William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946) is an American filmmaker. An acclaimed director who tackled subjects ranging from the Vietnam War and American politics to musical biopics and crime dramas, Stone has received numerous accolades including three Academy Awards (plus ten career nominations), a BAFTA Award, a Primetime Emmy, a Satellite Award, a Sant Jordi Award, three Jupiter Awards, three Independent Spirit Awards, and six Golden Globe Awards.
Stone was born in New York City and later briefly attended Yale University. In 1967, Stone enlisted in the United States Army during the Vietnam War. He served from 1967 to 1968 in the 25th Infantry and 1st Cavalry Divisions and was twice wounded in action. For his service, he received military honors including a Bronze Star with "V" Device for valor, Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster (to denote two wounds), an Air Medal and the Combat Infantryman Badge. His service in Vietnam became the foundation for the stark portrayals of war and its aftermath in his work.
Stone began his career as a screenwriter for films such as Midnight Express (1978), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Conan the Barbarian (1982) and Scarface (1983). He then rose to prominence as writer and director of the Vietnam War film dramas Platoon (1986) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989), receiving Academy Awards for Best Director for both films, the former of which also won Best Picture. He also directed Salvador (1986), Wall Street (1987) and its sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010), The Doors (1991), JFK (1991), Heaven & Earth (1993), Natural Born Killers (1994), Nixon (1995), Any Given Sunday (1999), W. (2008) and Snowden (2016). Collectively, his films have grossed $1.3 billion worldwide.
Many of Stone's films focus on controversial American political issues during the late 20th century, and as such were considered contentious at the times of their releases. Stone has been critical of American foreign policy, which he considers to be driven by nationalist and imperialist agendas. Like his subject matter, Stone is a controversial figure in American filmmaking, with some critics accusing him of promoting conspiracy theories.
Early life, education, and military service
William Oliver Stone was born on September 15, 1946, at Doctors Hospital in New York City, the only child of Jacqueline (née Goddet) and Louis Stone (born Abraham Louis Silverstein). His parents met in his mother's hometown of Paris during World War II where his father, a U.S. Army colonel, served as a financial officer on General Eisenhower's staff. Upon his return to Manhattan after the war, Louis worked on Wall Street as a stockbroker and investment analyst, eventually becoming vice president of Shearson Lehman Brothers.
Stone's paternal great-grandparents were Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from Poland. His grandfather, Joshua Silverstein, ran successful skirt-making businesses in New York City and New Jersey. The family changed its surname from Silverstein to Stone in the 1920s due to pervasive antisemitism in the United States. His aunt was author and editor Babette Rosmond; his cousins are writer Gene Stone and former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission James Stone. Stone himself grew up in Manhattan and Stamford, Connecticut. While his American father was Jewish, his French mother was Roman Catholic, though both were non-practicing. Stone was raised in the Episcopal Church and now practices Buddhism.
Stone attended kindergarten through eighth grade at Trinity School in New York City before being sent to The Hill School, a college-preparatory boarding school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. He spoke French as his first language, which led to some difficulties as an ESL learner during his early years at Trinity. His father paid him a quarter every week to write one to two pages on a theme; this inspired Stone's early love of writing.
Starting at age nine, his primary caretaker was a male nanny, Karlo Stojanac. A Yugoslavian Holocaust survivor, Stojanac was both openly gay and a socialist, uncommon traits in that time period. Stone later described his nanny as having a fluctuating gender identity, as well as suffering post-traumatic stress from his experiences in a concentration camp. Reflecting on their bond, Stone described their relationship as "extraordinarily close", and said that Stojanac "was my mentor in many ways. He took care of me and he loved me."
In 1962, while Stone was attending The Hill, his parents abruptly divorced, which shocked him. Following a court ruling that deemed his mother unfit, his father was granted sole custody. With his mother already frequently absent prior to the divorce, Stone was raised under the strong influence of his father, which may explain why father-son relationships are a recurring theme in his work.
Stone often spent summers with his maternal grandparents in France, both in Paris and La Ferté-sous-Jouarre in Seine-et-Marne, where he was fascinated by his grandfather's stories of serving in the French Army during World War I. At 17, he worked as a runner in the Paris Commodities Exchange, a job that later proved inspirational for his film Wall Street. Because of the estrangement from his mother, his French grandmother was his primary maternal figure and her death in 1976 deeply affected him: "She loved me, and she’d always loved me and believed in me. That was a big thing. Something happened at [age] 30 with her death. And I became more mature, and my success started to flow from there.”
After graduating from The Hill School in 1964, Stone was admitted to Yale University, but left in June 1965 at age 18 to teach high school students English for six months at the Free Pacific Institute in Saigon, South Vietnam. Afterwards, he worked for a short while as a wiper on a United States Merchant Marine ship in 1966, traveling from Asia to the US across the rough Pacific Ocean in January. He returned to Yale, but dropped out again after one semester (in part due to working on an autobiographical novel A Child's Night Dream, published in 1997 by St. Martin's Press). During this period, Stone also battled severe depression and suicidal ideation. He would continue to have episodes of major depression throughout his life: “I was lost for a long time, and I stayed lost."
In April 1967, Stone enlisted in the United States Army and requested combat duty in Vietnam. Upon arrival, he first served (from September 27, 1967 – February 23, 1968) as a infantryman with 2nd Platoon, B Company, 3rd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. In October 1967, he was medevaced for the first time after being shot in the neck during a night ambush, a wound which nearly severed his jugular vein and carotid artery. "It was a miracle I survived the neck injury," he reflected in 2025. Later, while fighting with that same unit in the New Year's Battle of 1968, Stone was knocked unconscious and had his eardrum perforated by the concussive blast of a beehive round, which resulted in permanent deafness in that ear. (As he did not leave duty or receive medical treatment, this injury did not qualify for a Purple Heart. As a result, Stone often refers to himself as "twice wounded," referencing only the injuries for which he was hospitalized and received Purple Hearts). On January 15, 1968, Stone was wounded and evacuated from the 25th Infantry Division for the final time when, while attempting to aid other injured personnel, a satchel charge implanted in a tree detonated, causing a blast concussion and shrapnel wounds to his legs and buttocks.
In the 1990s, biographer James Riordan discovered correspondence from the Treasury Department of the American Consulate in Hong Kong dated 1968, revealing that Louis Stone had used his government connections to request a noncombat transfer for his son following his injuries. However, the letter stated that Oliver emphatically declined the offered support position with the CIA and emphasized his commitment to his military service.