Portrait of Brian De Palma

Birthday profile

Brian De Palma

Brian De Palma, American director, producer, and screenwriter

Born
September 11, 1940
Age in 2026
86
Zodiac sign
Virgo
Birth year
1940

About Brian De Palma

Brian Russell De Palma ([de ˈpalma]; born September 11, 1940) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood generation, he is best known for his work in the suspense, crime, and psychological thriller genres in a career spanning more than five decades. Carrie (1976), his adaptation of Stephen King's novel of the same name, gained him prominence as a young filmmaker. De Palma enjoyed commercial success with Dressed to Kill (1980), The Untouchables (1987), and Mission: Impossible (1996), and made cult classics such as Greetings (1968), Hi, Mom! (1970), Sisters (1972), Phantom of the Paradise (1974), The Fury (1978), and Scarface (1983). As a young director, De Palma dreamed of being the "American Jean-Luc Godard". His style is allusive: he paid homage to Alfred Hitchcock in Obsession (1976), Dressed to Kill, and Body Double (1984); Blow Out (1981) is based on Michelangelo Antonioni's Blowup (1966); and Scarface, his remake of Howard Hawks' 1932 film, is dedicated to Hawks and Ben Hecht. De Palma's work has been criticized for its violence and sexual content but has also been championed by American critics such as Roger Ebert and Pauline Kael. Carrie has been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. In 2015, he was interviewed about his work in a well-received documentary by Noah Baumbach. De Palma was born on September 11, 1940, in Newark, New Jersey, the youngest of three boys. He had a poor relationship with his father, and would secretly follow him to record his adulterous behavior; this would eventually inspire the teenage character in De Palma's Dressed to Kill (1980). He won a regional science-fair prize for his project "An Analog Computer to Solve Differential Equations". De Palma was a leading member of the New Hollywood generation.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Brian De Palma timeline

  1. De Palma was born on September 11, 1940, in Newark, New Jersey, the youngest of three boys.
  2. He had a poor relationship with his father, and would secretly follow him to record his adulterous behavior; this would eventually inspire the teenage character in De Palma's Dressed to Kill (1980).

The world when Brian De Palma was born

Brian De Palma was born in 1940. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1940

  • #1 song"In the Mood" – Glenn Miller
  • Top movieRebecca
  • Best-selling bookFor Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentFirst televised college basketball game
  • Top headlineWinston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister
  • Technology milestoneFirst McDonald's restaurant opens
  • Defining fadSwing music hits its peak
  • Notable inventionJeep (military vehicle)
  • World population2.30 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
  • Sports championCincinnati Reds (World Series)
  • U.S. population132.2M

1940 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Brian De Palma's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19402026
Gas$0.18$3.45/gal
Average home$5,300$435,000
Average income$3,100$67,500
Minimum wage$0.30$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.25$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population132.2M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.