Philip Kaufman was born on October 23, 1936 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is an American film director and screenwriter.

In 1963 he directed his first film, the mystical comedy, Goldstein. In 1965 Kaufman wrote and directed Fearless Frank, a comic book satire starring Jon Voight in his film debut. Two years later Kaufman was in Hollywood, under contract to Universal.

There he wrote and directed The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, starring Robert Duvall and Cliff Robertson, in 1971. He then directed the The White Dawn in 1973, before developing the original story for Raiders of the Lost Ark with George Lucas and writing the screenplay for Clint Eastwood's The Outlaw Josey Wales. Moving to San Francisco in 1977, Kaufman directed Invasion of the Body Snatchers, an updating of the Don Siegel classic, winning various science fiction awards. In 1979, after his son Peter found Richard Price's comic gang novel The Wanderers, Kaufman and his wife, Rose, wrote a screenplay based on the book, which Kaufman directed.

In 1983 Kaufman earned both Writers Guild and Directors Guild Award nominations for his adaptation of Tom Wolfe's best-selling The Right Stuff, and the film went on to receive four Academy Awards.

His next film, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, , starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Lena Olin and Juliette Binoche, earned Kaufman another Writers Guild nomination, an Academy Award nomination and a British Academy Award in 1988. The adaptation of Czech writer Milan Kundera's novel of the same name won the Best Picture Award of the National Society of Film Critics, who named Kaufman Best Director. He also received the international Orson Welles Award for Best Filmmaker in 1989.

In 1990 Kaufman made Henry & June, an adaptation of Anais Nin's memoir of Henry Miller and his wife June. The film which starred Fred Ward, Uma Thurman and Maria de Medeiros, was written by Philip and Rose Kaufman and produced by Peter Kaufman.

Kaufman next directed Rising Sun in 1993, starring Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes, Harvey Keitel and Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa. Kaufman co-wrote the screenplay, based on the bestseller by Michael Crichton.

Kaufman's next film Quills premiered in Fall of 2000. A tale about the Marquis de Sade, it stars Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Michael Caine and Joaquin Phoenix.

Kaufman latest film Twisted was released in 2004, starring Ashley Judd, Samuel Jackson and Andy Garcia.

Director

• Untitled Ernest Hemingway Project (2008)
• Interrupted (2009)
• Twisted (2004)
• Quills (2000)
• Rising Sun (1993)
• Henry & June (1990)
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)
• The Right Stuff (1983)
• The Wanderers (1979)
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
• The White Dawn (1974)
• The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972)
• Fearless Frank (1967)
• Goldstein (1965)

Awards

• International Orson Welles Award Best Director 1989
• BAFTA Award Best Screenplay Adaptation "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" 1988
• National Society of Film Critics Award Best Director "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" 1988
• Cannes Film Festival Prix de la Nouvelle Critique "Goldstein" 1964