After spending his early years in New York as a poor student yet avid chess player, Kubrick became a staff photographer for Look Magazine at age 17.   He directed his first film, Fear and Desire, in 1953 to mixed reviews, and in later years he came to so despise the film that he bought every print for himself to keep it from being shown.  His next two films, Killer's Kiss and the caper classic The Killing got the attention of Hollywood and led to Kubrick directing Kirk Douglas in Paths of Glory, which remains one of the most powerful anti-war films ever made.  After a tumultuous stint directing Spartacus and the break-down of plans to direct Jack Nicholson in One-Eyed Jacks, in addition to suffering his second divorce, Kubrick moved to England, permanently disenchanted with Hollywood.
    His subsequent works included Lolita (based on Nabakov's controversial novel), Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (an absolutely hilarious satire starring Peter Sellers in multiple roles),2001: A Space Odyssey (hailed by many critics as one of greatest films ever made), A Clockwork Orange (an inflamatory adaptation of Anthony Burgess's novel, it provoked copycat violence across England, prompting Kubrick to pull the film from theaters) and Barry Lyndon (a deliberately-paced, beautifully-lit period drama).  Kubrick turned down the chance to direct a sequel to the hugely-successful The Exorcist, and instead made his own horror film, The Shining.  Author Stephen King publicly voiced his displeasure with Kubrick's adaptation of his novel, just as Burgess had done with A Clockwork Orange and Gustav Hasford was soon to do with Kubrick's next film, Full Metal Jacket.  Over the course of the film's lengthy production, Kubrick and Hasford waged a heated battle over how best to portray the Vietnam War and who deserved the most credit for the film.  Kubrick's final film, Eyes Wide Shut, was a bit of suspenseful eroticism that perplexed most moviegoers.
    Kubrick's unfinished projects included an epic biopic of Napolean, a story about Hollywood's first pornographic feature film, a Holocaust drama that was dropped once Steven Spielberg decided to film Schindler's List and A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, which was directed by Spielberg after Kubrick's death.  The acclaimed director and notorious recluse suffered a fatal heart attack in his sleep on March 7, 1999.

    Among the most private of contemporary writers, Michael Herr has revealed little of his personal life.  Born and raised in Syracuse, New York, he attended Syracuse University before moving to New York City, where he worked in the editorial offices of Holiday magazine and produced articles and film criticism for such periodicals as Mademoiselle and the New Leader.  In 1967, Herr persuaded the editor of Esquire magazine to send him to Vietnam.  He stayed there for over a year, with no particular assignment, unencumbered by deadlines, publishing only a few pieces in Esquire.   It was only in 1977, with the publication of his memoir Dispatches, that Herr finally wrote extensively about the war.  The book has been called the most brilliant American literary treatment of the Vietnam War.
    Herr's other works include The Big Room, Walter Winchell and an appreciation of Stanley Kubrick titled simply Kubrick, as well as the narration for Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now.  At last report, Herr lives in London.

    Born in England, Anton Furst was trained at the Royal College of Art in London.   After doing uncredited special effects work on 1979's Alien and Moonraker films, Furst served as production designer on director Neil Jordan's eerie, adult fairy tale, The Company of Wolves.   Furst scored his biggest success with 1989's Batman, when his designs for a gothic, metal Gotham City earned an Oscar for Best Art Direction.  Batman director Tim Burton had initially approached Furst about working on Beetlejuice, but at the time, Furst was in the midst of his two year stint on Full Metal Jacket, transforming an abandoned English gasworks into the war-torn Hue City.  Following the success of Batman, Furst moved to Hollywood and rented a house in the Hollywood Hills, where his gold Oscar statuette adorned the toilet top in the guest bathroom.  Not content designing the Planet Hollywood in New York,  Furst tried in vain to find work as a director.  Contractual obligations kept him from re-teaming with Tim Burton for Batman Returns.  Separated from his wife, sinking deeper into substance abuse, Furst was supposedly on the verge of checking into rehab in 1991, when he told some friends he was going to the car to fetch his cigarettes and jumped off an eighth story parking deck.