FACTBOX: Spielberg comes to Cannes

(Reuters) - Hollywood director Steven Spielberg, 61, is at the Cannes film festival on Sunday with "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull".

Here are some facts on Spielberg:

EARLY LIFE:

* Steven Allan Spielberg was born in December 1946 in Ohio.

* He made his first short film "Amblin'" (1969). The 24-minute film impressed executives at the television unit of Universal enough to offer Spielberg a job as a TV director.

* One of his early made-for-TV movies, "Duel" (1972), starring Dennis Weaver, was shown in cinemas in Europe, where it enjoyed both critical and commercial success.

FIRST SUCCESSES:

* "Jaws" (1975), was his first major success both critically and financially. Made for about $15 million, "Jaws" grossed $260 million domestically. His second success was "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977), which revealed the first flowering of his cinematic obsession with the world of childhood innocence.

* Riding high after two back-to-back blockbusters, Spielberg attempted a big-budget comedy with "1941" (1979). Though it ultimately turned a profit, the film was perceived as a self-indulgent flop.