted in Robert Rodriguez's sequel to El Mariachi, Desperado, and the comedy Destiny Turns on the Radio, in which he had a starring role. Tarantino also kept busy with television, directing an episode of the NBC TV hit ER and appearing in Margaret Cho's sitcom All-American Girl.

The latter half of the '90s saw Tarantino continue his multifaceted role as an actor, director, screenwriter, and producer. In 1996, he served as the screenwriter and executive producer for the George Clooney schlock-fest From Dusk Till Dawn, and the following year renewed some of his earlier acclaim as the director and screenwriter of Jackie Brown. The film, in which Tarantino had a voice-over cameo, reunited him with Fiction star Samuel L. Jackson and won him the raves that had been missing for much of his post-Fiction career. Also in 1997, Tarantino appeared in Full Tilt Boogie, a documentary about the making of From Dusk Till Dawn. His film work the following year was essentially confined to a role in friend Julia Sweeney's God Said, Ha!, and in 1999, he was back behind the camera as the producer for From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money.

Though Tarantino would lay relatively low in the early years of the new millennium, he did make a prominent guest-starring appearance in 2001 on a two-episode story arc of the spy show Alias. In late 2002/early 2003, hype would soon start to build around his fourth feature, Kill Bill (2003). Though originally envisioned to be a single release, Kill Bill was eventually seperated into two films entitled Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2 when it became obvious that the story was simply too far-reaching to be contained in a single film. A kinetic homage to revenge movies of the 1970s, Kill Bill Vol. 1 featured Uma Thurman as a former assassin known as "The Bride." While the first film in the pair was an eye-popping homage to Asian cinema and all things extreme, the outrageous violence of Kill Bill Vol. 1 stood in stark contrast to the dialogue-driven second installment that concluded the epic tale of revenge and betrayal. The gambit of separate releases paid off, as both earned a combined sum of more than 130 million dollars domestically.

In the wake of the Kill Bill films, rumors abounded concerning Tarantino's next feature, and eager fans were shocked to see his name mentioned as being a potential candidate to helm everything from the next Friday the 13th film to a remake of the James Bond classic Casino Royale.

In 2005, Tarantino did step back into the director's chair to helm a segment of Robert Rodriguez's eagerly anticipated comic book adaptation Sin City. A longtime friend of Rodriguez, Tarantino agreed to take part in the filming of Sin City, not only to repay the versatile filmmaker for providing soundtrack music for the Kill Bill films, but also to try his hand at digital filmmaking -- a process increasingly championed by the seemingly inexhaustable Rodriguez. After this, the two directors joined forces again, for one of the most ballyhooed and hotly anticipated pictures of 2007: Grindhouse. A no-holds-barred elegy to the sleazy, seedy, often half-dilapidated inner-city theaters of the 1970s that would churn out similarly sleazy movies, Tarantino and Rodriguez divided Grindhouse into two portions: the first half, Death Proof, directed by Tarantino, starred Kurt Russell in homage to the high-octane auto thrillers of the '70s. Merging low-brow thrills with blunt, existential dialogue, the Tarantino segment garnered the lion's share of the film's considerable critical praise, although the three-hour-plus Grindhouse ultimately failed to connect with audiences, much to the dismay of The Weinstein Company, who released it. Separate versions of Death Proof and Rodriguez's Planet Terror were then prepped for European release, with Tarantino's effort screened in competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

In 2009 Tarantino issued Inglorious Basterds, a sprawling World War II epic abuot a band of Jewish American soldiers fighting an Apache resistence behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied France. The film, strring Brad Pitt, was a hit around the world, and garnered Tarantino nominations from the Writers Guild, the Directors Guild, the Hollywood Foreign Press, and the Academy for his screenplay and his direction.

He took three years to craft his follow up, Django Unchained, a revenge tale set in the pre-Civil War American south that follows a slave who teams up with a bounty hunter to get his wife away from a sadistic plantation owner. The film was a another international box office hit, and earned a number of year-end awards including a second Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Tarantino.

Movie Highlights

• Mother is part Cherokee; gave birth to him when she was 16; the two of them moved from Knoxville to L.A. when he was 2.
• Dropped out of school in the ninth grade.
• Spent five years working at a video store in L.A.; a co-worker was future Pulp Fiction writing collaborator Roger Avary.
• Made his TV acting debut in 1988 as an Elvis impersonator in an episode of The Golden Girls .
• Loves trashy B-movies of the 1960s and '70s, especially kung-fu and blaxploitation films.

The Untold Truth Of Quentin Tarantino

People spend their entire lives –– especially in creative fields such as filmmaking –– attempting to create a masterpiece. Yet Quentin Tarantino, from his first time making a full-length film with 1992's "Reservoir Dogs," has seemingly hit a home run with every swing of the bat, creating one gem after the next. He is, by any metric, one of the most successful and talented filmmakers ever, and among the most chronicled.

Yet, there's still plenty that even his most die-hard fans might not know about the Knoxville-born, LA-raised auteur. Do you know how he got his name? What this lover of film thinks about the streaming services where so many of his films currently reside? Or the "Golden Girls" episode that helped fund his early career?

From "Pulp Fiction" to "Inglourious Basterds"  to the other classics — and the stories in between — here's the untold truth of Quentin Tarantino. Now, let's be like two little Fonzies and follow along with all the cool details. 

The origins of his name

Though Quentin Tarantino might sound like a stage name — it is unique, if nothing else — his birth name was indeed Quentin Jerome Tarantino.

His mother named him after a Burt Reynolds' character , Quint Asper , from "Gunsmoke." He inherited his last name from his dad, Tony Tarantino; but he grew up using the last name Zastoupil (after his stepfather), and said in 2021 that if he were starting his career today, he'd probably use his middle name, making "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" a film from visionary director Quentin ... Jerome? 

"I didn't even know about the name Tarantino really at that time," said the "Jackie Brown" director, who grew up without his father. "[Zastoupil] was my name. I was always known by that."

Although his mother, Connie McHugh, had re-married musician Curtis Zastoupil [they would divorce in 1973], when Quentin got into his late teens he began to feel like his biological father's name was just cooler. "When I took the name Tarantino around 18 or 19, it was simply because it sounded cool," he explained. "It was Italian. Quentin Tarantino sounded like a cool name. It had nothing to do with him. It had nothing to do with the family."

Tarantino's upbringing

Tarantino might be from Tennessee, but he mostly grew up in California. His mother met his father when she came to Los Angeles in the early '60s on a trip; she was briefly married to the law student/aspiring entertainer, but after their divorce moved back to Knoxville to be with her parents. Tarantino and his mom both returned to LA, however, when he was about three years old.

"I never knew my father," Tarantino said in a 2010 interview with The UK Telegraph . "He wanted to be an actor, now he's an actor only because of my last name. But he was never part of my life. I didn't know him. I've never met him."

Born in Queens and raised in Brooklyn, Tony Tarantino became an actor because of his father Dominic (Quentin's grandfather), who appeared in Westerns in the 1930's alongside Tom Mix, Buck Jones and Tim McCoy. According to IMDb , Tony has acted in 10 projects (9 since his son's rise to prominence) and produced two films. Tony Tarantino is also a member of the " Silver Foxes ," a group of celebrity parents that has also included the parents of Al Pacino, Patrick Swayze, Cindy Crawford, Magic Johnson and more. Quentin and Tony's estrangement has occasionally made headlines, as in 2015 when the two publicly disagreed over matters of police brutality . 

Tarantino's relationship with his mother

Tarantino has also had a difficult relationship with his mother at times, and as he said in 2021, he is hesitant to assist her financially because of memories from when he was young and trying to write early scripts — some of which would eventually go on to form the basis of films like "Reservoir Dogs," "True Romance" and "Natural Born Killers." The problem, it seems, is that he was working on these scripts during school time.

"She was b****ing at me about that," Tarantino told "The Moment" podcast in 2021. "In the middle of her little tirade, she said, 'Oh and by the way, this little writing career?' — with the finger quotes — 'this little writing career that you're doing? That s**t is f***ing over!' She just meant don't do it in class when you're supposed to be doing something else."

All these decades later, Tarantino still remembers the exchange. "When she said that to me in that sarcastic way, I was in my head and I go: 'OK, lady. When I become a successful writer, you will never see one penny from my success," he recalled. "There will be no house for you. There's no vacation for you; no Elvis Cadillac for mommy. You get nothing because you said that."

Ultimately, he said, he has stuck to that resolution. "I helped her out of a jam with the IRS," he admitted. "But no house! No Cadillac."

He taught himself how to make films

Anybody who knows anything about Quentin Tarantino knows the backstory: In the '80s, he was among the resident geeks at the now-legendary Video Archives store in Manhattan Beach ( alongside Roger Avary , with whom he'd later share an Oscar for writing "Pulp Fiction"). In perhaps one of his most famous quotes, Tarantino told the BBC in 2004: "When people ask me if I went to film school, I tell them, 'No, I went to films.'" It was at Video Archives where Tarantino would hold court behind the counter and watch so many of those films; he became known for delivering a "Top Gun"-related riff that he would eventually do in the 1994 film " Sleep With Me ," and it was reportedly here where a cassette tape of Louis Malle's "Au Revoir Les Enfants" led him to come up with the name "Reservoir Dogs." 

"I was just looking for a minimum wage job," Tarantino told NBC News in 2004 , reflecting on the job that would inspire much of his " True Romance " script and even name-check his boss Lance Lawson. "I could have worked at Video Archives; I could have worked at Pioneer Chicken. But luckily I got in at Video Archives, and it was real fun." 

Tarantino had spent much of his life going to movies — his caretakers had no qualms about him seeing "grown up" films at a young age — and by the time he was applying at Video Archives, he was already a walking encyclopedia of film history. "I got the job because I was a movie expert," he explained. "When you clear out everything in your life and focus on one thing, you better know a lot about it."

All these years later, Video Archives is long gone — but Tarantino had a replica of the store built in his home and purchased its old video tape collection; Avary, meanwhile, owns the store's laserdiscs. The two recently announced that they will be launching "The Video Archives Podcast," where they'll be watching those old movies with guests and recording their thoughts. 

He's not streaming service's biggest fan

As streaming services have increasingly influenced the film industry — and made their presence known during award season — directors like Christopher Nolan and Steven Spielberg have made their opinions known on the perceived threat to cinema. Nobody loves film more than Tarantino (he bought LA's beloved New Beverly Cinema in 2007, committing to not only program much of its schedule, but to only show movies on celluloid), and has never been known for being shy, so of course he has made his opinion on the matter known. 

"I am not excited about streaming at all," Tarantino said in a 2015 IndieWire interview . "I like something hard and tangible in my hand. And I can't watch a movie on a laptop. I don't use Netflix at all. I don't have any sort of delivery system. I have the videos from Video Archives. They went out of business, and I bought their inventory. Probably close to eight thousand tapes and DVDs."

In a 2017 interview with The Playlist , Tarantino talked about how going to a video store was more of an investment  and a more communal experience. "[T]here was a different quality to the video store," Tarantino said . "You looked around, you picked up boxes, you read the back of the boxes. You made a choice, and maybe you talked to the guy behind the counter, and maybe he pointed you toward something."

For what it's worth, video stores are largely gone and Tarantino's movies have made their way to streaming services. Perhaps he has even warmed to the possibilities of streaming; in 2019, Tarantino worked with Netflix on a much-hyped ( yet covertly-released ) longer cut of "The Hateful Eight." Keep in mind, this was shortly after he had toured the movie on 70mm film — pretty much as "old school" as you can get, and perhaps proof that celluloid and streaming can indeed co-exist.

"Netflix came to us and said, 'Hey, look, if you'd be interested ... If there's even more footage, if you'd be interested in putting it together and in a way that we could show it as three or four episodes, depending on how much extra footage you have, we'd be willing to do that,'" Tarantino told /Film . "I thought, wow, that's really intriguing. I mean, the movie exists as a movie, but if I were to use all the footage we shot, and see if I could put it together in episode form, I was game to give that a shot."

He may have gone to jail multiple times

Though Tarantino says he's been to jail, there have been questions surrounding these claims over the years – and even accusations that such stories are an attempt to make himself seem like a tough guy. "I was in jail three different times, the last time was for eight days," Tarantino told a show called "What the Flick?! in 2015 . "Three days one time, two days another time and eight days last time."

The  New York Post  published an article labeling his story a "lie," claiming there's no record of his time served at a Los Angeles county jail. Tarantino fired back. 

"They're just really bad journalists," he said (via the Guardian ). "It would be so easy for them to look (my jail record) up but they're not actually doing the work that it takes to look it up."

Tarantino is also fond of telling a story about childhood shoplifting that has since gone on to become part of his legend . When Tarantino was 15, he stole a copy of the Elmore Leonard crime paperback "The Switch" from a Kmart in Torrance, California. 

"Hey, that looks like it would make a pretty cool movie," Quentin told GQ in 2021 that he was thinking at the time. After being arrested and released by the police, he was grounded for the summer by his mother; once he had served his time, he went back and stole the book — this time, successfully. "I was gonna be damned if I was gonna get into all this trouble and not get the book. So I went back to the same Kmart and I stole the book successfully."

Tarantino claims he still has the book — and about twenty years later, its Leonard-penned quasi-sequel "Rum Punch" would help serve as source material for one of his most beloved films , "Jackie Brown."

Contrary to his movies, he detests real-life violence

Love 'em or hate 'em, there's no debate: Tarantino's movies are often violent, unrelenting depictions of murder, mayhem and dismemberment. From the cop's ear in "Reservoir Dogs," to the Bride's blood-spraying "Kill Bill" showdown with the Crazy 88 , to the "Death Proof" car collision or the lost pinkie in "Four Rooms," the man is responsible for more severed body parts than your average neighborhood carnival ride. In real life, he has been asked about violence for decades — and has at times become angered by the constant implications that it is hypocritical to put such violence in his movies for fun, yet condemn it in the real world.

'To say that I get a big kick out of violence in movies and can enjoy violence in movies but find it totally abhorrent in real life — I can feel totally justified and totally comfortable with that statement. I do not think that one is a contradiction of the other," he told the Observer in 1994 . "Real life violence is real life violence. Movies are movies. I can watch a movie about the Hindenberg disaster and get into it as a movie but still feel it's a horrible real life tragedy. It's not the same thing at all."

While doing publicity in 2013 for " Django Unchained ," arguably his most violent film, Tarantino went viral with a confrontational interview  saying "I'm shutting your butt down" to British journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy. 

"I refuse your question. I'm not your slave, and you're not my master. You can't make me dance to your tune. I'm not a monkey," he shot back when the UK Channel 4 interviewer tried to press him on the issue. "The reason I don't want to talk about it is because I've said everything I've had to say about it. If anyone cares what I have to say about it they can Google me. And they can look for 20 years what I have to say about it. I haven't changed my opinion one iota."

From Dusk Till Dawn was Tarantino's first paid writing job

Tarantino has been involved in many classic films — and not just the ones he's directed, but also some he has had a hand in writing ("Natural Born Killers," " Crimson Tide " and "True Romance") or acting in ("Desperado," "From Dusk Till Dawn"). Although an exact timeline is hard to nail down — several of Tarantino's early scripts were written somewhat simultaneously, which partially explains why certain names (Vega, Nash, Scagnetti) are repeated — "True Romance" was the first script for a major motion picture he sold, "Natural Born Killers" was a movie he wrote for himself but didn't yet have the clout to direct, and "Dawn" was his first "paid writing gig." 

" I conceived the project and wrote a 24 page treatment that outlined the film and the characters. I wanted to do a film that could be done on a small budget with an isolated group of characters trapped in a setting like 'Assault on Precinct 13'," remembered horror FX legend Robert Kurtzman in a 2009 interview . "Producer David Goodman had told me about a young writer who he thought would be perfect to write 'Dusk.' He hooked us up and QT and I soon got together to discuss collaborating. QT had sent us several writing samples including 'Natural Born Killers' and 'True Romance' and after reading we felt he'd be perfect for 'Dusk.' At the time QT had been working as a video clerk and was looking to branch out and although we didn't have much money to pay him it was enough for QT to leave his job as a video clerk to write our project." 

Continues Kurtzman: "It was actually his first work for hire screenplay. We mad a deal. QT would write our script and I would do the FX for 'Reservoir.' We spent the next ten years trying to set the film up. It was initially rejected everywhere, even after the success of 'Reservoir' and 'Pulp.' No one wanted to do it. They thought is was too vulgar and violent and didn't understand the turn from road picture to vampire film halfway through."

By the mid '90s, the heat had become too hot around Tarantino and "El Mariachi" filmmaker Robert Rodriguez to ignore, and so "Dusk" finally got the greenlight — starring Tarantino/Rodriguez orbiters like Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis, Salma Hayek, Michael Parks, Danny Trejo ... and some guy named George Clooney, who was trying to make the jump from television to movies (which was hard to do back then). Tarantino would turn in arguably the most substantial acting performance he's ever given, as the lascivious brother to Clooney's character.

"When [Rodriguez] became interested it was a no-brainer," added Kurtzman. "Once RR boarded the picture it went from what was conceived as a small $1.5 million dollar movie to a $17 million dollar film with top name talent. The rest is history."

Reportedly, Tarantino received a mere $1,500 to write the script. 

Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood was made into a novel

Tarantino's Oscar juggernaut "Once Upon a Time in ... Hollywood" made just under $400 million worldwide at the box office, making it the second highest grossing film of his career. But it ranks alone in his oeuvre when it comes to ... book sales?

The novelization of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" marked the writer/director's debut as an author, arriving  at No. 1 on The New York Times fiction best-seller list . If you've seen the film, you know that it exists in an extremely-detailed alternate reality where fictional characters (Cliff Booth, Rick Dalton) live, mingle and co-star with very real legends (Bruce Lee, Steve McQueen, Roman Polanski), and Tarantino used his novelization to not recount the story in prose per se, but to dive even deeper into such minutiae. Readers learn , for instance, that Rick killed more Japanese in World War II than anyone in U.S. military history — and that Cliff did indeed kill his wife.

"I'm really happy with it, I'm really proud of it," Tarantino said in an episode of the Pure Cinema Podcast  (via EW ). "If you're a fan of the movie, I think you will get a kick out of reading the book, and exploring the characters further and deeper, and learning secrets that you didn't know, and were not in the movie. It's not just me taking the screenplay and then breaking it down in a novelistic form. I retold the story as a novel."

If you're a fan of Tarantino's writing — whether it be a script or, now, novel format — you'll be happy to learn that a new book involving DiCaprio's character Dalton is on the way, according to Empire .

The partially lost My Best Friend's Birthday was Tarantino's first movie

Although the 1992 crime classic " Reservoir Dogs " is technically Tarantino's first feature-length film, it was not his first attempt at getting a filmmaking career off the ground. 

In 1983, he collaborated with friend Scott McGill on "Love Birds in Bondage," a film he intended to star in co-write and co-direct. According to the site The Quentin Tarantino Archives , the film was intended to be a "black comedy about a girl who suffered from brain damage after a car accident and had to be institutionalized due to her erratic behavior. Heartbroken, her devoted boyfriend makes the decision to get himself admitted, so he can be close to her."

Whatever footage was shot of that film was eventually destroyed — possibly by McGill himself, possibly by his mother.

A few years later, Tarantino got closer with "My Best Friend's Birthday." That film told the story of a man named Mickey (played by co-writer Craig Hamann) whose girlfriend recently left him; Tarantino played Clarence, who was trying to make his friend feel better via a surprise. Years later, Tarantino would call the comedy a "Martin and Lewis kind of thing," and shot the film while working at Video Archives alongside Avary (who served as a cinematographer) — seven years later, these indie film geeks would be standing on stage at the Oscars sharing a Best Original screenplay trophy for "Pulp Fiction."

History apparently repeated itself, as much of "Friend's Birthday" was lost in a fire . Only 36 minutes of the film remain, and it is in a barely watchable black-and-white-and-fuzzy format, but if you're curious you can view the footage online. With dark rants about how "The Partridge Family" saved his character from suicide, you can see the early seeds of Tarantino's genius.

It took over a decade for Tarantino to create the Inglourious Basterds script

Writers, actors, directors, producers, and everyone in between are expected to flesh out hit after hit. Tarantino, as an example, is expected to make a movie that's not only met with critical acclaim but one that also reaches glory at the box office. Achieving all these feats takes a myriad of things to go right, all starting with a well-written script.

As for the 2009 war film "Inglourious Basterds," Tarantino worked on it for nearly a decade (via IMDb ). Tarantino wrote "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" (2003) in between writing "Inglourious Basterds," and at one point was considering names like Adam Sandler and Michael Madsen for roles. The extra time he took with this script paid off, as "Basterds" was nominated for eight Oscars , racked up over  $300 million worldwide at the box office, and brought Tarantino's career roaring back after a half-decade of (relative ... does "Death Proof"/"Grindhouse" really count?) inactivity following "Kill Bill: Vol. 2" in 2004. 

Although a decade might seem like a long time to work on a script, Tarantino's patience and willingness to get it right paid off in spades.

He played an Elvis impersonator on The Golden Girls

Wise men say ... that a young Tarantino, still struggling to gain traction in Hollywood as a writer, director or actor,  appeared on "The Golden Girls"  in 1988. He was one of many Elvis impersonators in "Sophia's Wedding: Part 1" (Season 4, Episode 6), and believe it or not, Dorothy, Rose, Sophia and Blanche (in an extremely indirect way) helped finance "Reservoir Dogs."

"One of the jobs I did get ... and not because I did a wonderful audition, but simply because they sent my picture in and they said, 'He's got it!' was for an Elvis impersonator on 'The Golden Girls,'" Tarantino said on  "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon " in 2020, adding that the money kept him "going during our pre-production time trying to get 'Reservoir Dogs' going."

Because the episode spanned two parts, Tarantino received residuals totaling around $3,000. As any Tarantino die-hard knows, he is an Elvis admirer — in "True Romance," Clarence Worley gets regular visits from a Jiminy Cricket-like Elvis (played by Val Kilmer), and "Pulp Fiction" has a deleted scene where Mia Wallace explains that the world is filled with Elvis people and Beatles people, but everyone has to like one more than the other — and as he told Fallon, he was playing a Sun Records-era Elvis, which he has said was his favorite period of the King.

"When I was young, I used to think Elvis was the voice of truth," Tarantino told Uncut in 2019 while discussing Presley's "The Sun Sessions" album. "I don't know what that means, but his voice ... sh*t man, it sounded so f**king pure. If you grew up loving Elvis, this is it. Forget the Vegas period: if you really love Elvis, you're ashamed of that man in Vegas. You feel like he let you down. The hillbilly cat never let you down."

Though he's known as a filmmaker, he has more acting credits than directing credits

Tarantino might be viewed as a filmmaker above all else, but he actually has more acting credits than directing ones. At the time of this writing, Tarantino has 21 director credits to his name, yet his 38 acting credits surpass that (via IMDb ). He also has 22 producer credits and 30 writing credits, as well as a whopping 252 "self" credits. Tarantino, by all measures, has left his mark on Hollywood –– from behind and in front of the camera.

If you're looking for some off-the-beaten-path Tarantino acting, you can look beyond the obvious cameos in "Dogs," "Fiction" and "Django" and take a peek at the fun episode of "All-American Girl" he did in 1995 , spoofing "Pulp Fiction" alongside then-girlfriend Margaret Cho. A couple years later he would appear in Spike Lee's " Girl 6 " as a thinly-veiled version of himself, and his off-the-wall appearance as a blind preacher in Adam Sandler's "Little Nicky" has to be seen to be believed.

He hates the Calvin Candie character in Django Unchained

It's rare to find creators who don't like their own characters, but there are certainly exceptions, especially when creators develop characters who are just plain horrible on the page. To say Tarantino doesn't fancy the Calvin Candie character (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) in "Django Unchained" is an understatement.

"I hated Candie and I normally like my villains no matter how bad they are," Tarantino said in a Playboy Magazine interview (via Far Out Magazine ). "I could see his point of view, but I hated it so much. For the first time as a writer, I just f***ing hated this guy."

Going along with that sentiment, DiCaprio also appears to find the character despicable. "He was one of the most deplorable, indulgent, horrendous characters I've ever read in my life," said DiCaprio in a 2012  EW interview. "This man's code of ethics was so beyond, or below, anything that I could ever imagine ... but it was a delicious character nonetheless."

The real reason product placement is lacking in his films

Product placement is an unfortunate necessity in almost any modern movie, but from the very beginnings of his career Tarantino has sidestepped brand names whenever possible to instead use hyper-real, Tarantino-universe brands, such as the Hawaiian fast-food restaurant Big Kahuna Burger and Red Apple cigarettes . 

Fans could reasonably expect that Tarantino must hate product placement, but the opposite is apparently true; according to the auteur, it's the real-life brands who typically don't want to be featured in his films. "I haven't done that much product placement in my movies because for the most part, I've actually been usually refused," Tarantino explained in the 2011 film " The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.  "All my first scripts always had some scene that took place at a Denny's, because I had many scenes in my early twenties that took place at a Denny's. 'Reservoir Dogs,' it was in the original script that the opening scene where they're all talking [that was] at a Denny's. The opening scene of 'Pulp Fiction,' Pumpkin and Honey Bunny, at a Denny's. In both cases, Denny's goes 'No!'" 

Some projects Tarantino could have been involved in

When you have a long-standing career like Quentin Tarantino, and such a distinctive brand, Hollywood will come knocking regularly. Coupled with Tarantino's methods of beginning projects then moving elsewhere if he loses interest, there is a long list of "would coulda" movies that QT's fans will most likely never see.

Tarantino films that never came to fruition  include " Double V Vega ," perhaps the most tantalizing unproduced project, which would have brought together the similarly-surnamed characters of Vic Vega (Michael Madsen in "Reservoir Dogs") and Vincent Vega (John Travolta in "Pulp Fiction"), even though both died in their respective movies. 

"I don't think I took it far enough for a story, but I had a premise. It would have taken place in Amsterdam. So it would have taken place in the time that Vincent was in Amsterdam. Remember in 'Pulp Fiction,' he had just come back from Amsterdam and he was telling the whole story. He was running some club for Marcellus," Tarantino  told the ReelBlend podcast in 2019, discussing his take. "And so, he was probably there for a couple of years. At some point, in his two-year stay in Amsterdam, running some club, Vic shows up to visit him. And it would have been their weekend. Exactly what happens to them or what trouble they get into, I never took it that far."

Depending on who you believe, Tarantino has also either pitched or been pitched attempts to mix his unique flavor with Star Trek , James Bond , Russ Meyer and even the Marvel superhero Luke Cage , long before the MCU was a thing. As for his own films, a persistent rumor continues that he could do a third chapter of "Kill Bill."

The film would have the daughter of Vivica A Fox's character out to "avenge her mother's death by killing Uma Thurman's The Bride," he said on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast in 2021; the movie would also reportedly cast Uma Thurman's real-life daughter (and "Stranger Things" actress) Maya Hawke as the offspring of Beatrix Kiddo. "I think it's just revisiting the characters 20 years later and just imagining The Bride and her daughter, Bebe, having 20 years of peace, and then that peace is shattered ... and now The Bride and Bebe are on the run, and just the idea of being able to cast [Thurman] and cast her daughter, [Hawke] in the thing would be f****** exciting."

Tarantino has even thought about revisiting one of his own classics. "I actually have considered doing a remake of 'Reservoir Dogs' as my last movie," he said on Real Time with Bill Maher in 2021 . Laughing, he was quick to caution: "I won't do it, internet, but I considered it."

Tarantino says he's going to stop making films after his 10th feature

If any of the above projects are going to come to fruition, Tarantino better hurry up and choose carefully. Because he has been going on record for years claiming that after ten films, he will walk away (this quasi-countdown dates all the way back to early '00s "Kill Bill" trailers ). This is a position he has reiterated even after the massive success of "Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood," which would count as film number nine by his estimation (Tarantino views "Death Proof" as a film despite its "Grindhouse" origins, and counts the "Kill Bill" films together, as he originally conceived).

QT seems determined to go out on top, and is well aware of brilliant filmmakers whose final efforts diminished their canon. 

Asked in 2021 if he was serious, the then-58-year-old filmmaker made his case. "You're at the top of your game," Bill Maher protested on "Real Time with Bill Maher."

"That's why I want to quit!" Tarantino shot back, citing filmmakers like Don Seigel as directors who kept working past their prime. "Because I know film history and from here on in, directors do not get better ... I don't have a reason that I would want to say out loud that's going to win any argument in the court of public opinion ... at the same time, working for 30 years, doing as many movies as I've done ... that's a really long career. And I've given it every single solitary thing I have."

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Quentin Tarantino

Introduction.

• Appreciation and Popular Criticism
• Auteurism and Influence
• Cinematic Style
• Reservoir Dogs (1992)
• Pulp Fiction (1994)
• Jackie Brown (1997)
• Kill Bill Volume 1 (2003) and Kill Bill Volume 2 (2004)
• Death Proof (2007)
• Inglourious Basterds (2009)

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Quentin Tarantino by Lisa Coulthard LAST REVIEWED: 19 April 2023 LAST MODIFIED: 29 August 2012 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791286-0126

Bursting on the scene with the controversial Reservoir Dogs (1992), Quentin Tarantino has become known for a particular brand of film violence and postmodern pastiche that has won him both accolades and censure. Studying acting and working as a video store clerk, Tarantino had long been interested in cinema and in writing screenplays. Although Tarantino had written and directed My Best Friend’s Birthday in 1987, it was not released, and Reservoir Dogs marks the start of Tarantino’s career as a writer and director. This violent heist film cleverly reworks the genre to focus on the aftereffects of action rather than on action, and its premiere at Sundance in 1992 made Tarantino’s career. Although offending many and almost entirely snubbed by critics, the film received enough positive attention to make the former video store clerk an overnight sensation in high demand by Hollywood. But it was the sensation of Tarantino’s second film, Pulp Fiction (1994), that truly caught the attention of audiences and critics alike. Winning multiple major awards and setting box-office records, Pulp Fiction solidified Tarantino’s directorial career and won him the designation of auteur; it became nothing short of a film phenomena, as Dana Polan notes (see Polan 2000 , cited under Pulp Fiction [1994] ). With seven feature films, one omnibus film, two filmed screenplays, and two television series episodes ( CSI and ER ), as well as guest directorial and acting appearances, Tarantino has lived up to the auteur hype that began brewing after the major success of Pulp Fiction . Although the calls for auteur status prompted by Pulp Fiction might have seemed premature at the time, given this was only his second film, it is clear that Tarantino’s films are marked by stylistic and thematic unities that are pronounced and identifiable. Most books and articles on his films tend to focus on these stylistic signatures, such as numerous cinematic, musical, and pop cultural references; lengthy segments of banter and witty dialogue; extreme violence; self-reflexivity; pastiche; and complicated narrative timelines. And yet there are very few scholarly studies of Tarantino that take his films seriously in terms of film history, style, or theory; rather, the literature is dominated by informal and popular criticism and biography and heavily theorized or highly specific analyses.

Tarantino’s rags-to-riches story of a video store clerk turned A-list Hollywood director is attractive fodder for the many commentators and critics who discuss his films and life. Paradoxically, although Tarantino is a very vocal and performative celebrity, he is rarely forthcoming about details of his personal life. As a result, most biographies of Tarantino are not detailed studies of his life; rather, these works are stories of Tarantino’s success and rely on aesthetic assessment or appreciation of his films filtered through and interpreted using details of his personal life, largely gleaned from published and readily available material. Tarantino’s story has great appeal nonetheless to those enthralled by his films, and this comes through in the studies that tend to focus on Tarantino’s childhood and youth, which they use to explain and expand upon his cinematic inspirations and signatures. Illustrated with several photographs and with details of Tarantino’s childhood, adolescence, and adult life, Clarkson 2007 offers the most thorough biographical account of Tarantino and his career. Bernard 1995 , Dawson 1995 , and Woods 1996 also deal with details of Tarantino’s life, but the focus is on his career and the creation and production of the films.

Bernard, Jami. Quentin Tarantino: The Man and His Movies . New York: HarperPerennial, 1995.

Focusing on interviews and biographical details, film critic Bernard charts Tarantino’s career up to Pulp Fiction (1994), including details on his early life, screenplays, and scripts.

Clarkson, Wensley. Quentin Tarantino: The Man, the Myths and His Movies . London: John Blake, 2007.

An account of Tarantino’s life and films to 2003 that utilizes interviews and public appearances and that is told in narrative form. Primarily biographical, it includes comments and conjectures about the content, production, and artistic intention of his films.

Dawson, Jeff. Quentin Tarantino: The Cinema of Cool . New York: Applause, 1995.

Starting with Tarantino’s early life and concluding with Four Rooms (1995), Dawson’s study offers a mix of biography and film criticism.

Woods, Paul. King Pulp: The Wild World of Quentin Tarantino . London: Plexus, 1996.

A popular press study focused on biography that considers Tarantino’s films and screenplays up to and including Jackie Brown (1997). The book pays some attention to the pulp and exploitation films that influenced Tarantino.

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April 14, 2024

Life Story of Famous People

Short Bio » Director » Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. As of 2015, has directed eleven films and written all of them. He debuted his film career by write & direct  “ My Best Friend’s Birthday ” on 1980. Tarantino have said as quotes: “When people ask me if I went to film school, I tell them, ‘no, I went to films’. He impersonated musician Elvis Presley in a small role in the sitcom The Golden Girls (1988), and briefly appeared in Eddie Presley (1992). As an independent filmmaker, he directed, wrote and appeared in the crime thriller Reservoir Dogs (1992), which tells the story of five strangers who team up for a jewelry heist. It proved to be Tarantino’s breakthrough film and was named the “Greatest Independent Film of all Time” by Empire. His screenplay for Tony Scott’s True Romance (1993) was nominated for a Saturn Award.

Quentin Tarantino was perhaps the most distinctive and volatile talent to emerge in American film in the early ’90s. He was born in March,27 1963 at Knoxville, Tennessee, US. His father is of Italian descent, and his mother has English and Irish ancestry. Quentin was named after Quint Asper, Burt Reynolds’ character in the CBS series Gunsmoke.

In January of 1992, first-time writer-director Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1992) appeared at the Sundance Film Festival. The film garnered critical acclaim and the director became a legend immediately. Two years later, he followed up Dogs success with Pulp Fiction (1994) which premiered at the Cannes film festival, winning the coveted Palme D’Or Award.

Name: Quentin Jerome Tarantino Other name: Quentin Tarantino, QT Born: 27 March 1963 Star Sign: Aries Birth Place: Knoxville, Tennessee Height: 6′ 1″ Education: Fleming Junior High School & Narbonne High School in Harbor City Profession: Film director, film producer, screenwriter, actor Citizenship: American Language: English Family:

• Parents: Tony Tarantino & Connie McHugh

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9 reasons why Quentin Tarantino is a unique voice of our generation

Tarantino has said he will only make 10 movies so we reflect back on why he's one of the best directors of our time.

Quentin Tarantino said he would only make 10 films and then retire. AFP

Q uentin Tarantino's ninth movie, Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood , wowed the ­ super-secret crowd of journalists at the Cannes Film Festival last week. As this is apparently his penultimate film (he's always said he'd make only 10, then retire), it's time we reflected on why he's one of the best and most original directors of our generation.  

1. The kid in the dream

Once upon a time, in Hollywood as it happens, Quentin Tarantino told me about a recurring dream that had been keeping him awake most nights. The dream, he recalled, was of a kid. Then, he corrected himself. "No, the dream is of a very cool kid. And whatever I do, I can't let him down.

“When he grows up, this kid will be a fan of mine, and I want that when he discovers my films, there won’t be a weak link among them.”

Tarantino, it's clear, is not a man who struggles with a lack of ego. But he is also one who has consistently counterbalanced that with a genuinely unmatched quality in his body of work. From Reservoir Dogs to Pulp Fiction and his ninth and latest movie, the director has crossed several genres but maintained a singular brilliance. With his penultimate film this month wowing Cannes, the kid, you'd imagine, is happy so far.

2. The video-store education

It's the stuff of legend that Tarantino learnt his trade working in a Los Angeles video store, spending his downtime absorbing every tape on the shelf. That's where he discovered his love for Hong Kong crime flicks (that he riffed on with Reservoir Dogs ), the French New Wave ( Pulp Fiction ), Blaxploitation ( Jackie Brown ), the Shaw Brothers' wuxia films ( Kill Bill ), grindhouse ( Death Proof ), men-on-a-mission movies ( Inglourious Basterds ), southern plantation dramas ( Django Unchained ), westerns ( The Hateful Eight ) and, well, the work of Kurt Russell (Tarantino has cast him in his last three movies).

As the director says: “I steal from every movie ever made … Great artists steal – they don’t do homages.”

3. The recurring motifs

Non-linear narratives, blistering bursts of violence, kinetic tracking shots, pop-culture references, close-ups of feet, famous dance sequences, director cameos and fictional brands like Big Kahuna Burgers and Red Apple cigarettes: Tarantino movies are all individual tapestries, but they share many common threads.

Once Upon A Time even makes reference to another Vega brother, a relation to John Travolta's Vincent from Pulp Fiction and Michael Madsen's Vic – aka Mr Blonde – from Reservoir Dogs . As his long-time producer Lawrence Bender once described this one-man universe: "When you buy a ticket to one of Quentin's movies, you're basically buying a one-way ticket to Tarantino-land."

4. The career resurrections

In early 1994, John Travolta's once-illustrious career had become limited to the Look Who's Talking series. Bruce Willis was hardly doing much better – he was reduced to voicing the actual baby in them, after the high-profile catastrophes of Bonfire of the Vanities and Hudson Hawk . Then, Pulp Fiction happened.

Travolta and Willis aren't the only ones who owe that nice new swimming pool to Tarantino, either. His canny casting of stars whose own careers had long since faded has also included Pam Grier and David Carradine. Tragically, Tarantino had just done the same for Luke Perry, in Once Upon A Time – a movie that will sadly now be the late Perry's last.

5. The at-home music store

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to go to Tarantino's house to present him with an award. He has a massive room that he's converted into his own "record store", where he can thumb through rare albums to find the songs he wants for whatever movie he's working on. Little wonder his incredible soundtracks have defined his career as much as his visuals have, from the opening bars of George Baker Selection's Little Green Bag that played over Reservoir Dogs 's credit sequence to the "whistling song" in Kill Bill (which was taken from 1969 British horror film, Twisted Nerve ).

6. The partnerships that lasted (and the one that didn’t)

Before the on-set crash in Mexico on Kill Bill: Vol 2 , which left Uma Thurman with permanent damage to her neck and knees, she wasn't only Tarantino's muse, but one of his closest collaborators – her role as The Bride, for instance, was credited as being a creation "of Q & U". Tarantino has always surrounded himself with an inner circle of quality character actors who he has repaid with gold-dust parts. The current leader is Samuel L Jackson, who has now worked with Tarantino six times – and was famously robbed of the Best Actor Oscar for his role as Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction by no less than Forrest Gump.

Four-time QT veteran, Michael Madsen, meanwhile, claims that " working with Quentin is my favourite thing". Although, given that he has routinely starred in films with names like Piranhaconda and CobraGator , you'd hope that was the case.

7. The way with words

Tarantino has won two Oscars for screenwriting ( Pulp Fiction , Django Unchained ), but his work isn't limited to awards-friendly fare. His story for the provocative Natural Born Killers and his beloved screenplay for True Romance are only two highlights. And the man who has redefined both modern movie dialogue and structure also claims he now has an idea for a Star Trek movie, which he may also direct. Can Klingon finally become cool?

8. The outlandish gore

The infamous "ear-slice" sequence in his debut led to Reservoir Dogs being banned on VHS for nearly three years in the UK, despite the fact you never actually see the ear come off. And, ever since, Tarantino films have not exactly lacked in guts. Today, the director is tired of defending the violence in his movies. But when I last met him, to talk about the House of Blue Leaves sequence in Kill Bill: Vol 1 , in which Uma Thurman's The Bride hacks her way through no less than 88 ill-fated opponents, he was much more direct: "Sure, it's violent," he said. "But it's a Tarantino movie. I mean, you don't go to a Metallica concert and ask them to turn the music down."

9. The changing of history

What happens in Cannes stays in Cannes. That was the mantra of the journalists who got the first look at Once Upon a Time ... In Hollywood , and kept its secrets safe. Word on the Croisette was that the movie – a Pulp Fiction -style, multi-stranded narrative – features a final act so daring it puts the events of Inglourious Basterds in the shade. Given that that movie saw Tarantino rewrite history by having American soldiers kill Hitler, and that this one is based loosely around the Manson Family murders of actress Sharon Tate and four others at the home she shared with her husband Roman Polanski (who was shooting a movie in Europe), one can only imagine what he's cooked up this time.

Nine movies in, and Tarantino is still No 1 with a bullet.

From The Quentin Tarantino Archives

Welcome to The Archives , everything about Quentin Tarantino and his movies

Movies | F.A.Q. | Books | DVD & BluRay | Music | Pictures | The Man | News

LATEST TRAILER

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

• May 26, 2023: Quentin Tarantino's 10th and final film The Movie Critic will likely enter pre-production next month.
• September 21, 2022: Reservoir Dogs BluRay (4K UltraHD) details emerge, we will update the page continuously. Also, Pulp Fiction BluRay 4K UltraHD details are emerging.
• August 9, 2022: Reservoir Dogs 4K UltraHD BluRay available for pre-order.
• June 2, 2022: Quentin and Roger will kick start the Video Archives podcast this fall!
• May 27, 2022: Cinema Speculation has a cover and a release date
• March 25, 2022: The amazing Arrow editions of True Romance BluRay and 4K are coming to the US and Canada!
• February 21, 2022: True Romance BluRay review
• September 22: True Romance BluRay and 4K UltraHD BluRay budget re-releases now listed.
• September 5: Hardcover info now listed for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: The Novel
• August 22: The first episode of the Cinema podcast deals with the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Novelization
• August 19: More and more details about the forthcoming 4K UltraHD BluRay of Inglourious Basterds are being added
• June 21: Trailer released for the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino novelization!
• May 30: Revised and extended edition of the hardcover book Tarantino: A Retrospective coming soon, click to learn more
• May 29: Translations of the upcoming book Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino are starting to get listed on Amazon, we are listing these links as they appear .
• May 2021: True Romance BluRay announced in the UK with both cuts of the film, new extras an a 4K UltraHD version.
• January 15, 2021: Info on two books added, one is My Best Friend’s Birthday: The Making of a Quentin Tarantino Film the other is the French publication Tarantino Reservoir Films
• November 21, 2020: QT8 - The First Eight arrives on DVD in the USA on November 24
• November 17, 2020: Tarantino announces two books , one of them being Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: The Novel
• December 16: QT8 - The First Eight is out on BluRay in the UK now.
• October 28: BluRay and DVD details for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
• October 10: The movie will be released in China on the 25th. In the meanwhile, the approved documentary QT8 - The First Eight is going to be released October 21st.
• August: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood pages updated with trivia, movie references, soundtrack details, reviews, and much more!
• July 27: Official soundtrack released ; movie opens theatrically in the United States
• July 23rd: Los Angeles premiere of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
• June 11: Theatrical Once Upon a Time in Hollywood posters revealed
• May 21: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood trailers revealed
• March 18-20: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood adds posters, teaser trailer, official website, and more!
• Quentin Tarantino gets married on Nov 28, 2018

Sir Christopher Frayling's new book " Once Upon A Time In The West: Shooting a Masterpiece " chronicles the making of the - arguably - greatest western movie ever made. The book boasts a brand new foreword by Quentin Tarantino . Sergio Leone's film Once Upon a Time in the West set out to be the ultimate Western a celebration of the power of classic Hollywood cinema, a meditation on the making of America, and a lament for the decline of one of the most cherished film genres in the form of a 'dance of death'. With this film, Leone said a fond farewell to the noisy and flamboyant world of the Italian Western, which he had created with A Fistful of Dollars and sequels (1964-6), and aimed for something much more ambitious an exploration of the relationship between myth ('Once Upon a Time...'), history ('...in the West') and his own autobiography as an avid film-goer. ... Learn more

• Forgotten gems: BBC Omnibus Quentin Tarantino Hollywood's Boy Wonder
• My Best Friend's Birthday - full transcript of Tarantino's early unfinished work
• Complete Soundtrack listings - extended and chronological lists of Kill Bill , Jackie Brown , Pulp Fiction , Reservoir Dogs and Death Proof
• Tarantino Books - all the books worth your money, and the other ones too
• The Kill Bill movie references guide - famous all over the internet, the most complete guide to the references.

Support us - Order your favorite Tarantino related DVDs, books and music using these links : Amazon.com | Amazon.de | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.fr | Amazon.ca

• Reservoir Dogs
• Pulp Fiction
• Jackie Brown
• Death Proof
• Inglourious Basterds
• Django Unchained
• The Hateful Eight
• Voice actors

Quentin Tarantino

• View history

Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American director and writer. He was born in Tennessee in 1963. Tarantino's directorial debut came with 1992's  Reservoir Dogs ; since then he has directed nine full length features with an interval of (usually) three years. Tarantino won an Academy Award twice: for best screenplay in Pulp Fiction (1994) and  Django Unchained  (2012).

• 1 Early Life
• 2.1 My Best Friend's Birthday
• 2.2 Reservoir Dogs
• 2.3 True Romance
• 2.4 Natural Born Killers
• 2.5 Pulp Fiction
• 2.6 Jackie Brown
• 2.7 Kill Bill: Volume 1
• 2.8 Kill Bill: Volume 2
• 2.9 Inglourious Basterds
• 2.10 Django Unchained
• 2.11 Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

Early Life [ ]

Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on March 27th, 1963. When he was two, he and his single mother moved to the Los Angeles area. As he grew up, his mother would often take him to the theaters. They often saw films along the lines of A Fist Full Of Dollars , Carnal Knowledge , and so on. As he grew up, he became an avid film goer and student of film, to the point where he said that he had a case of 'tunnel vision', where if there was a film in theaters, he said he could not even feign interest. He said that his strongest subjects in school were History and Language Arts. During the 9th grade, he started going on a hiatus from school, over a two week period. Once his mother found out about this, she said that he could drop out, only if he could get a job. His first two drops were in the porno industry. His first job was working in a truck, collecting money from newspaper machines and putting the recent newspapers in. Then, he began to work in the Pussycat Theater (which he had no interest in at all), working the snack bar. When he was 21 years old, he got a job at Video Archives, the now defunct video store. There he would mingle with customers and coworkers about movies and TV. While working there, he began reading All My Friends Are Going To Be Strangers by Larry McMurty. This inspired him to write his first work, which was unpublished. He would meet directors at parties and say he was writing a novel, and would interview them. All of them would say that they had written and directed their first works by their early or mid thirties. He decided that could beat them all, so he got to work on his first official piece.

My Best Friend's Birthday [ ]

When he was 23, Tarantino gathered a group of friends and began shooting My Best Friend's Birthday , which would become the basis for True Romance . Most of the film had been victim of a fire during the editing; the surviving film can be found online.

The first part of the story concerned a DJ (Tarantino) and his guest discussing the rock and roll star Eddie Cochran. A friend of the DJ then comes with a bag of smack, on which the DJ almost died over.

Reservoir Dogs [ ]

Chronologically speaking, True Romance was the first script done by Tarantino. After being declined many times, and after many failed attempts to finish it independently, he wallowed into a small depression, but he soon got himself out of it and began writing his first sold script, Reservoir Dogs . The story concerns six crooks, all strangers to each other, that - after a heist gone awry - begin to believe that there is a rat in the house. The film was praised by critics. After this, Tarantino was an eye to keep out for; this brought the birth of the sale of True Romance .

True Romance [ ]

The film was the first to not be directed by Tarantino, but at the same time penned. Tony Scott, the director, originally wanted to do both Reservoir Dogs and True Romance , but Tarantino talked him into just doing True Romance , and Tarantino doing Reservoir Dogs . The story centers around two lovebirds, Clarence and Alabama . One night, Clarence brutally kills her pimp and on his way out, accidentally grabs a briefcase full of smack.

Natural Born Killers [ ]

The last script to be sold and not be directed by Tarantino, the film centered around two killers on a killing spree being praised by the news. The film was directed by Oliver Stone, and was the victim to multiple script changes. Tarantino ended up getting story credits in the final film.

Pulp Fiction [ ]

In his second film, the king of modern crime films, Pulp Fiction centers on three separate stories. A nonlinear storyboard ties characters in and out successfully enough to make it feel like a whole movie over an anthology. The stories are; Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife, followed by The Gold Watch, concluding with The Bonnie Situation. A fourth structure concerns two restaurant robbers.

Jackie Brown [ ]

The only film in the Tarantino filmography not to be of original works, adapted from the mind of Elmore Leonard, features aging flight attendant Jackie Brown . She is busted with possession of narcotics, and a bag full of money. To get out of the hot spot, she agrees to help police in the bust of Ordell Robbie .

Kill Bill: Volume 1 [ ]

The second movie made with Uma Thurman , who portrays The Bride , an assassin trained for The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad . One afternoon, the squad massacres everyone at her wedding rehearsal, leaving her the sole survivor. After four years in a coma, she awakens hellbent on vengeance.

Kill Bill: Volume 2 [ ]

Bill 's crew is now down to three surviving members. The Bride continues to hunt them down. Her true identity revealed, she faces a shocking revelation when face-to-face with Bill. This is considered the second half of the Kill Bill film, not a sequel.

Inglourious Basterds [ ]

A pocket resistance known as The Basterds make their way through Nazi occupied France , picking off Nazis. This was the first film that united Tarantino and Christoph Waltz , and featured Samuel L. Jackson as the uncredited Narrator.

Django Unchained [ ]

Django is a slave who is freed from slavery by Dr. King Schultz . He frees him in hopes of receiving help for his bounties. They soon make a deal; if they collect all of their hits through the winter, they will go collect Django's enslaved wife, Broomhilda . This marks the second time that Waltz and Tarantino worked together, and the fourth time that Samuel L. Jackson and Tarantino had shared a movie.

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood [ ]

Rick Dalton , a washed-out actor, and Cliff Booth , his stunt double, struggle to recapture fame and success in 1960s Los Angeles. Meanwhile, next door to Rick, lives Sharon Tate and her husband Roman Polanski . This marks the second time that Tarantino worked with Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio , and the first time working with actress Margot Robbie, who portrays the late Sharon Tate.

• 2 Cliff Booth

• Arts & Photography
• Photography & Video

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Quentin Tarantino: A Graphic Biography (BioGraphics) Hardcover – March 5, 2024

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• Part of series BioGraphics
• Print length 128 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Frances Lincoln
• Publication date March 5, 2024
• Dimensions 6.9 x 0.8 x 9.1 inches
• ISBN-10 0711290768
• ISBN-13 978-0711290761
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Frances Lincoln (March 5, 2024)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 128 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0711290768
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0711290761
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.65 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.9 x 0.8 x 9.1 inches
• #763 in Biographies & History Graphic Novels
• #1,252 in Historical & Biographical Fiction Graphic Novels
• #8,378 in Actor & Entertainer Biographies

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