Biography for
Terrence Malick More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

30 November 1943, Ottawa, Illinois, USA

Birth Name

Terrence Frederick Malick

Nickname

sparky
Terry

Height

5' 7" (1.70 m)

Spouse

Alexandra Wallace	(1998 - present)
Michelle Morette	(5 July 1985 - 16 December 1998) (divorced)
Jill Jakes	(? - 1978) (divorced)

Trade Mark

Always includes narration by one or more characters.

Often includes nature as a major element in his films.

So far (2008), he has only directed period pieces; none of his films are set in the present day.

His films are shot almost entirely outside.

Trivia

Resides in Austin, Texas.

MFA from the American Film Institute

Went to St. Stephen's high school in Austin, Texas (where he played football) Went to Harvard; was a Rhodes Scholar

In his contract for directing The Thin Red Line (1998), he stated that no current pictures of him could be published or shown anywhere.

Wrote a treatment for Dirty Harry (1971) but none of his work appears in the final version.

After Days of Heaven (1978), it was a full 20 years before he directed his next film, The Thin Red Line (1998).

Appeared as unannounced guest on the screening of Badlands (1973) in the retrospective section of the 54th. Berlin film festival 2004.

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985". Pages 636-639. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.

He taught in France from 1979-1994.

He grew up on a farm and worked as a farmhand before studying philosophy at Harvard. After graduating he went to Magdalen College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar but left before finishing his thesis (on Martin Heidegger) after a disagreement with his advisor. He moved back to the United States and taught philosophy at MIT while freelancing as a journalist.

Turned down an offer to direct The Elephant Man (1980).

Wrote an unused draft of Great Balls Of Fire!

Although notoriously withdrawn from public life, his friends such as Martin Sheen have always remarked that he is a very warm and humble man who prefers to work without media intrusion.

Phi Beta Kappa student

He was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame in March 2002 in Austin, Texas.

Personal Quotes

[On Badlands (1973)] I tried to keep the 1950s to a bare minimum. Nostalgia is a powerful feeling; it can drown out anything. I wanted the picture to set up like a fairy tale, outside time, like Treasure Island. I hoped this would, among other things, take a little of the sharpness out of the violence, but still keep its dreamy quality.

[on working with Martin Sheen on "Badlands"] Martin Sheen was extraordinary. He's a very gifted man. He's from a working class family, so he had all the moods down for the film. And when he wasn't before the cameras, he was helping in the background, wrapping cables, packing up light reflectors. One day I found him going around a gas station and picking up aluminum snapback lids from soda cans. He knew they didn't exist in 1959.

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