Many of Stone's films focus on controversial American political issues during the late 20th century, and as such were considered contentious at the times of their releases. Stone has beencritical of the American foreign policy, which he considers to be driven bynationalist andimperialist agendas. Like his subject matter, Stone is a controversial figure in American filmmaking, with some critics accusing him of promotingconspiracy theories.[5][6][7][8][9]
WIlliam Oliver Stone was born on September 15, 1946, atDoctors Hospital in New York City, the only child of Jacqueline (née Goddet)[10] and Louis Stone (born Abraham Louis Silverstein).[11] His parents met in his mother's hometown of Paris duringWorld War II where his father, a U.S. Army colonel, served as a financial officer on GeneralEisenhower's staff.[12][13] Upon his return to Manhattan after the war, Louis worked on Wall Street as a stockbroker and investment analyst, eventually becoming vice president ofShearson Lehman Brothers.[14] Stone's paternal great-grandparents were Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from Poland, and his grandfather, Joshua Silverstein, ran successful skirt-making businesses in New York City and New Jersey.[15] The family changed its surname from Silverstein to Stone in the 1920s due to rampantantisemitism in the United States. His aunt was author and editorBabette Rosmond and his cousins are writerGene Stone and former chairman of the United StatesCommodity Futures Trading CommissionJames Stone.[16] Stone himself grew up inManhattan andStamford, Connecticut. While his American father was Jewish, his French mother wasRoman Catholic, though both were non-practicing.[17] Stone was raised in theEpiscopal Church[18][19] and now practicesBuddhism.[20]
Stone attended kindergarten through eighth grade atTrinity School in New York City before being sent toThe Hill School, acollege-preparatory boarding school inPottstown, Pennsylvania. He spoke French as his first language, which led to some difficulties as anESL learner during his early years at Trinity.[21] His father paid him a quarter every week to write one to two pages on a theme; this inspired Stone's early love of writing.[22] In 1962, while Stone was attending The Hill, his parents abruptly divorced, which shocked him. Following a court ruling that deemed his mother unfit, his father was granted sole custody. With his mother already frequently absent prior to the divorce, Stone was raised under the strong influence of his father, which may explain why father-son relationships are a recurring theme in his work.[23] Starting at age nine, his primary caretaker was a male nanny, Karlo Stojanac; a Yugoslavian Holocaust survivor, Stojanac was both openly gay and aSocialist, uncommon traits at that time period. Stone later compared his nanny to Molina, a character fromKiss of the Spider Woman, and described him as permanently traumatized by his experiences in a concentration camp. Reflecting on their bond, Stone called their relationship "extraordinarily close" and said that Stojanac "was my mentor in many ways. He took care of me and he loved me."[24]
Stone often spent summers with his maternal grandparents in France, both in Paris andLa Ferté-sous-Jouarre in Seine-et-Marne, where he was fascinated by his grandfather's stories of serving in theFrench Army duringWorld War I. At 17, he worked as a runner in theParis Commodities Exchange, a job that later proved inspirational for his filmWall Street. Because of the estrangement from his mother, his French grandmother was his primary maternal figure and her death in 1976 deeply affected him: "She loved me, and she’d always loved me and believed in me. That was a big thing. Something happened at [age] 30 with her death. And I became more mature, and my success started to flow from there.”[25]
After graduating from The Hill School in 1964, Stone was admitted toYale University, but left in June 1965 at age 18[12][26] to teach high school students English for six months at the Free Pacific Institute inSaigon,South Vietnam.[27] Afterwards, he worked for a short while as awiper on aUnited States Merchant Marine ship in 1966, traveling from Asia to the US across the rough Pacific Ocean in January.[28] He returned to Yale, but dropped out again after one semester (in part due to working on an autobiographical novelA Child's Night Dream, published in 1997 bySt. Martin's Press).[29] During this period, Stone also battledsevere depression andsuicidal ideation.[30] He would continue to have episodes of major depression throughout his life: “I was lost for a long time, and I stayed lost."[31]
In April 1967, Stone enlisted in theUnited States Army and requestedcombat duty in Vietnam. Upon arrival, he first served (from September 27, 1967 – February 23, 1968) as arifleman with 2nd Platoon, B Company, 3rd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment,25th Infantry Division. In October 1967, he wasmedevaced for the first time after being shot in the neck during a nightambush, a wound which nearly severed hisjugular vein andcarotid artery. "It was a miracle I survived the neck injury," he reflected in 2025.[32] Later, while fighting with that same unit in theNew Year's Battle of 1968, Stone wasknocked unconscious and had his eardrum perforated by the concussive blast of abeehive round, which resulted in permanent deafness in that ear. (As he did not leave duty or receive medical treatment, this injury did not qualify for aPurple Heart. As a result, Stone often refers to himself as "twice wounded," referencing only the injuries for which he was hospitalized and received Purple Hearts.) On January 15, 1968, Stone was wounded and evacuated from the 25th Infantry Division for the final time when, while attempting to aid other injured personnel, asatchel charge implanted in a tree detonated, causing ablast concussion and shrapnel wounds to his legs and buttocks.[33]
In the 1990s, biographer James Riordan discovered correspondence from the Treasury Department of the American Consulate in Hong Kong dated 1968, revealing that Louis Stone had used his government connections to request a noncombat transfer for his son following his injuries. However, the consulate's letter stated that, when offered a support position with theCIA, Oliver emphatically declined, adding that he was staying in the Army and looking forward to completing his tour of duty in combat.[34]
Following a month-long hospital stay, Stone briefly served transitional duty as amilitary policeman in Saigon. He was then transferred to the1st Cavalry Division, participating inlong-range reconnaissance patrols, before being transferred to Troop D, 1st Squadron of the9th Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Cav for the rest of his tour. While serving with that unit on August 21, 1968, Stone charged and killed aNorth Vietnamese sniper who had several squads pinned down during acrossfire firefight near My Khe beach (nicknamed "China Beach" by the U.S.). For that action, he was awarded theBronze Star with"V" Device for "heroism in ground combat."[35][36]
On June 30, 1969, the French news programVoila interviewed a then-unknown Stone while filming"on the street" interviews about the war inCentral Park. In fluent French, he told them, "My name is Oliver Stone, I’m 22 years old, I’m from New York, and my mother is French from Paris. I served in Vietnam with the American Army for 15 months and I returned to the United States six months ago. It changed me. It changes a lot of boys." He added that drug use was rampant among American soldiers.[38]
Stone denied experiencing anyhostility upon returning from Vietnam. Instead, he characterized the general attitude to veterans as indifferent, which contributed to his feelings of depression and isolation. In a 2020 BBC interview, he reflected that, despite his later success, he felt his experience as a combat veteran alienated him from both hisgeneration and Hollywood.[45]
Stone attendedNew York University on theG.I. Bill, graduating with aBachelor of Fine Arts degree infilm in 1971, where his teachers included director and fellow NYU alumnusMartin Scorsese[46] and where he had a small acting role in the comedyThe Battle of Love's Return.[47] In Scorsese's class, Stone made a short, well received 12-minute film about a disabled veteran,Last Year in Viet Nam. He later worked varied jobs as a taxi driver,PBS production assistant, messenger, and salesman before making his mark as a screenwriter.
In 1979, Stone was awarded his first Oscar, after adapting true-life prison storyMidnight Express into the successful filmof the same name for British directorAlan Parker (the two men would later collaborate on the 1996 movie of stage musicalEvita). The original author and subject of the film,Billy Hayes, said the film's depiction of prison conditions was accurate and that the "message ofMidnight Express isn't, 'Don't go to Turkey. It's, 'Don't be an idiot like I was, and try to smuggle drugs.' "[48] Stone later apologized to Turkey for over-dramatizing the script, while standing by the film's stark depiction of the brutality of Turkish prisons.[49]
Stone in February 1987
After his breakthrough, Stone continued his successful career as a screenwriter, most notablyBrian De Palma's drug lord epicScarface, loosely inspired by his own addiction tococaine, which he successfully kicked while working on the screenplay.[50] He also pennedYear of the Dragon (co-written withMichael Cimino) featuringMickey Rourke, before his career took off as a writer-director in 1986. Like his contemporary Michael Mann, Stone is unusual in having written or co-written most of the films he has directed. In 1986, Stone directed two films back to back: the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessfulSalvador, shot largely in Mexico, and his long in-development Vietnam projectPlatoon, shot in the Philippines.
Platoon brought Stone's name to a much wider audience. It also kick-started a busy directing career which saw him direct nine films over the next decade.Platoon won rave reviews (Roger Ebert named it the best film of 1986 and later called it the ninth best film of the decade), massive commercial success, and Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director. In 2007, a film industry vote ranked it at number 83 in anAmerican Film Institute "AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies" poll of the previous century's best American movies. British TV channelChannel 4 votedPlatoon as the sixth greatest war film ever made.[51] In 2019,Platoon was selected by theLibrary of Congress for preservation in the United StatesNational Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."[52]
WhilePlatoon was about Stone's own experience in combat, he followed it with two other films showing different perspectives of the Vietnam War. In 1989, he co-wrote and directedBorn on the Fourth of July, based on theautobiography ofRon Kovic, a Marine who became an anti-war activist after being paralyzed in combat. The film was a critical success, receivingeight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and earning Stone his second Best Director Oscar. It was also a commercial success, grossing $161 million against a budget of just $17.8 million to become the tenth highest-grossing film of that year.[53]Heaven & Earth (1993) was the final film in his unofficial Vietnam trilogy, written and directed by Stone based on the memoirs ofLe Ly Hayslip, a Vietnamese woman whose life was drastically changed by the war and its aftermath.
Immediately following the success ofPlatoon, Stone co-wrote and directed another hit, 1987'sWall Street, starring Charlie Sheen andMichael Douglas, who received theAcademy Award for Best Actor for his role as ruthless corporate raider Gordon Gekko. AfterWall Street, Stone co-wrote and directedTalk Radio, based onEric Bogosian's Pulitzer-nominated play. The film was nominated for theGolden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and earned Stone his thirdIndependent Spirit Award nomination for Best Director.
In 1990, Stone produced the Oscar-winning movieReversal of Fortune. The following year, he co-wrote and directedThe Doors. The film received criticism from former Doors keyboardistRay Manzarek and Jim Morrison's former girlfriend,Patricia Kennealy-Morrison, who was a consultant on the movie (she also makes a cameo appearance). However, she later wrote in her memoirStrange Days: My Life With and Without Jim Morrison that Stone ignored her feedback and proceeded with his own version of events.[54] The other surviving former members of the band,John Densmore andRobby Krieger, also cooperated with the filming ofThe Doors, but Krieger distanced himself before the film's release. However, Densmore thought highly of the film,[55] and celebrated its DVD release on a panel with Oliver Stone.
During the same year, Stone co-wrote and directed one of his most ambitious, controversial and successful films,JFK, which depicts theassassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, and its aftermath. The film was a huge commercial success and earned eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Stone also published an annotated version of the screenplay shortly after the film's release, noting, "I make my films like you're going to die if you miss the next minute. You better not go get popcorn."[56] Due to public reaction to the film, Congress passed thePresident John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 ("JFK Records Act"), directing theNational Archives and Records Administration to collect and house all assassination-related records and release them by 2017. The act also established the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB), whose work was the subject of Stone's 2021 documentary miniseriesJFK: Destiny Betrayed. On April 27, 1992, Stone testified before the House Government Operations Subcommittee on Legislation and National Affairs in support of the act's passage. Introducing Stone at the hearing, chairman Rep.John Conyers Jr. stated: "You are probably the reason that we're all here today. You've moved the country and your Congress to immediate activity."[57]
In 1994, Stone co-wrote and directedNatural Born Killers, a violent crime film intended to satirize the modern media. The film had originally been based on ascreenplay byQuentin Tarantino, but underwent significant rewriting by Stone,Richard Rutowski, and David Veloz.[58] Before it was released, theMPAA gave the film an NC-17 rating; this caused Stone to cut four minutes of film footage to obtain an R rating (he eventually released the unrated version on VHS and DVD in 2001). The film was the recipient of the Grand Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.[59] That same year, Stone appeared in a cameo as himself in the presidential comedyDave and producedThe Joy Luck Club, the first major Hollywood film made by an Asian director and majority Asian cast about a contemporary Asian-American story.
After over more than a decade (1986–1999), wherein he wrote and directed a new film almost every year, Stone slowed his pace at the turn of the century. He first released his historical epicAlexander in 2004, but it was a notoriousbox office flop. He later re-edited it into a two-part, 3-hour 37-minute filmAlexander Revisited: The Final Cut, which became one of the highest-selling catalog items from Warner Bros.[60] He further refined the film and in 2014 released the two-part, 3-hour 26-minuteAlexander: The Ultimate Cut. AfterAlexander, Stone directedWorld Trade Center, based on the true story of twoPAPD policemen who were trapped in the rubble and survived theSeptember 11 attacks. The film was a commercial success. Stone then wrote and directed theGeorge W. Bush biopicW., which chronicles the president's life up until the2003 invasion of Iraq.
In 2016, Stone directedSnowden, starringJoseph Gordon-Levitt as whistleblowerEdward Snowden. The film received mixed reviews from critics and was not a commercial success. As of 2025, it remains Stone's final narrative feature film. On May 22, 2017, various industry papers announced that Stone was going to direct his first scripted television series about theGuantanamo detention camp for Weinstein Television.[62][63][64][65] However, Stone quit the project after sexual misconduct allegations surfaced againstHarvey Weinstein in October 2017 and it was never made.[66]
In 2020, Stone announced his semi-retirement from film-making, though he still occasionally makes documentaries.[67] In July of that same year,Houghton Mifflin Harcourt published his first memoir,Chasing the Light: Writing, Directing, and Surviving Platoon, Midnight Express, Scarface, Salvador, and the Movie Game, which chronicles his turbulent upbringing in New York City, volunteering for combat in Vietnam, and the trials and triumphs of moviemaking in the 1970s and '80s. The book, which ends on his Oscar-winningPlatoon, was praised byThe New York Times: "The Oliver Stone depicted in these pages – vulnerable, introspective, stubbornly tenacious and frequently heartbroken—may just be the most sympathetic character he's ever written... neatly sets the stage for the possibility of that rarest of Stone productions: a sequel."[68] In 2024, he announced that he was writing a follow-up memoir forSimon & Schuster.[69] Also in 2024, Stone donated his archives to theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.[70]
In August 2025,Production Weekly reported that Stone would begin filming his final narrative feature,White Lies, a drama starringBenicio del Toro. However, three months later Stone abandoned the project, leaving it uncertain if he will ever direct another film.[71]
In the 21st century, Stone increasingly shifted to making documentaries. His first,Comandante (2003), about Cuban leaderFidel Castro, was followed by two sequels:Looking for Fidel (2004) andCastro in Winter (2012). Also in 2003, Stone madePersona Non Grata, an HBO documentary on Israeli-Palestinian relations, in which he interviewed several notable Israeli leaders, includingEhud Barak,Benjamin Netanyahu andShimon Peres, as well asYasser Arafat, leader of thePalestine Liberation Organization.
In 2009 Stone completed a feature-length documentary,South of the Border, about the rise of left-wing governments in Latin America, featuring seven presidents:Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Bolivia'sEvo Morales, Ecuador'sRafael Correa, Cuba'sRaúl Castro, theKirchners of Argentina, Brazil'sLula da Silva, and Paraguay'sFernando Lugo, all of whom are critical of US foreign policy in South America. Stone hoped the film would get the rest of the Western world to rethink socialist policies in South America, particularly as it was being applied by Venezuela's Hugo Chávez. Chávez joined Stone for the premiere of the documentary at theVenice International Film Festival in September 2009.[72] Stone defended his decision not to interview Chávez's opponents, stating that oppositional statements and TV clips were scattered through the documentary and that the documentary was an attempt to right a balance of heavily negative coverage. He praised Chávez as a leader of theBolivarian Revolution, a movement for social transformation in Latin America, and also praised the six other presidents in the film. The documentary was also released in several cities in the United States and Europe in the mid-2010.[73][74]
On March 5, 2014, Stone andteleSUR premiered the documentary filmMi amigo Hugo (My Friend Hugo), a documentary about Venezuela's late president, Hugo Chávez, one year after his death. The film was described by Stone as a "spiritual answer" and tribute to Chávez.[86]
In 2016, Stone was executive producer and interviewer forUkrainian-born directorIgor Lopatonok's filmUkraine on Fire.[87] The film was regarded by critics as presenting a "Kremlin-friendly version" of the 2014Maidan Revolution in Kyiv.[88] It was also criticized for advancing the Russian narrative about the revolution.[89][90]
Stone filmed a series of interviews with Russian presidentVladimir Putin over the span of two years, which was released asThe Putin Interviews, a four episode miniseries, onShowtime on June 12, 2017.[91] On June 13, Stone and ProfessorStephen F. Cohen joinedJohn Batchelor in New York to record an hour of commentary onThe Putin Interviews.[citation needed] In 2019, he releasedRevealing Ukraine, another film produced by Stone, directed by Lopatonok and featuring Stone interviewing Putin.[92] During these interviews, Putin made an unproven claim about Georgian snipers being responsible for the February 20 killings of protesters during the Euromaidan demonstrations, a hypothesis Stone himself had earlier supported on Twitter.[93]
In June 2021, Stone's documentaryJFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass was selected to be shown in the Cannes Premiere section at the2021 Cannes Film Festival.[94] An expanded version of the documentary calledJFK: Destiny Betrayed premiered as a television miniseries later that same year.
In 2021, Stone produced and featured inQazaq: History of the Golden Man, directed by Lopatonok, a miniseries about Kazakh politician and former leaderNursultan Nazarbayev. The series was criticized for its perceived promotion of the authoritarian rule and positive portrayal of Nazarbayev.[95][96] and for allegedly receiving $5 million in funding from Nazarbayev's own charitable foundation,Elbasy, via the country's State Center for Support of National Cinema, according to theOrganized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. Stone and Lopatonok denied any Kazakhstani government involvement.[95][97][98] According toRolling Stone, "What little attentionQazaq did receive was largely negative, with critics decrying the film for its glowing depiction of Nazarbayev."[97]
In 2022, Stone directed and co-wroteNuclear Now, aclimate change documentary based on the bookA Bright Future: How Some Countries Have Solved Climate Change and the Rest Can Follow written by the US scientistsJoshua S. Goldstein and Staffan A. Qvist. The movie argues thatnuclear energy is needed to fight climate change, asrenewables alone will not be sufficient for the planet to obtaincarbon neutrality before climate change becomes irreversible. Of the film, Stone stated, "People worry about nuclear waste and meanwhile the whole world is choking on fossil fuel waste. That’s silly. Trillions of dollars have been invested in solar and wind and hydropower. Everything possible is being discussed, except for nuclear... Ithas to be on the agenda."[99]
Oliver Stone withRino Barillari in "Piazza dé Ricci" exit of the restaurant "Pierluigi" in Rome – September 25, 2012
On September 15, 2008, Stone was named the artistic director of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts Asia in Singapore.[100] Stone is also an honorary board member of the nonprofit organizationsVeterans for Peace and The National Veterans Foundation.[101]
In November 1997, Stone won an episode of the game showJeopardy! during "Power Players" theme week, playing on behalf of charityRock the Vote.[102] As of 2025, that makes him one of only three Academy Award winners who have also wonJeopardy! Calling it one of the most fun experiences of his career, he later admitted that he was high onecstasy during the game.[103]
Stone has contributed forewords or introductions to multiple non-fiction books, includingLast Word: My Indictment of the CIA in the Murder of JFK byMark Lane,[104]The JFK Assassination,[105]A Portrait of Vietnam by Lou Dematteis,Reclaiming Parkland: Tom Hanks, Vincent Bugliosi, and the JFK Assassination in the New Hollywood,[106]The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela: How the US is Orchestrating a Coup for Oil, JFK: The Last Dissenting Witness andJFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy,[107] which features a quote from Stone on its cover that it "blows the lid right off our 'Official History.'"[108] He has also occasionally written film and literary criticism, beginning in 1972 with a freelance review of Jean Luc-Godard'sBreathless forThe Village Voice. ForThe New York Times, he reviewedThe Last Emperor andTom Clancy's novelExecutive Orders and, in 1998, wrote an article aboutconspiracies forJohn F. Kennedy Jr.'s political magazineGeorge.[109][110]
In 2022, he appeared in the documentaryTheaters of War, discussing the role of the military in Hollywood.[111] Stone was also interviewed in the 2021 ESPN30 for 30 documentaryOnce Upon a Time in Queens about the1986 New York Mets.[112]
Many of Stone's films focus on controversial American political issues during the late 20th century, and as such were considered contentious at the times of their releases. Known for a bold editing style, his films often combine different camera and film formats within a single scene, as demonstrated inJFK (1991),Natural Born Killers (1994) andNixon (1995).[113]Roger Ebert called Stone "a filmmaker of feverish energy and limitless technical skills, able to assemble a bewildering array of facts and fancies and compose them into a film without getting bogged down."[114]Owen Gleiberman, who namedNixon the best film of 1995, praised Stone as the most thrilling filmmaker of his era, writing that his movies don't merely entertain, but emotionally and psychologically absorb the audience. Gleiberman likened their impact to the intensity of drugs and commended Stone for uniquely capturing the chaotic thought patterns of the modern mind.[115][116]
According toQuentin Tarantino, Stone's films are assertive and impactful, meant to make audiences think deeply about their subjects. He compared him toStanley Kramer, a socially conscious filmmaker from the 1950s and ’60s, except, "Kramer was kind of a clumsy filmmaker and Oliver Stone is cinematically brilliant."[117] Two of Tarantino's favorite films,Year of the Dragon(1985) and8 Million Ways to Die (1986), were written by Stone.[118] In a retrospective essay, writer and professorKiese Laymon argued that Stone constantly subverted portrayals ofwhite saviorism andAmerican masculinity in his filmography,[119] whileThe Washington Post once described him as "Costa-Gavras meetsFrank Capra [...] as fluent withpolemic as he is with throat-catching emotion."[120]
Stone was ranked #12 onVulture's "100 Best Screenwriters of All-Time"[121] and #43 onEntertainment Weekly's "50 Greatest Directors," the latter calling him "Orson Welles with a sociopolitical ax to grind."[122]
Stone has listedLuis Buñuel,Jean-Luc Godard andClaude Chabrol as early film-making heroes, as well as fellow combat veteran turned directorSamuel Fuller.[123] Stone has particularly cited Greek-French directorCosta-Gavras, to whom he is often compared, as a major influence on his cinematic approach. While studying at NYU, Stone first saw the political thrillerZ (1969) when Costa-Gavras and actorYves Montand visited his film class, and that experience had a significant impact on Stone's admiration for politically engaged filmmaking.[124] When later interviewing Costa-Gavras at the 2025Los Angeles Greek Film Festival, Stone remembered that visit as one of the most significant events of his life.
In his memoirChasing the Light, Stone additionally described the profound influence ofElia Kazan's films on his work, as well as the parallels he saw between their life experiences. He also detailed a significant friendship with one of his other idols,Billy Wilder, during the final two decades of Wilder's life.[125] Stone is a longtime friend of fellow New York filmmakerSpike Lee, and is given special thanks in the credits of Lee's filmMalcolm X.[126]
Stone has been married three times, first to Najwa Sarkis Stone, a United Nations protocolattache, on May 22, 1971. They divorced in 1977. He then married Elizabeth Burkit Cox, an assistant in film production, on June 7, 1981.[127][128] They had two sons,Sean (b. 1984, who took the middle name Ali upon conversion toIslam[129]) and Michael Jack (b. 1991). As a child, Sean acted in supporting roles in several of his father's films, and later worked for the Russia state media companyRT America as a program host from 2015 to 2022.[130] Oliver and Elizabeth divorced in 1993. Stone also has a daughter, Tara Chong Stone (b. 1995) with his wife, Chong son Chong (Korean: 순중 정, alternatelyWesternized as Sun-jung Jung), whom he has been married to since 1996.[131] He credits the success of that marriage to his wife being his opposite politically, culturally and spiritually (she is a Christian conservative Republican, originally from South Korea).[132] All of Stone's children had cameos in his films, first as babies and continuing at various ages, though onlyAny Given Sunday features all three. Stone and his family live in Los Angeles[133] and he holds dual U.S. and French citizenship.[134]
Ten days after returning from Vietnam in November 1968, Stone was arrested and jailed for two weeks in San Diego for attempting to smuggle two ounces ofmarijuana across the border from Mexico, where he had been partying. The charges were eventually dismissed.[140] The dirty and inhumane conditions he experienced while incarcerated deeply impacted his view of the American justice system. While in the San Diego jail, law enforcement found Stone's military ID among his possessions and, suspecting he wasAWOL, turned him over to the Army upon his release. He admitted to keeping the ID card as a souvenir instead of surrendering it during active duty out-processing as required. After spending one night in custody while the Army confirmed his separation status, he was released without penalty.[141]
In 1999, Stone was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and possession of drugs, specificallyfenfluramine,phentermine,meprobamate and a small amount ofhashish. He pled guilty to two counts of driving while intoxicated and was ordered into arehabilitation program.[142] He was arrested again on the night of May 27, 2005, in Los Angeles for possession of marijuana.[143][144][145] He was released the next day on a $15,000 bond.[144] In August 2005, Stone pleadedno contest and was fined $100.[146]
For a brief period in the early 1970s, Stone both used and soldphencyclidine (PCP) out of his apartment in New York. Describing it as "a brief period of employment," he noted, "I was too intellectual a drug dealer, but I met some interesting people."[147] He quit dealing after anarchist writerEmmett Grogan stole his supply during a visit.[148]
From the late 1970s to the early 1980s, Stone was addicted to cocaine. During that time, he also frequently tookQuaaludes and was an occasionalheroin user.[149] Stone is a long-time and frequent user of marijuana, referring to it as "God's gift" to humanity. He is also an advocate for the use of psychedelics, citing his positive experiences with substances such asLSD,mescaline,psilocybin mushrooms,ayahuasca, andMDMA (ecstasy). For a time, he took what he described as "too much"Prozac but stopped when he felt the antidepressant was no longer effective for him.[31]
In 2017, formerPlayboymodelCarrie Stevens alleged that in 1991, Stone had "walked past me and grabbed my boob as he waltzed out the front door of a party."[150]
I'm a believer that you wait until this thing gets to trial. I believe a man shouldn't be condemned by a vigilante system. It's not easy what he's going through, either. During that period he was a rival. I never did business with him and didn't really know him. I've heard horror stories on everyone in the business, so I'm not going to comment on gossip. I'll wait and see, which is the right thing to do.[151]
Later that day he withdrew his remarks, saying that he had been unaware of the extent of the allegations due to his travel schedule. "After looking at what has been reported in many publications over the last couple of days, I'm appalled and commend the courage of the women who've stepped forward to report sexual abuse or rape."[151]
Melissa Gilbert accused Stone of "sexual harassment" during an audition forThe Doors in 1991. Gilbert alleged that she was told unexpectedly to recite sexually explicit dialogue from the script (as characterPamela Courson), refused and left the audition in tears, calling it humiliating. Stone released a statement denying the accusation. The film's casting director, Risa Bramon Garcia, also denied the story, noting that all actresses and their agents were warned about the explicit dialogue when given the pages prior to the audition, adding, "No actor was forced or expected to do anything that might have been uncomfortable, and most actors embraced the challenge."[152][153]
Stone (right) with Slovenian philosopherSlavoj Žižek (left) and Greek politicianAlexis Tsipras (center) in 2013
Stone has been described as having left-wing political views.[154][155][156] PerFEC data, he has an extensive history of political donations, almost exclusively to Democratic candidates andPACs.[157] In a December 2024 podcast interview, Stone defined himself as an independent opposed toneoconservatism and a "real liberal" influenced byJohn Stuart Mill.[158] He has also drawn attention for his opinions on controversial world leaders such asAdolf Hitler,Joseph Stalin,Hugo Chávez andVladimir Putin.[159][160] In Showtime'sThe Putin Interviews, Stone calledJoseph Stalin the biggest villain in history, stating that Stalin ruined the legacy ofCommunism due to his atrocities.[161] Stone has also endorsed the works of author andUnited States foreign policy criticWilliam Blum, saying that his books should be taught in schools and universities.[162]
In 2012, Stone endorsedRon Paul for the Republican nomination for president, citing his support for anon-interventionist foreign policy.[171] He later clarified that he only supported Ron Paul in the Republican primary, but would not vote for him in thegeneral election due to his domestic policy stances.[172] According toEntertainment Weekly, Stone voted forBarack Obama as President of the United States in both the2008 and2012 elections.[173] He praised Obama for his intelligence and calm handling of crises.[172] However, at the 2017San Sebastián film festival, Stone added that many Americans had become disillusioned withObama's foreign policy, having originally thought he would be "a man of great integrity" but instead became disappointed that Obama continued many aspects of the Bush-era policy and created a massiveglobal security surveillance state.[174]
In April 2018, Stone attended a press conference at the Fajr Film Festival inTehran, where he likened PresidentDonald J. Trump toBeelzebub, the biblical demonic figure.[178] Although Stone voted forJoe Biden in2020, he criticized what he perceived to be the hypocrisy of theDemocratic Party. Stone argued that the Democrats were not as concerned aboutRussian electoral interference as they had been in2016 when Trump won[179] and also feared that neoconservatives would ultimately control Biden.[180] Conversely, Stone detailed 11 reasons why he could never vote for Trump, including his policies on Israel, Cuba and Venezuela, theassassination of Qasem Soleimani and hispardons of three court-martialed U.S. military officers who were accused or convicted of war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.[181] He additionally cited Trump's stances on climate change and immigration.[182]
In response to Trump's 2025 executive order to release the final three percent of the investigative files related to the John F. Kennedy assassination, Stone wrote that Trump deserved praise, especially for also ordering the release of still classified files on the assassinations ofMartin Luther King Jr. andRobert Kennedy. However, Stone noted that the files should have been originally released in October 2017, and cautioned that he supported the proposed oversight committee.[187] On April 1, 2025, Stone testified before theHouse Oversight subcommittee on federal compliance with theJFK Records Act, having previously testified in April 1992 to support the legislation, which had been inspired by his filmJFK.[188] In his statement to the committee, he urged Congress "in good faith, outside all political considerations," to re-open the investigation of Kennedy's assassination.[189]
In a January 2010 press conference announcing his documentary series on the history of the United States, Stone commented that historians were too focused onAdolf Hitler as asingle bad actor, and not focused enough on his collaborators and the context which allowed him to come to power.[190] Those remarks drew controversy, with Rabbi Marvin Hier of theSimon Wiesenthal Center arguing that trying to put Hitler in context was akin to trying to explain cancer.[191]
Interviewed byThe Sunday Times later that year, Stone noted that more Russians died in World War II than European Jews, and said that ignoring Russian losses was an example of a Cold War-centric view of history. He objected to what he termed "the Jewish domination of the media," appearing to be critical of the coverage ofthe Holocaust by adding that Israel had an outsized influence on United States foreign policy.[192][193] The remarks were criticized by Jewish groups, including theAmerican Jewish Committee, which compared his comments negatively to those ofMel Gibson.[194][195]Abraham Foxman of theAnti-Defamation League (ADL) criticized Stone's remarks about Jewish domination of the media and influence over U.S. foreign policy which, according to Foxman, echoed harmful stereotypes about Jewish power and control.[196]
A day later, Stone replied:
In trying to make a broader historical point about the range of atrocities the Germans committed against many people, I made a clumsy association about the Holocaust, for which I am sorry and I regret. Jews obviously do not control media or any other industry. The fact that the Holocaust is still a very important, vivid and current matter today is, in fact, a great credit to the very hard work of a broad coalition of people committed to the remembrance of this atrocity—and it was an atrocity.[197]
Two days later, Stone issued a second apology to the ADL, which was accepted. Foxman stated that the apology was thoughtful and productive and put an end to the matter.[198]
Oliver Stone is a vocal supporter ofWikiLeaks founderJulian Assange. In June 2012, Stone signed a petition backing Assange's bid for political asylum.[199] The following August, he co-authored an op-ed inThe New York Times with filmmaker Michael Moore, underscoring the importance of WikiLeaks and the broader implications for free speech.[200] In April 2013, he visited Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, stating that most Americans underestimate the significance of Assange's work. He also criticized the documentaryWe Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks and the filmThe Fifth Estate, arguing that Assange was being unfairly targeted despite his contributions to press freedom.[201]
In June 2013, Stone and numerous other celebrities appeared in a video showing support forChelsea Manning.[202][203]
Stone has calledSaudi Arabia a major destabilizer in the Middle East. He also criticized theforeign policy of the United States, condemning the U.S. role in conflicts acrossIraq,Syria, andLibya, and expressing frustration that the American public appears indifferent to the region's ongoing turmoil caused by those interventions.[178] Stone has also been critical ofIsrael's foreign policy, particularly during the leadership ofBenjamin Netanyahu, whom he has interviewed. In March 2002, Stone was filming a documentary in theWest Bank whenOperation Defensive Shield was launched.[204] He and his crew were forced to fleeRamallah with assistance from the Canadian government.[205] Since the start of theIsrael-Gaza war, Stone has been outspoken against purportedIsraeli war crimes and has alleged that Hollywood "destroys" those in the entertainment industry who take a pro-Palestinian stance.[206]
Stone has had an interest in Latin America since the 1980s, when he directedSalvador, and later returned to make his documentarySouth of the Border about the left-leaning movements that had been taking hold in the region. He expressed the view that those movements were a positive step toward political and economic autonomy for the region.[207] He supported Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and admired the Colombian militant groupFARC.[208] Stone skipped the68th Academy Awards ceremony, where his filmNixon received four nominations, to visit theZapatistas of southern Mexico. Joking that he had no Oscar statuettes to give, guerrilla leaderSubcomandante Marcos presented Stone with a tobacco pipe instead.[209]
In the early 1980s, Stone visited theSoviet Union for the first time to interviewanti-Communist dissidents as research for a screenplay. He also used the trip to covertly smuggle Western goods into the USSR on behalf of a French human rights organization. His activities eventually drew the attention of Soviet authorities and he was briefly detained inTbilisi, Georgia before being allowed to leave the country. The resulting screenplay,Defiance, was never made.[211]
In December 2014, Stone made statements supporting the Russian government's narrative on Ukraine, portraying the 2014 UkrainianRevolution of Dignity as aCIA plot. He also rejected the claim that former Ukrainian presidentViktor Yanukovych (overthrown as a result of that revolution) was responsible for thekilling of protesters, and that Yanukovych was the legitimate president forced to leave Ukraine by "well-armed,neo-Nazi radicals." He added that the United States was interfering in the domestic policy of Ukraine.[212][213][214][215][216][217] After the 2022Russian invasion of Ukraine, Stone wrote, "Although the United States has many wars of aggression on its conscience, it doesn’t justify Mr. Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. A dozen wrongs don’t make a right. Russia was wrong to invade," an opinion he reiterated in March 2025.[218] However, he continued to blame the source of the conflict on the U.S. and NATO, emphasizing his fear of a potentialnuclear war and accusing the U.S. of seeking to dominate the world.[219][220][non-primary source needed] In a May 2023 interview discussingNuclear Now, Stone declined to comment on Russia's foreign policy, but praised the country (along with China) as a leader in nuclear energy, and added that Putin was a great leader for his country who had support from his citizens.[221]
Russia passeda law in 2013 banning alleged "gay propaganda" to minors, which has been criticized as being used for a crackdown onLGBTQ support.[223] In a 2019 interview with Putin, Stone commented that the law might be sensible. Stone later denied beinghomophobic.[224][225] In 2025, Stone met Putin again when both attended an educational event commemorating theend of World War II at Moscow's WWIIVictory Museum.
Stone took the RussianSputnik V vaccine for theCOVID-19 virus while filming in Russia and thePfizer vaccine upon his return to the return to the United States, calling himself "a pin cushion for American-Russian peace relations."[226][227]
Directed Academy Award performances Under Stone's direction, these actors have receivedAcademy Award nominations (and wins) for their performances in their respective roles.
On July 4, 2024, Stone was awarded the rank ofCommander of theOrder of Arts and Letters, the highest civilian honor in France, for cultural contributions to both the country and the film industry.[229] He was previously awarded the rank of Chevalier in 1992.
^"Oliver Stone Draws Fire for 'Revolt' Theory".ABC News. January 6, 2006.Archived from the original on May 15, 2015. RetrievedFebruary 15, 2019.Conspiracy theorist/filmmaker Oliver Stone believes that the mediocrity of Hollywood movies, ...
^Purdum, Todd (September 18, 2008)."If You Liked 'Nixon'..."The Hive.Archived from the original on August 15, 2020. RetrievedDecember 16, 2018.the American cinema's reigning conspiracy theorist, Stone ...
^Svetkey, Benjamin (July 20, 2020)."Oliver Stone's Reel History".The New York Times.Archived from the original on December 18, 2020. RetrievedJanuary 9, 2022.
^Major, Wade (Fall 2009)."World Class".DGA. Directors Guild of America. Archived fromthe original on April 2, 2018. RetrievedOctober 15, 2021.
^Stone, Oliver (2020).Chasing the Light: Writing, Directing, and Surviving Platoon, Midnight Express, Scarface, Salvador, and the Movie Game.Mariner Books. pp. 144,305–307.ISBN978-0358346234.
^"Notable Signers".Humanism and Its Aspirations. American Humanist Association. Archived fromthe original on October 5, 2012. RetrievedOctober 6, 2012.
^Barnes, Brooks (July 26, 2010)."Oliver Stone Controversy".The New York Times.Archived from the original on November 12, 2019. RetrievedApril 13, 2020.
^I am Bradley Manning (full HD). I am Bradley Manning. June 19, 2013.Archived from the original on November 24, 2022. RetrievedDecember 2, 2022 – via YouTube.
Wills, Garry. "Dostoyevsky Behind a Camera: Oliver Stone is Making Great American Novels on Film".The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 280, No. 1, July 1997. pp. 96–101.
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