Top 100 Biography Movies List

#80 Biography Movie

Erin Brockovich (2000) R

An unemployed single mother becomes a legal assistant and almost single-handedly brings down a California power company accused of polluting a city's water supply.

Director:

Steven Soderbergh

Writers:

Susannah Grant

Stars:

Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, David Brisbin

#79 Biography Movie

Julie and Julia (2009) PG-13

Julia Child's story of her start in the cooking profession is intertwined with blogger Julie Powell's 2002 challenge to cook all the recipes in Child's first book.

Director:

Nora Ephron

Writers:

Nora Ephron, Julie Powell

Stars:

Amy Adams, Meryl Streep, Chris Messina

#78 Biography Movie

The Doors (1991) R

The story of the famous and influential 1960s rock band The Doors and its lead singer and composer, Jim Morrison, from his days as a UCLA film student in Los Angeles, to his untimely death in Paris, France at age 27 in 1971.

Director:

Oliver Stone

Writers:

Randall Jahnson, Oliver Stone

Stars:

Val Kilmer, Meg Ryan, Kyle MacLachlan

#77 Biography Movie

The Hurricane (1999) R

The story of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who aided in his fight to prove his innocence.

Director:

Norman Jewison

Writers:

Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, Sam Chaiton

Stars:

Denzel Washington, Vicellous Shannon, Deborah Kara Unger

#76 Biography Movie

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) R

An adaptation of the cult memoir of game show impresario Chuck Barris, in which he purports to have been a CIA hitman.

Director:

George Clooney

Writers:

Chuck Barris, Charlie Kaufman

Stars:

Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore, George Clooney

#75 Biography Movie

Heavenly Creatures (1994) R

Two girls have an intense fantasy life; their parents, concerned the fantasy is too intense, separate them, and the girls take revenge.

Director:

Peter Jackson

Writers:

Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson

Stars:

Melanie Lynskey, Kate Winslet, Sarah Peirse

#74 Biography Movie

Midnight Express (1978) R

Billy Hayes, an American college student, is caught smuggling drugs out of Turkey and thrown into prison.

Director:

Alan Parker

Writers:

Oliver Stone, Billy Hayes

Stars:

Brad Davis, Irene Miracle, Bo Hopkins

#73 Biography Movie

Control (2004) PG

A profile of Ian Curtis, the enigmatic singer of Joy Division whose personal, professional, and romantic troubles led him to commit suicide at the age of 23.

Director:

Anton Corbijn

Writers:

Deborah Curtis, Matt Greenhalgh

Stars:

Sam Riley, Samantha Morton, Craig Parkinson

#72 Biography Movie

Born on the Fourth of July (1989) R

The biography of Ron Kovic. Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country he fought for.

Director:

Oliver Stone

Writers:

Ron Kovic, Oliver Stone

Stars:

Tom Cruise, Raymond J. Barry, Caroline Kava

#71 Biography Movie

Boys Don't Cry (1999) R

Female-born Teena Brandon adopts his male identity of Brandon Teena and attempts to find himself and love in Nebraska.

Director:

Kimberly Peirce

Writers:

Kimberly Peirce, Andy Bienen

Stars:

Hilary Swank, Chloë Sevigny, Peter Sarsgaard

#70 Biography Movie

The People Vs Larry Flynt (1996) R

A partially idealized film of the controversial pornography publisher and how he became a defender of free speech for all people.

Director:

Milos Forman

Writers:

Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski

Stars:

Woody Harrelson, Courtney Love, Edward Norton

#69 Biography Movie

Elizabeth (1998) R

A film of the early years of the reign of Elizabeth I of England and her difficult task of learning what is necessary to be a monarch.

Director:

Shekhar Kapur

Writers:

Michael Hirst

Stars:

Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Christopher Eccleston

#68 Biography Movie

The World's Fastest Indian (2005) PG-13

The story of New Zealander Burt Munro, who spent years rebuilding a 1920 Indian motorcycle, which helped him set the land speed world record at Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats in 1967.

Director:

Roger Donaldson

Writers:

Roger Donaldson

Stars:

Anthony Hopkins, Diane Ladd, Iain Rea

#67 Biography Movie

The Basketball Diaries (1995) R

A teenager finds his dreams of becoming a basketball star threatened after he free falls into the harrowing world of drug addiction.

Director:

Scott Kalvert

Writers:

Jim Carroll, Bryan Goluboff

Stars:

Leonardo DiCaprio, Lorraine Bracco, Marilyn Sokol

#66 Biography Movie

The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) R

The dramatization of a motorcycle road trip Che Guevara went on in his youth that showed him his life's calling.

Director:

Walter Salles

Writers:

Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, Alberto Granado

Stars:

Gael García Bernal, Rodrigo De la Serna, Mía Maestro

#65 Biography Movie

The Last Emperor (1987) PG-13

The story of the final Emperor of China.

Director:

Bernardo Bertolucci

Writers:

Mark Peploe, Bernardo Bertolucci

Stars:

John Lone, Joan Chen, Peter O'Toole

#64 Biography Movie

Awakenings (1990) PG-13

The victims of an encephalitis epidemic many years ago have been catatonic ever since, but now a new drug offers the prospect of reviving them.

Director:

Penny Marshall

Writers:

Oliver Sacks, Steven Zaillian

Stars:

Robert De Niro, Robin Williams, Julie Kavner

#63 Biography Movie

The Queen (2006) PG-13

After the death of Princess Diana, Queen Elizabeth II struggles with her reaction to a sequence of events nobody could have predicted.

Director:

Stephen Frears

Writers:

Peter Morgan

Stars:

Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen, James Cromwell

#62 Biography Movie

Hidden Figures (2016) PG

The story of a team of female African-American mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program.

Director:

Theodore Melfi

Writers:

Allison Schroeder, Theodore Melfi

Stars:

Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe

#61 Biography Movie

Papillon (1973) R

A man befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence on a dreadful prison island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.

Director:

Franklin J. Schaffner

Writers:

Dalton Trumbo, Lorenzo Semple Jr.

Stars:

Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Victor Jory

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