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Graduate of Rhode Island School of Design. Is a member of a band, Destroy All Blondes. Director of Hanson's music video "Weird" and asked Hanson to produce a song for his next movie. In addition to being a successful film director, Van Sant is also a published author (his first novel, "Pink", was published in 1997), a musician (two solo albums "Gus Van Sant" and "18 Songs About Golf" were released on the PopTones label in late 1997, plus his musical/spoken word collaboration with William S. Burroughs, "The Elvis Of Letters" was released in 1985 as the first album put out on the Tim Kerr record label), and a photographer (a large book of his photographs titled "108 Portraits" was published in 1992 and is now something of a collectors item.) Van Sant had planned to make a film about artist Andy Warhol with River Phoenix starring as the young Warhol, but plans were scrapped after Phoenix's death. His 1997 film Good Will Hunting (1997) is parodied in the 2001 Kevin Smith film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001). Interviewed in "Directors Close Up: Interviews with Directors Nominated for Best Film by the Directors Guild of America", ed. by Jeremy Kagan, Scarecrow Press, 2006. Was member of the dramatic jury at the Sundance Film Festival in 1991. Directed 5 actors in Oscar nominated performances: Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Minnie Driver, Sean Penn, and Josh Brolin. Williams and Penn won Oscars for performances in one of his movies.