John Milius

Overview

John Milius is a screenwriter and director who came to prominence in the 1970s, when he was associated with Francis Ford Coppola and the pre-Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) George Lucas. Born on April 11, 1944 in St. Louis, Missouri, Milius was one of the first movie industry professionals to be a film school graduate, having matriculated at the University of Southern California. In 1967, Milius won first prize at USC School of Cinema-for his student film Marcello, I'm Bored (1970).

A gun enthusiast, Milius serves as a member of the National Rifle Association's Board of Directors.
- IMDb mini biography by: Jon C. Hopwood

Is a personal friend of the Coen brothers and was the inspiration for the character of Walter in the The Big Lebowski (1998).
Wrote the line, "Go ahead, make my day," for Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" character in Sudden Impact (1983).
Wrote "U.S.S. Indianapolis" scene in Jaws (1975).
Is one of the original founders of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Milius, an avid gun collector, insisted that part of his payment for writing Jeremiah Johnson (1972) be in antique weapons.

[on being rejected for military service due to asthma]: "I'm a very efficient director - it's my training in military tactics. I've trained my whole life to be a general but I never could. So I became the next best thing, a movie director."
[on the violence in Conan the Barbarian (1982) being rather essential]: "It's not that violent, although I was happy not to get an X rating. But if you said 'Conan the Barbarian' was rated PG, people would feel cheated. We weren't making 'Conan's Divorce', you know."
I love the bomb. It's sort of a religious totem to me. Like the plague in the Middle Ages, it's the hand of God coming out indiscriminantly to snatch you.
If there hadn't been an Arnold around for Conan, we would have had to create him". -Muscle & Fitness magazine, July 1982
I try to maintain a certain innocence toward my material. I like to say that I do what I do because I like it and that it's not preachy. When I try to put my finger on what I have to say, it's very vague. It's just an attitude. As Herman Melville put it in "Moby Dick": 'a free and easy desperado geniality.' That's my attitude. Melville was talking about men rowing into the mouth of a whale with their backs to it. I suppose that's what life is like.