Heroes for My Son (6 page)

Director. Producer. Philanthropist.

 

 

E.T.

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Jurassic Park

Jaws

The Color Purple

Schindler's List

Saving Private Ryan

 

He is arguably the most famous, most successful, most admired director to ever work in film.

 

But the most important movies he's ever made are ones that the fewest number of people will see: the nearly fifty-two thousand videotaped testimonies from Holocaust survivors and other witnesses.

 

In 1994, in response to the success of
Schindler's List
, Steven Spielberg established the Shoah Foundation to ensure that the atrocities committed during the Holocaust could never be denied.

 

The work of the foundation will last far longer than big numbers at the box office.
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Pilot. Navy man. U.S. president.

 

 

“H
it the silk! Hit the silk!” the twenty-year-old pilot yelled to his crew, signaling for them to bail from the smoking plane.

 

He knew what would happen if they were captured: torture and decapitation.

 

The plane was a fireball, falling from the sky.

 

Still, he was determined to save his crewmen, John Delaney and Ted White. He maneuvered starboard to take the slipstream pressure off the crew's door. It was the one way to give them a better chance to survive.

 

He gave them enough time to get out first.

But when his parachute opened too early, George Bush's head rammed into the bomber's tail.

 

When he landed, he was bleeding, vomiting, crying.

He'd just survived a burning plane crash.

His crewmates, despite all his actions, didn't.

 

His crewmates didn't just give their lives.

They gave him a reason to appreciate living.

 

It is a gift George Bush has never forgotten: “This is for Ted White and John Delaney. Here we go….”
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Actor. Trailblazer.

 

 

S
he was sent to live with Grandmother Peterson.

Grandmother Peterson believed happiness was a sin.

 

In her house, mirrors were banned—except the one in the bathroom—since they led to vanity.

 

Instead, Lucy would play in the chicken coop, pretending it was her castle, the chickens her loyal army.

For friends? Lucy created one: “Sassafrassa.”

 

Only Sassafrassa gave Lucy compliments, telling Lucy she was far more beautiful than Grandmother knew.

Lucy needed to hear it. If she was caught looking in a mirror, she was punished.

 

This was the girl who relished the chance to see her own reflection.

Contorting her face and widening her eyes in trolley car windows, she loved to see the possibilities. The simple humor of it.

 

And as she proved to the world, that humor could take on anything.
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General. Leader. First president.

 

 

H
e'd won.

 

He'd led farmers and fishermen in a battle against the greatest fighting force in the world.

 

And he'd won.

 

At that moment—at the height of his popularity—George Washington could have easily declared himself king of America. The people would have followed. He could've held power for the rest of his life.

 

Back in England, the defeated King George III asked what Washington's plans were.

 

“They say he will return to his farm,” the American painter Benjamin West replied.

 

“If he does that,” King George said, “he will be the greatest man in the world.”

 

And that's what Washington did.

 

And he did it again when he left the presidency after his second term.

 

It was the greatest, most heroic act of his career: putting his faith, not just in his country, but in us.
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Director. Actor. Silent film star.

 

 

W
hen Charlie was seven years old, his mother suffered from hallucinations and migraine headaches so severe that she could no longer care for him and his brothers.

 

There was only one choice, the doctors decided: She was sent to a psychiatric hospital.

 

Eventually, they let her out.

 

When Charlie was fourteen, she went back to the asylum.

 

His mother had been knocking on front doors, handing out pieces of coal, and insisting they were birthday presents.

 

She complained of seeing the dead staring at her.

 

Desperate to stay out of the workhouse, Charlie slept in alleyways, ate from garbage cans, and stole food.

 

To this day, historians argue about whether or not Chaplin based his most famous character—his Little Tramp—on his own life.

 

It doesn't matter.

 

Within months of the character's debut, Chaplin was the biggest film star in the world.

 

The money came quick.

 

He could afford anything he wanted.

 

The first thing he did after making his first full-length feature was buy a house in California and hire a nursing staff for his mom.
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Talk show host. Influence maker. Businesswoman.

 

 

M
aybe it was the poverty—wearing potato sacks as dresses and keeping cockroaches as pets.

 

Maybe it was running away from an abusive home, with no one to help her.

 

Or maybe it was being told by her bosses to get plastic surgery, since her eyes were too far apart, her nose was too flat, and her hair was too “black.”

 

It could have been any of these experiences. Or all of them.

 

But somewhere along the way, the little girl with so much drive, the little girl who loved to talk, the one they used to call “the Preacher,” came to a conclusion.

 

She teaches it every day. And we love her because even she's still learning it: The only person you ever need to be is yourself.
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