Born in Pennsylvania and raised in Ohio, Chris Columbus was first inspired to make movies after seeing "The Godfather" at age 15. After enrolling at NYU film school, he sold his first screenplay (never produced) while a sophomore there. After graduation Columbus tried to sell his fourth script, "Gremlins", with no success, until Steven Spielberg optioned it; Columbus moved to Los Angeles for a year during rewrites on the project in Spielberg's bungalow at Universal. After writing two more scripts for Spielberg, "The Goonies" and "Young Sherlock Holmes", Columbus' own directing career was launched a few years later with "Adventures in Babysitting". He is best known to audiences as the director of the runaway hit "Home Alone", written and produced by John Hughes its sequel "Home Alone 2", and most recently "Mrs. Doubtfire".


Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001): $10,000,000 + gross participations

Gremlins (1984), Columbus' fourth script, was written as a dark satire of It's a Wonderful Life (1946). Father of Eleanor Columbus, Violet Columbus, Brendan Columbus & Isabella Columbus. At one time lived in River Forest, Illinois which shares a high school with the suburb, Oak Park, in which Adventures in Babysitting (1987) was based. Oak Park and River Forest High School's name was changed for the movie, however, to Hemingway High because Ernest Hemingway went there. They kept the style of the high school's jackets for the film, however. In the original script, Gremlins (1984) was meant to be a much darker horror film in which the mother was decapitated, the family dog was eaten, and the adorable Mogwai "Gizmo" actually turned into the infamous Gremlin "Stripe". Considered directing Spider-Man (2002), however passed that up to direct Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001). Frequently is involved with composer John Williams. Is of Italian and Czech descent. To date (2010), only American to have directed a "Harry Potter" episode (2 to be precise).