Blade Runner's director, Ridley Scott, was born in 1937, in Northumberland, England. He attended West Hartlepool College of Art and London's Royal College of Art. As soon as he finished his education, he became a set designer for the British Broadcasting Company in the early 1960's. He was eventually promoted to director of several of the popular BBC series. He established his own firm, Ridley Scott Associates, where he worked on some of the most inventive television commercials produced in the 1970's.

Desperately wanting to get into film, Scott's big break came in 1977, when he was given the director's chair for The Duellists. The film was successful enough to gain the interest of 20th Century Fox which offered him Alien. The accomplishment Scott enjoyed as a result of Alien, in the eyes of the horror and science fiction devotees, established his reputation as an important and noteworthy director.

Scott's...