George Miller

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George Miller, Greek Australian film director/producer

George (Miliotis) Miller (born March 3, 1945), is an Academy-Award winning Greek Australian film and television screenwriter, director and producer. He is probably most well known for his work on the Mad Max movies, but has been involved in a wide range of projects.

Biography

George Miliotis was born in Chinchilla, Queensland, to Greek immigrant parents: Dimitri (Jim) Castrisios Miliotis, from Kythera, and Evangelia (Angela) Balloyoulo. The Balloyoulo family were Greek refugees from Asia Minor, while Dimitri was from the Greek Island of Kythera and he anglicised his surname to Miller when he emigrated to Australia[1]. The couple married and settled in Chinchilla and had four sons. The first two, non-identical twins were George and John, and later, Chris and Bill (Vassilli).

George served as an altar boy at the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint George, Rose Bay. He attended Sydney Boys High School, then studied medicine at the University of New South Wales with his twin brother John. While in his final year at Med School, George and his younger brother Chris made a one minute short film, that won them first prize in a student competition. In 1971, George attended a Film Workshop at Melbourne University where he met fellow student, Byron Kennedy. In 1972, Miller completed his residency at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital, spending his time-off crewing on short experimental films. Miller formed an irrepressible bond with fellow film fanatic Byron Kennedy. The pair collaborated in numerous works since.

George wrote and directed the Mad Max movies starring Mel Gibson (Mad Max, The Road Warrior, and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome); co-wrote Babe and wrote and directed its sequel; and Lorenzo's Oil. He also directed The Witches of Eastwick, starring Jack Nicholson, Susan Sarandon, Cher and Michelle Pfeiffer.

George Miller's role as producer of Flirting, Dead Calm and the TV mini-series Bangkok Hilton and Vietnam, all starring Nicole Kidman, was instrumental in the early development of her career.

Miller recently spent 18 months in Sydney, Australia directing the computer-animated film Happy Feet, a musical epic about the life of penguins in Antarctica [2]. The Warner Brothers-produced film was released in November 2006, and is Australia's largest animated film project, with a crew of over 300 artists and technicians at the visual effects house Animal Logic. As well as being a runaway box office success, Happy Feet has also brought Miller his fourth Academy Award nomination, and his first win in the category of Best Animated Feature.

He should not be confused with another Australian director, also named George T. Miller, who directed The Man From Snowy River and other films in Australia and internationally.

Trivia

  • Is the older brother of Bill Miller.
  • Best friends with fellow Kytherian pharmacist Michael "Micky" Jonson.[3]
  • Attended Sydney Boys High School.
  • George is named after his paternal grandfather

A portion of content for this article is credited to Wikipedia. Content under GNU Free Documentation License(GFDL)

External links