Stephen Roark Gyllenhaal ( , ; born October 4, 1949) is an American film director and poet. He is the father of actors Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Early life Stephen Roark Gyllenhaal was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Hugh Anders Gyllenhaal and Virginia Lowrie (née Childs). He is of Swedish and English descent; through his father, he is a descendant of the cavalry officer Nils Gunnesson Haal, who was ennobled by Queen Christina of Sweden in 1652 and given the family name "Gyllenhaal".Stated on Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., PBS, April 22, 2012.
Gyllenhaal grew up in Bryn Athyn, a suburb of Philadelphia, in a close-knit Swedenborgian family. He graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1972, with a degree in English. His mentor at Trinity was the poet Hugh Ogden.
Career Gyllenhaal directed the film version of the Pete Dexter novel Paris Trout, which was nominated for five Emmy Awards and won him a DGA Award. In 1990, Gyllenhaal directed Family of Spies, which was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and an Emmy. In 1992, he directed the feature film Waterland, starring Jeremy Irons and Ethan Hawke. Since 1993, he has focused primarily on directing in television, including an episode of the ABC television series Twin Peaks. He directed his son, Jake, then 13 years old, in an episode of NBC's Homicide: Life on the Street that aired in 1994. Gyllenhaal directed several episodes of the CBS series Numb3rs, The Mentalist, Hawthorne, Army Wives, Rectify, and Blue Bloods. In 2011, Gyllenhaal directed Girl Fight which starred Anne Heche and earned Gyllenhaal a nomination for Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Miniseries or TV Film.
He is also a poet, and has been published in literary journals such as Prairie Schooner and Nimrod. His first collection of poetry, Claptrap: Notes from Hollywood, was published in June 2006 by Cantara Christopher's New York–based literary small press, Cantarabooks.
In 2013, Gyllenhaal directed a backdoor pilot originally titled Sworn to Silence that aired as the Lifetime TV movie An Amish Murder. It stars Neve Campbell as a local police detective who must solve a murder case that involves the Amish Community she was shunned from years ago. Gyllenhaal is also in post-production on a documentary about dream interpretation titled Exquisite Continent.
In 2019, Gyllenhaal was on the "Social Impact Advisory Board" of the San Diego International Film Festival with Susan Sarandon and Cecilia Peck.
Personal life Gyllenhaal was married to screenwriter Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal for 32 years, from 1977 until their divorce was finalized in 2009. Together, they are the parents of actress Maggie and actor Jake Gyllenhaal.
In July 2011, he married Kathleen Man, a filmmaker and professor who was a co-producer on Gyllenhaal's 2012 film Grassroots. Their son Luke was born in 2014.
His brother, Anders Gyllenhaal, is executive editor of the Miami Herald.
Selected filmography Year Title Notes 1979 Exit 10 1985 Certain Fury 1990 A Killing in a Small Town TV film;Nominated - Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special Family of Spies TV1991 Twin Peaks TV;"The Path to the Black Lodge" Paris Trout TV 1992 Waterland 1993 A Dangerous Woman 1995 Losing Isaiah 1998 Homegrown 1999 Resurrection TV 2000 The $treet 2001 The Warden of Red Rock TV 2002 Living with the Dead TV 2006 Time Bomb TV 2007 Manchild TV 2010 The Mentalist TV 2011 Girl Fight TV 2012 NYC 22 TV Grassroots 2013 An Amish Murder TV 2014 Rectify TV 2016 So B. It Billions TV 2023 UnCharitable Documentary Film
References
External links
The Gyllenhaal name Genealogy of the Gyllenhaal family