Jan de Bont was born in the Netherlands to a Roman Catholic Dutch family on the 22 of October 1943. He has always had a creative mind and good mentality for camera techniques and soon got into film as a popular cinematographer. He worked on a huge number of films before finding himself on the production of the film Speed (1994), which became his first as a director. The film was a success and took him onto the next set for Twister (1996), which he also directed. But then the total flops started coming his way: firstly, Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997), which he wrote and directed but without the company of Keanu Reeves. He also directed the star-packed The Haunting (1999) but that also failed him at the Box Office. Later, Jan directed Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003), and is still active in cinema. His brilliant direction of Speed (1994) proves he is a director with a spark of his own.