Sir Ridley Scott was born on the 30th of November, 1937.¹⁾

Ridley Scott was born to Elizabeth (Williams) and Colonel Francis Percy Scott in South Shields, County Durham, North East England.²⁾

He was raised in an army household, therefore his father — an officer in the Royal Engineers – was gone for the most of his childhood.³⁾

Frank, his elder brother, joined the British Merchant Navy when he was still a child, and the two had minimal contact.⁴⁾

During this period, the family traveled about, residing in Cumberland, North West England, Wales, and Germany, among other places. Tony, his younger brother, also became a film director.⁵⁾

Following WWII, the Scott family returned to their home North East, finally settling on Greens Beck Road in Hartburn, County Durham, whose industrial environment inspired similar scenes in Blade Runner.⁶⁾

From 1954 to 1958, he attended Grangefield Grammar School and West Hartlepool College of Art, graduating with a certificate in design.⁷⁾

Ridley Scott went on to study at the Royal College of Art in London, where he contributed to the college journal ARK and helped to create the film department.⁸⁾

He developed a black and white short film, Boy and Bicycle, for his farewell presentation, featuring both his younger brother and his father (the video was eventually included on the “Extras” portion of The Duellists DVD).⁹⁾

Scott was listed as “Designer” in the title credits of the BBC television show Tonight, which was about the terrible winter of 1963, in February 1963.¹⁰⁾

Following graduating in 1963, he landed a position with the BBC as a trainee set designer, which led to employment on the popular television police series Z-Cars and science fiction series Out of the Unknown.¹¹⁾

Originally, he was tasked with designing the second Doctor Who serial, The Daleks, which would have meant creating the serial's titular alien beings. However, owing to a scheduling difficulty, Scott was replaced by Raymond Cusick soon before his start date.¹²⁾

In 1965, he began directing episodes of television shows for the BBC, of which just one, an episode of Adam Adamant Lives!, is widely popular.¹³⁾

Ridley and Tony Scott established Ridley Scott Associates (RSA), a film and commercial production firm, in 1968.¹⁴⁾

Ridley Scott made many commercials at RSA during the 1970s, working alongside Alan Parker, Hugh Hudson, and cinematographer Hugh Johnson, including a notable 1973 Hovis advertisement, “Bike Round” (underscored by the slow movement of Symphony No. 9 rearranged for brass), set in the north of England but filmed in Gold Hill, Shaftesbury, Dorset.¹⁵⁾

It was awarded the UK's all-time favorite commercial in a 2006 survey after a nostalgia-themed television commercial captivated the popular imagination.¹⁶⁾

Chanel television ads, directed by Scott in the 1970s and 1980s, were innovative mini-films with surreal fantasy and seductive production standards that “played on the same visual imagery, with the same shape of the bottle”.¹⁷⁾

The Scott family has five directors, all of whom have previously worked for RSA.¹⁸⁾

His brother Tony was a successful film director whose career spanned more than two decades; his sons Jake and Luke, as well as his daughter Jordan Scott, are both notable commercial directors. Jake and Jordan are both located in Los Angeles, while Luke is based in London. Shepperton Studios was purchased in 1995 by a consortium led by Ridley and Tony Scott, who extensively renovated the studios as well as expanded and improved its grounds.¹⁹⁾

Ridley Scott had planned to adapt Tristan and Iseult next, but after viewing Star Wars, he was convinced of the promise of large-scale, effects-driven films.²⁰⁾

He accepted the job of directing the 1979 horror / science fiction film Alien, which would bring him international success. Scott has decided to change Ellen Ripley from a regular male action heroine to a heroine.²¹⁾

Filmed at Shepperton Studios in the United Kingdom, Alien was the sixth-highest-paying movie in 1979, with revenues of over $ 104 million worldwide.²²⁾

Scott was engaged with the 2003 reclamation and once again arrival of the first film. In special meetings at that point, Scott demonstrated he had been in conversations to make a fifth film in the Alien establishment. Notwithstanding, in a 2006 meeting, Scott commented that he had been troubled about Alien: The Director's Cut, feeling that the first was “pretty perfect” and that the increments were just an advertising apparatus²³⁾

Scott would return to an Alien-related movie three decades later when he directed Prometheus.²⁴⁾

Scott went on to helm the film adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? after working on the film adaptation of Dune for a year and following the tragic loss of his brother Frank. Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford, was a commercial flop in theaters in 1982, yet it is today considered a classic.²⁵⁾

Warner Brothers utilized Scott's remarks to make a hasty director's edit in 1991, which eliminated the main character's narration and made a number of other minor changes, including the conclusion. Scott later personally oversaw a digital restoration of Blade Runner and approved what was known as The Final Cut. This version was released in theaters in Los Angeles, New York City, and Toronto on October 5, 2007, and as an expensive DVD release in December 2007.²⁶⁾

Many reviewers consider Blade Runner to be one of the most important and influential science fiction films ever made, thanks in part to its frequently replicated portrayals of a future metropolis. It is frequently cited alongside William Gibson's work Neuromancer as the catalyst for the cyberpunk genre.²⁷⁾

Gladiator (2000), Scott's historical drama, was one of his biggest critical and commercial hits. It received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor for the film's lead Russell Crowe, and Best Director for Scott.²⁸⁾

Scott collaborated with The Mill, a British visual effects company, on the film's computer-generated visuals, and the film was dedicated to Oliver Reed, who died during filming – The Mill built a digital body double for Reed's final scenes.²⁹⁾

After that, Ridley Scott directed Hannibal (2001), starring Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter. Despite garnering mixed reviews, the picture was a monetary success.³⁰⁾