John Milius

Personal Info

Known For Writer

Gender Male

Birthday 1944-04-11 (80 years old)

Place of Birth St. Louis, Missouri, USA

John Milius

Biography

John Frederick Milius is an American screenwriter, director, and producer of motion pictures. He was one of the writers for the first two Dirty Harry films, received an Academy Award nomination as screenwriter of Apocalypse Now, and wrote and directed The Wind and the Lion, Conan the Barbarian and Red Dawn. He wrote a number of iconic film lines such as "Charlie don't surf" and "I love the smell of napalm in the morning," from Apocalypse Now, and the famous Dirty Harry one-liners delivered by Clint Eastwood, including "Go ahead, make my day" and "Ask yourself one question, 'do I feel lucky?' Well, do you, punk?". Milius also wrote the USS Indianapolis monologue in the film Jaws; the sequence performed by Robert Shaw. After his work on Rough Riders (1997), Milius became an instrumental force in lobbying Congress to award President Theodore Roosevelt the Medal of Honor (posthumously), for acts of conspicuous gallantry while in combat on San Juan Hill. Milius made two films featuring Roosevelt: The Wind and the Lion (where he was played by Brian Keith) and the made-for-TV film Rough Riders (where Tom Berenger took the role). The character of John Milner from the 1973 George Lucas film American Graffiti was inspired by Milius, who was a good friend of Lucas while they were at USC film school. Likewise, the character Walter Sobchak in the 1998 film The Big Lebowski, made by his friends the Coen Brothers, was partly based on Milius. The novella "Blind Jozef Pronek and Dead Souls" by Aleksandar Hemon features an episode with Milius, who is described as "sitting at a desk sucking on a cigar as long as a walking stick." In 2013 a documentary about his life, titled Milius, was released. Writer Nat Segaloff called Milius: "The best writer of the so-called USC Mafia, a tight-knit group that resuscitated—some say homogenised American cinema in the 1970s... Raised on Ford, Hawks, Lean and Kurosawa, shaped by filmmakers as disparate as Fellini and Delmer Daves, Milius favours history books over comic books, character over special effects, and heroes with roots in reality, time, place and customs. Milius' stories reflect his own deeply held ethic, which embraces the values of tradition, adventure, spiritualism, honour and an intense loyalty to friends... Although he privately chafes at his public image as a gun-toting, liberal baiting provocateur, he allows himself to be painted as such, at times even holding the brush. He plays the Hollywood game like a pro, yet sticks to his own rules; he is a romantic filmmaker who avoids love scenes; his movies contain violence, yet no death in them is without meaning." Milius himself once said: "Never compromise excellence. To write for someone else is the biggest mistake that any writer makes. You should be your biggest competitor, your biggest critic, your biggest fan, because you don’t know what anybody else thinks. How arrogant it is to assume that you know the market, that you know what’s popular today [...] Write what you want to see. Because if you don’t, you’re not going to have any true passion in it, and it’s not going to be done with any true artistry."

Known For

Writer

2005
Rome

as Writer

1997
Rough Riders

as Writer

1994
1989
Farewell to the King

as Screenplay

1987
1984
Red Dawn

as Screenplay

1982
Conan the Barbarian

as Screenplay

1979
Apocalypse Now

as Writer

1979
1941

as Story

1978
Big Wednesday

as Writer

1975
1975
1975
1973
Magnum Force

as Screenplay

1973
Dillinger

as Writer

1972
Jeremiah Johnson

as Screenplay

1971
Evel Knievel

as Screenplay

1969
The Devil's Eight

as Screenplay

1967
The Emperor

as Writer

Actor

2019
Sword-and-Sandal

as Self - Director

2013
Milius

as Self

2008
2004
Riding Giants

as John Milius

2003
An Opera of Violence

as Self - Filmmaker

2003
The Wages of Sin

as Self - Filmmaker

2003
Something to Do with Death

as Self - Filmmaker

2002
Iron and Beyond

as Self - Director

2001
Dirty Harry: The Original

as Self - Screenwriter

1995
1989
First Works

as Self

1982
Conan the Barbarian

as Foodseller in Old City (uncredited)

1975
Crazy Mama

as Cop (uncredited)

1972
Deadhead Miles

as State Trooper

Director

1997
Rough Riders

as Director

1994
Motorcycle Gang

as Director

1994
Rebel Highway

as Director

1991
1989
1985
The Twilight Zone

as Director

1984
Red Dawn

as Director

1982
1978
Big Wednesday

as Director

1975
1973
Dillinger

as Director

1973

Producer

2005
Rome

as Executive Producer

1983
Uncommon Valor

as Producer

1980
Used Cars

as Executive Producer

1979
1941

as Executive Producer

1979
Hardcore

as Executive Producer

Creator

2005
Rome

as Creator

1997
Rough Riders

as Creator

Crew

2015
The Lotus Gun

as Thanks