Name: Terrence Malick

Film: "The New World"

Born: Nov. 30, 1943 (Waco, Texas)

Bio: A publicity-shy iconoclast and Hollywood outsider, Terrence Malick has had an unconventional yet fascinating life and career. The Texas native worked as a farmhand before studying philosophy at Harvard. He then went on to Oxford University's Magdalen College as a Rhodes Scholar, but left before finishing his thesis (on German philosopher Martin Heidegger) because of a falling-out with his advisor. Malick moved back to the U.S., where he taught philosophy at MIT while freelancing as a journalist. He then managed to make a transition to writing and directing films, establishing his reputation as a director with "Badlands" and his status as a critical darling with "Days of Heaven."

Credits:
"The New World" (2005)
"The Thin Red Line" (1998)
"Days of Heaven" (1978)
"Badlands" (1973)
"Lanton Mills" (1969)

Notable: The cinematic equivalent of JD Salinger, Malick took a 20-year sabbatical after 1978's "Days of Heaven" before agreeing to direct "The Thin Red Line" in 1998.