William Oliver Stone ws born on 15th of Sepember 1946 in New York City to Louis Stone and Jacqueline. He came from an affluent family and they resided in Connecticut and Manhattan. His parents used to be busy in their respective fields and he was raised by nannies. Right from a young age, he started writing skits and he used to cast his cousins in them. Few years later, he began writing stories and his father used to encourage him a lot. Sooner, he started writing voluminous books on his family. He took admission in Trinity  School. He often used to visit his maternal grandparents in France during the holidays. When he was just fifteen years old, his parents were separated. His father’s romantic nature was the root cause of their separation. His father was having shortage of money. His father told him that he would try to pay for his college fees. This scenario was an eye opener for Oliver.

Later, he joined Yale University for studying Liberal Arts. But he left it after an year. He also taught Chinese and Vietnamese students; History and English for few months. Afterwards, he also worked as a wiper on a U.S. merchant ship. Then he went to Mexico where he wrote his maiden novel “A child’s Night Dream”. He gave a second thought of completing his studies and so he returned to Yale, but his studies were affected as he was focussing on writing his novel. So, he dropped out of the Universiy. When he finished writing his novel, he started looking for a publisher but no one was interested in his book. Out of frustratio,he threw the hard copy  into the East River.

Then he decided to join the U.S. army but he had very bitter experience of it as he was attacked by NVA soldiers when he was into Stones tour Of duty and fortunately he survived. Once he was arrested for keeping marijuana. Later, he  joined New York University’s Film School. He made two movies named “Last Year In Vietnam” and “Michael and Marie” when he was at the university. He completed his bachelor’s degree in the year 1971. He wrote around ten screenplays. During these days he did the job of a xerox messenger and a cab driver. In the year 1973, a Canadian production company bought one of his screenplays. Later on, he was given the task of writing a screenplay by Columbia Pictures for their upcoming movie named “Midnight Express”. This movie was released in the year 1978, but it was widely criticised by reporters. But, it proved to be a blessing in disguise as the movie was a hit from financial point of view and it was nominated for 5 academy awards. Oliver bagged an award for best screenplay adaptation. He also won the Writers Guild Award and the Golden Globe for the screenplay. He achieved much name and fame in his glorious career.

The life of Oliver Stone teaches us that “Success is dependent on effort” as quoted by Sophocles.