Spielberg is 'greatest director'

Steven Spielberg has been voted the greatest director of all time. British director Alfred Hitchcock came second on the list of all-time greats, for thrillers like Psycho and Rear Window.

Martin Scorsese, the director behind The Aviator and Goodfellas, is third, followed by A Clockwork Orange's Stanley Kubrick.

Talents such as Star Wars director George Lucas, Charlie Chaplin, and Tim Burton, did not make the top 20, topped by the ET, Schindler's List and Jaws director.

Gladiator director Sir Ridley Scott, the second Briton in the list, is in fifth place in the poll voted for by readers of Empire magazine.

Today's other big names like Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson and Kill Bill's Quentin Tarantino, are further down in seventh and eighth place.

But they beat Citizen Kane director Orson Welles, who comes ninth, and New Yorker Woody Allen, who is 10th.

Clint Eastwood, who won this year's best directing Oscar for Million Dollar Baby, was 11th.

Sir David Lean, the director of Lawrence of Arabia and A Passage to India, is the third Briton in the poll in 12th place.

The Coen Brothers, famous for quirky movies like Fargo, Blood Simple and O Brother, Where Art Thou? came next.

Ian Freer, associate editor of Empire magazine, said: "Steven Spielberg is the closest thing in movies to resemble the impact of The Beatles.

"A cultural phenomenon, his adventures with sharks, UFOs, whipcrackin' archaeologists and ETs, plus searching historical dramas like Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan has defined the moviegoing life of an entire generation."

The poll was made up of 10,000 votes from Empire readers.