Born November 10: Roland Emmerich

Nothing says "a Roland Emmerich film" like the two words "global smash." The auteur of the apocalypse has been so phenomenally successful worldwide at destroying the Earth in Independence Day, Godzilla, and The Day After Tomorrow, by the time he made 2012, he negotiated for a whopping pay-out variously estimated to be over $70 million or more than $100 million. To date, his movies have grossed $3.4 billion worldwide. The 58 year-old was born in Stuttgart and, with his sister Ute, runs Centropolis Entertainment, also responsible for Stargate, The Patriot, and 10,000 BC. Emmerich says he has witnessed plenty of racism in Hollywood (the studio did NOT want to cast Will Smith in ID; nor did they want an interracial couple in TDAT) but no homophobia. His historical drama Anonymous, arguing that Edward de Vere wrote Shakespeare's work, was roundly panned yet earned an Oscar nom for best costume design. An early Hillary Clinton supporter, Emmerich is a big donor to LGBT and anti-global-warming causes. If you think his movies are an assault on the senses, wait till you see his 1830 townhouse in Knightsbridge. Yes, that's a life-size wax replica of Pope JP2 reading his own obituary. And a Princess Di lookalike is flipping you her middle finger. After this year's flop White House Down, in which Channing Tatum saved president Jamie Foxx from a white paramilitary coup, Emmerich is returning to what he does best: back-to-back sequels to Independence Day coming in 2015 and 2017.