Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer, who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career. Kubrick was noted for the scrupulous care with which he chose his subjects, a slow method of working, the variety of genres he worked in, technical perfectionism, reluctance to talk about his films, and reclusiveness. He maintained almost complete artistic control, but with the rare advantage of big-studio financial support for all his endeavors. One of his most famous films was The Shining, with Jack Nicholson.