Chris Columbus – Biography, Daughter, Wife, Filmmaker Facts
It will be very difficult for someone not to rank Home Alone (1990) among the best Christmas movies ever made. When talking about the movie, actor Macaulay Culkin is one of the first names one might mention. However, there are people like Chris Columbus who played a bigger role in the preparation of the film. Columbus is a revered filmmaker, who aside from Home Alone, has made films like Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001) as well as its sequel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002).
Chris Columbus Bio
The American filmmaker was born on September 10, 1958, in Spangler, Pennsylvania, United States, as Chris Joseph Columbus. He was, however, raised in Champion, Ohio. Of Italian and Czech descent, her parents are Alex Michael Columbus, a coal miner and aluminum plant worker, and Mary Irene Columbus, a factory worker.
For his education, he went to John F. Kennedy High School in Warren, Ohio, where he graduated before moving on to film school at New York University. From a poor background, it was thanks to a scholarship that Columbus went to university. Unfortunately for him, he “stupidly” forgot to renew the scholarship after the first year. So he was forced to work all summer in a factory.
He began his career in 1984 writing both Reckless and Gremlins, the latter of which was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Screenplay. In the following years he wrote The Goonies (1985), Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) and episodes of the animated series Galaxy High (1986), before making his directorial debut Adventures in Babysitting (1987).
In the late ’80s and early ’90s, Columbus directed, wrote, or performed both roles in films like Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1989), Only the Lonely One (1991) and Mrs. Doubtfire (1993). In 1995 he added producer to his roster when he wrote, directed and produced the comedy Nine Months
woman and girl
After graduating from New York University, Chris Columbus met a woman named Monica Devereux, who was a dancer at a Halloween party. On their first date, the pair reportedly stayed out until 4 a.m., hitting up different bars along Manhattan’s Bleecker Street and catching as many laughs as they could. At that time, Columbus was living in New York in a rodent-ravaged apartment, writing all his imagination. One of those would be the horror-comedy Gremlins a few years later , which was produced by Steven Spielberg.
Three years after the beginning of their love affair, Columbus and Devereux married in 1983. Their union has four children; Eleanor, born in 1989, Brendan in 1992, Violet in 1994 and Isabella in 1996. Unlike many people who make a living in Hollywood, the couple chose to raise their children in Northern California instead of Los Angeles, because, according to them, Hollywood is intoxicating. Nevertheless, he revealed that it was his wife who raised them so as not to spoil them since they were both brought up in poor families.
Filmmaker Facts
1. While still working at the factory after failing to renew his college scholarship, Chris Columbus wrote a 20-page script that his professor used to help him find an agent.
2. In 1994, the filmmaker co-founded the film production company 1492 Pictures with Mark Radcliffe and Michael Barnathan. The company has produced numerous films, including Fantastic Four (2005), Night at the Museum (2006), Killing Giants (2017), and The Christmas Chronicles (2018).
3 He enjoys making appearances in his films with his family members, including his wife, children, and other close relatives. One of his notable beneficiaries is his first child, Eleanor, who appeared in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) among other films.
4. Columbus has received several awards throughout his career and other nominations, including an Oscar nomination for The Helper (2011) which also earned a BAFTA film award nomination. He won the BAFTA Children’s Award for Best Feature Film for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) in 2004 and Black Reel Awards for Best Film The Helper (2011) in 2012.
5. Coming from where he came from, Chris Columbus has come a very long mile when it comes to his fortune. He has a net worth of $80 million.
6. More than just a filmmaker, he is also a writer. He created the House of Secrets book series with Ned Vizzini.
