In the meantime, Scott continued to direct such films as the 1986 fantasy Legend, starring Tom Cruise, and 1989’s Black Rain, which featured Michael Douglas. In 1991, he encountered critical and commercial triumph with Thelma & Louise. Starring Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon, the film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Director for Scott.

Though, his next project, 1992’s 1492: Conquest of Paradise, proved to be a complete flop, and for the next few years Scott relinquished his directorial duties in favor of producing such films as Monkey Trouble and The Browning Version (both 1994). Scott returned to the director’s chair in 1996, with White Squall, an action-adventure film set on a boat full of troubled teenage boys. Unfortunately, the film performed poorly among critics and at the box office, and Scott’s next feature, G.I. Jane (1997), suffered a similar fate. He then returned to producing, working on the 1997 TV series The Hunger.

After producing the 1998 black comedy Clay Pigeons, Scott returned to directing with Gladiator (2000), a Roman epic starring Russell Crowe as its titular hero. The film was hailed by some critics who saw it as a return to grand-scale moviemaking, while others saw it as merely overblown. Regardless of the critics’ opinions, Gladiator was undoubtedly wildly popular, earning five Oscars, including Best Picture, at the 73rd Annual Academy Awards.

In 2001, Scott applied his icy-cool visual style to Hannibal, the much-anticipated sequel to 1991’s Silence of the Lambs. Although the film broke the box-office record for the largest opening weekend for an R-rated film, critics were less than pleased with Hannibal’s combination of smug, stuffy disaffection and vomit-bag-worthy gore. Scott’s skills as a director of action were better put to the test later that year with Black Hawk Down.

While some critics objected to Black Hawk’s simplified portrayal of the U.S. military involvement in the region, public lined up in droves for the flag-waving Jerry Bruckheimer production, which would also garner Scott his third Best Director Oscar nomination. Recoiling from the high-profile prestige projects for a spell, Scott turned his focus to the big-screen adaptation of Matchstick Men, a dysfunctional-con-man tale. Though hardly a blockbuster, the heist comedy garnered mixed but generally positive reviews.

In 2005, the director helmed the would-be epic Crusades historical film Kingdom of Heaven with a Gladiator-esque budget and all-star cast. Unfortunately, the film was a dud both with critics and audiences, so Scott returned to a more intimate kind of storytelling with the 2006 drama A Good Year. The film starred Russell Crowe as a hotshot broker who finds himself in the depths of a life-crisis when he inherits his beloved uncle’s estate and discovers that the simple lifestyle it offers may give him more satisfaction than his fast-paced, high-power job.

His films include:

1977  The Duellists
1979  Alien
1982  Blade Runner
1985  Legend
1991  Thelma & Louise
2000  Gladiator
2001  Black Hawk Down
2001  Hannibal
2003  Matchstick Men
2005  Kingdom of Heaven
2007  American Gangster
2008  Body of Lies
2010  Robin Hood