Sam Mendes took home best director for his epic war drama 1917 which was also crowned best film drama at the Golden Globes. Born one day after J.K. Rowling on 1 August 1965, he had a novelist mother and academic father, directed plays when at Cambridge, and later at the Royal Shakespeare Company and Chichester. He has a special place in my respect for his regeneration of the tiny Donmar Theatre in London in the early 1990s where he put on a stream of superlative serious plays. As well as directing Lionel Bart’s Oliver with Cameron Mackintosh – and the list of stage triumphs goes on and on. On the movie front, most notably American Beauty with Kevin Spacey and the James Bond Skyfall and many others. He really has the golden touch.
He has a Leo Sun square filmic and musical Neptune; with the leading-edge, innovative Uranus Pluto in Virgo opposition Saturn in Pisces squaring onto a lucky Jupiter in Gemini. A Mutable T Square like this gives him a need for constant movement and stimulation. A focal point Jupiter will make him a natural teacher or spokesman and visionary but exceedingly restless with it – so a career full of constantly changing projects will suit him.
His Jupiter is also in a high-energy, adventurous and risk-taking trine to Mars in Libra. His Moon in probably Libra in contrast to Rowling’s Virgo Moon.
Other winners included a well-deserved Brad Pitt (see posts 30 August and 21 September 2019); Rene Zellwegger (post September 11 2019); Joaquin Phoenix (post September 28 2019); Olivia Coleman (post November 24 2018); and Quentin Tarantino (post May 27 2019).