Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on March 27, 1963. His father, Tony Tarantino, is an Italian-American actor and musician from New York, and his mother, Connie (McHugh), is a nurse from Tennessee. Quentin moved with his mother to Torrance, California, when he was four years old.
In January of 1992, first-time writer-director Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1992) appeared at the Sundance Film Festival. The film garnered critical acclaim and the director became a legend immediately. Two years later, he followed up Dogs success with Pulp Fiction (1994) which premiered at the Cannes film festival, winning the coveted Palme D’Or Award. At the 1995 Academy Awards, it was nominated for the best picture, best director and best original screenplay. Tarantino and writing partner Roger Avary came away with the award only for best original screenplay. In 1995, Tarantino directed one fourth of the anthology Four Rooms (1995) with friends and fellow auteurs Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez and Allison Anders. The film opened December 25 in the United States to very weak reviews. Tarantino’s next film was From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), a vampire/crime story which he wrote and co-starred with George Clooney. The film did fairly well theatrically.
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o Forbids all cell phones on the set when shooting, insisting that all such devices be turned in at point of entry – no exceptions.
o The Big Kahuna burger is mentioned in at least three of Tarantino’s films.
o He screens
Rio Bravo (1959) for potential colleagues as a test of their compatibility.
o His mother reluctantly consented to allow him to drop out of Narbonne High School at age 16 on the condition he get a job. “I wanted him to see that life without education would not be a picnic.” She thought he would return more focused and go onto college. Tarantino with a reported 160 IQ wanted to study acting and felt he could learn more following his own path.
o His films mainly feature criminals and characters committing horrible crimes involving murder and drugs. The only crime Tarantino has committed was shoplifting from a bookstore when he was a teenager.
o Detests CGI (Computer-generated imagery) trickery, opting not to shoot a sequence at all unless it can be accomplished ‘in-camera’. If a chase has to be filmed at 80 mph, it must be captured as it happens and not faked with camera under-cranking.
o He got his first job in the film industry at age 16, by lying about his age, as an usher at Pussycat Theater, a porn theater in Torrance, California.
o One of his biggest pet peeves while filming is actors and crew members napping on set. In his words “It always kinda bugged me so I came up with something where it wouldn’t bug me.” That something was a huge purple dildo named “Big Jerry”. When ever an actor or crew member dozes off on set Quentin puts “Big Jerry” as close to the offenders face as he can without waking them and snaps photos that are hung on “The Wall of Shame” on set. Several photos of A-list actors and “Big Jerry” exist. All in good humor and fun according to the director.
o Was sued by
Don Murphy for $5,000,000, accused of assault. Tarantino attacked Murphy in restaurant, slammed him against the wall and punched him.
o Claims that Tarantino acted in the film
Dawn of the Dead (1978) or the film
King Lear (1987) are incorrect. Quentin falsely listed these credits years ago on his acting resume to compensate for his lack of experience and these incorrect credits have subsequently been attributed to him in such places as
Leonard Maltin‘s Movie and Video Guide and the Cinemania CD ROM.
o In 2018, Oxford English Dictionary added term “Tarantinoesque” into its collection and described Tarantinoesque films as “characterized by graphic and stylized violence, non-linear storylines, cineliterate references, satirical themes, and sharp dialogue”.
o Insists on being beside the camera at all times during a take. The notion of being in another room watching his actors perform on a video-assist monitor is both anathema and unacceptable to him.
o Filmed his film
The Hateful Eight (2015) using the Ultra Panavision 70 film process This rare film process has not been used for 50 years despite the technical advantages it offers over current technology.
o His mother Connie McHugh was only age 16 when she gave birth to him.
Although he uses both elements in his films, he strongly detests violence and drugs.
o In the 2008 Empire magazine poll of the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time, Tarantino listed his favorite films as: 1.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), (
Sergio Leone), 2.
Rio Bravo (1959), (
Howard Hawks), 3.
Blow Out (1981), (
Brian De Palma), 4.
Taxi Driver (1976), (
Martin Scorsese), 5.
His Girl Friday (1940),
Howard Hawks), 6.
Five Fingers of Death (1972), (
Chang-hwa Jeong), 7.
Pandora’s Box (1929), (
Georg Wilhelm Pabst), 8.
Carrie (1976), (
Brian De Palma), 9.
Unfaithfully Yours (1948), (
Preston Sturges), 10.
Five Graves to Cairo (1943), (
Billy Wilder), 11.
Jaws (1975), (
Steven Spielberg). Choices #2, 3 and 4 are marked as “interchangeable”.
o Has stated that he would like to make and star in a film telling the story of John Brown, the abolitionist.
o While he was never accused of being part of
Harvey Weinstein‘s massive record of sexual assaults, abuse, and harassment, Tarantino spoke publicly about his regrets over his long history of making movies for Weinstein at both Miramax and The Weinstein Company. After having a talk with his friend and outspoken advocate against sexual violence
Tony Tamberelli, Tarantino apologized generally by saying “I knew enough to do more than I did.” He also said he would make his ninth movie with a different studio, which turned out to be Sony.
o Has signed on to direct a new “Star Trek” film for Paramount, which will be produced by
J.J. Abrams. The two conditions he asked for and were granted by the studio were A) he would be able to choose the project’s screenwriter, who ended up being “The Revenant” scripter Mark L. Smith, and B) the movie would be R-rated and not edited down to a PG-13 under any circumstances.
o One of his favorite horror films is the original Black Christmas (1974). His tradition is to watch the film in his home theater every Christmas season.
o He considers Ride in the Whirlwind (1966) one of the finest Westerns ever made, even writing an extensive article about it for Sight & Sound magazine titled A Rare Sorrow. The article was featured in the Pulp Fiction (1994) Special Edition DVD as an extra and also appears in Paul A. Woods’ Film Geek Files (pgs. 129-132). Interestingly, the director of Ride in the Whirlwind, Monte Hellman, was the executive producer of Reservoir Dogs (1992).
o Among his favorite authors is a Russian poet Boris Pasternak, whose grave Tarantino had visited in June 2004, while visiting Moscow Film Festival.
o He worked at Video Archives in Manhattan Beach, California from 1985-1990 with future filmmakers Roger Avary and Daniel Synder. He became well known to local residents for his extensive knowledge of world cinema and eclectic, customer tailored video recommendations. He wrote several screenplays during his time at Video Archives including Reservoir Dogs (1992) True Romance (1993) and Natural Born Killers (1994). He purchased the entire stores video inventory of 8000 titles when it closed that he prefers watching to using video streaming services, like Netflix.
o In 1986, he got his first Hollywood job, working with
Roger Avary as production assistants on
Dolph Lundgren‘s exercise video “Maximum Potential”.
o Became a father for the first time at the age of 56 when his wife Daniella Pick gave birth to son Leo on February 22nd, 2020. Leo is named after his wife’s grandfather and not Tarantino’s frequent star Leonardo DiCaprio.
o As a child, one of his favorite movies was
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). He credits the movie with helping him learn genre distinctions.
o First noted screenplay was titled “Captain Peachfuzz and the Anchovy Bandit”, which was written in 1985.
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To learn more about Quentin Tarantino’s life and work, please click here.
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Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on March 27, 1963. His father, Tony Tarantino, is an Italian-American actor and musician from New York, and his mother, Connie (McHugh), is a nurse from Tennessee. Quentin moved with his mother to Torrance, California, when he was four years old.