---
name: "Bill Condon"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/bill-condon"
fi1m_id: "bill-condon"
imdb_id: "nm0174374"
tmdb_id: 15557
wikidata_id: "Q361336"
roles: ["Director","Writer"]
born: "22 October 1955"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 7
average_fi1m_score: 63
average_as: "director"
average_over: 5
updated: "2026-10-05T12:24:19.289317+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Bill Condon

## Identity

Bill Condon

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/bill-condon
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** bill-condon
- **IMDb ID:** nm0174374
- **TMDB ID:** 15557
- **Wikidata ID:** Q361336
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Condon, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q361336, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0174374/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/15557

Director and writer. Born 22 October 1955 in New York City, New York, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Writer
- **Born:** 22 October 1955, New York City, New York, USA
- **Active:** 1998–2017
- **Also known as:** William Condon, 빌 콘돈
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 7: 5 directing, 2 writing
- **Frequently works with:** [Karen Rosenfelt](https://film.one/person/karen-rosenfelt.md), [Kristen Stewart](https://film.one/person/kristen-stewart.md), [Laurence Mark](https://film.one/person/laurence-mark.md), [Melissa Rosenberg](https://film.one/person/melissa-rosenberg.md), [Peter Facinelli](https://film.one/person/peter-facinelli.md), [Robert Pattinson](https://film.one/person/robert-pattinson.md), [Stephenie Meyer](https://film.one/person/stephenie-meyer.md), [Taylor Lautner](https://film.one/person/taylor-lautner.md)
- **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar (1 won · 1 nominated)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 63, as director, over 5 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1990s 82 (1), 2000s 70 (2), 2010s 55 (4)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 63 to 60 across 5 titles
- **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 2 at 60–79, 2 under 60
- **Genres:** Drama 3, Fantasy 3, Romance 3, Adventure 1, Family 1, Music 1
- **Screen time:** 10 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $2,969m across 5 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Condon, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q361336, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0174374/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/15557

## Streaming the US now

- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Gods and Monsters*](https://film.one/film/gods-and-monsters.md) (82), [*The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2*](https://film.one/film/the-twilight-saga-breaking-dawn-part-2.md) (55), [*The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1*](https://film.one/film/the-twilight-saga-breaking-dawn-part-1.md) (47)
- **Paramount+:** [*Chicago*](https://film.one/film/chicago.md) (73)
- **Pluto TV:** [*Dreamgirls*](https://film.one/film/dreamgirls.md) (68)
- **Disney+:** [*Beauty and the Beast*](https://film.one/film/beauty-and-the-beast-2017.md) (65)
- **HBO Max:** [*The Greatest Showman*](https://film.one/film/the-greatest-showman.md) (54)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Bill Condon

> Bill Condon's screenplays find a way into a story from the side: a stage musical relocated inside its heroine's head, a film director's life told through his gardener. The trick is a good one, and he tends to explain it once too often.

In *Chicago* (2002), a drum rolls, Taye Diggs steps to a microphone, and the ugly scene Roxie Hart is living through restages itself in a theatre only she can see. That was Bill Condon's answer to the question that kept the Kander and Ebb musical off the screen for a quarter of a century: where do the songs come from? It is the Condon move in miniature. He does not walk in through the front door of a story; he finds a window.

He has said as much himself: "I think that finding a way into somebody's life that's sort of off from a side angle can tell you more about that person than a greatest hits approach." It took him a while to get there. He began as a journalist and screenwriter with *Strange Behavior* (1981) and *Strange Invaders* (1983), directed *Sister, Sister* (1987), then television films and *Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh* (1995). *Gods and Monsters* (1998), which he wrote and directed, is where the side angle first paid off: James Whale's later life, seen through Clayton Boone, the young gardener who becomes his companion. Since then he has alternated between lives and musicals: *Kinsey* (2004), *Dreamgirls* (2006), the last two *Twilight* films (2011–2012), *Beauty and the Beast* (2017).

What works is the framing and the trust he places in actors. In *Gods and Monsters* Condon, adapting Christopher Bram's novel, is interested in what happens when a man used to commanding attention has to ask for it, and he lets Ian McKellen and Brendan Fraser carry that rather than the dialogue. Stephen M. Katz's open California light and Carter Burwell's music leave them room; Virginia Katz's cutting keeps the shifts into Whale's past clear. McKellen has now worked with him three times, and the reason is plain in that film. Fraser's Boone moved us more than we expected, because Condon wrote him a life outside the conversations, so that his listening counts for something.

What does not work is the explaining. The *Gods and Monsters* script keeps arranging another chance for Whale to reminisce, and it presses the resemblance to his horror films when the pictures have already made the point. In *Chicago* the idea is sound and the film rides it hard for 113 minutes, but the editing chops the dancing so fine that the best thing in it is barely visible. That is Rob Marshall's problem more than Condon's, though a script built on numbers only works if we get to see them. The *Twilight* films and *The Fifth Estate* (2013) were less warmly received, and we have not reviewed them, so we will leave them there.

He is still working; *Kiss of the Spider Woman* is next. Start with *Gods and Monsters*, and forgive it for telling you what you have already seen.

## Biography

Bill Condon is an American director and screenwriter. Born in New York City on 22 October 1955, he wrote and directed the film *Gods and Monsters* (1998), for which he received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

He has also directed *Kinsey* (2004), *Dreamgirls* (2006), *The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1* (2011), *The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2* (2012) and *Beauty and the Beast* (2017). His screenplay for *Chicago* (2002) earned a further Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (7)

### Directed (5) — the average rests on these

- *Beauty and the Beast* (2017), Fi1m 65, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/beauty-and-the-beast-2017.md)
- *The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2* (2012), Fi1m 55, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/the-twilight-saga-breaking-dawn-part-2.md)
- *The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1* (2011), Fi1m 47, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/the-twilight-saga-breaking-dawn-part-1.md)
- *Dreamgirls* (2006), Fi1m 68, Director, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/dreamgirls.md)
- *Gods and Monsters* (1998), Fi1m 82, Director, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/gods-and-monsters.md)

### Wrote (2)

- *The Greatest Showman* (2017), Fi1m 54, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/the-greatest-showman.md)
- *Chicago* (2002), Fi1m 73, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/chicago.md)

## Complete filmography (29)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Kiss of the Spider Woman* (2025), Director, Executive Producer, Writer
- *Come from Away* (2021), Producer
- *The Good Liar* (2019), Director, Producer
- *The Greatest Showman* (2017), Screenplay — Fi1m 54, [page](https://film.one/film/the-greatest-showman.md)
- *Beauty and the Beast* (2017), Director — Fi1m 65, [page](https://film.one/film/beauty-and-the-beast-2017.md)
- *Mr. Holmes* (2015), Director
- *The Fifth Estate* (2013), Director
- *The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2* (2012), Director — Fi1m 55, [page](https://film.one/film/the-twilight-saga-breaking-dawn-part-2.md)
- *The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1* (2011), Director — Fi1m 47, [page](https://film.one/film/the-twilight-saga-breaking-dawn-part-1.md)
- *The Big C* (2010), series, Director
- *Shortcut to Happiness* (2007), Screenplay
- *Dreamgirls* (2006), Director, Screenplay — Fi1m 68, [page](https://film.one/film/dreamgirls.md)
- *Kinsey* (2004), Director, Writer
- *Chicago* (2002), Screenplay — Fi1m 73, [page](https://film.one/film/chicago.md)
- *Gods and Monsters* (1998), Director, Writer — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/gods-and-monsters.md)
- *Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh* (1995), Director
- *The Man Who Wouldn't Die* (1994), Director, Co-Executive Producer
- *Deadly Relations* (1993), Director
- *Dead in the Water* (1991), Director
- *White Lie* (1991), Director
- *F/X2* (1991), Writer
- *Murder 101* (1991), Director, Writer
- *Sister, Sister* (1987), as Priest (uncredited) · Director, Writer
- *Strange Invaders* (1983), as (uncredited) · Story, Screenplay
- *Strange Behavior* (1981), as Bryan Morgan · Writer, Associate Producer
- *The Oscars* (1953), series, Producer, Writer
- *Marley*, Screenplay, Director
- *Untitled George Clinton Biopic*, Director
- *The Road Home*, Director

## Gallery

- ![Barry Josephson, Bill Condon, Tom Kirdahy, and Greg Yolen at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival for the premiere of "Kiss of the Spider Woman"](https://film.one/media/person/88121/gallery-3dfd2d8a3119.jpg) Barry Josephson, Bill Condon, Tom Kirdahy, and Greg Yolen at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival for the premiere of "Kiss of the Spider Woman" — Everwest, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/2025_01_26_Sundance_Film_Festival-15_Full.jpg/1280px-2025_01_26_Sundance_Film_Festival-15_Full.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Bill Condon at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival for the premiere of "Kiss of the Spider Woman"](https://film.one/media/person/88121/gallery-e5c5e55fe6af.jpg) Bill Condon at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival for the premiere of "Kiss of the Spider Woman" — Everwest, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/90/2025_01_26_Sundance_Film_Festival-28_Full.jpg/1280px-2025_01_26_Sundance_Film_Festival-28_Full.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Bill Condon at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival for the premiere of "Kiss of the Spider Woman"](https://film.one/media/person/88121/gallery-ec8ebfd1a972.jpg) Bill Condon at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival for the premiere of "Kiss of the Spider Woman" — Everwest, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/69/Bill_Condon_at_the_2025_Sundance_Film_Festival.jpg/1280px-Bill_Condon_at_the_2025_Sundance_Film_Festival.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Bill Condon](https://film.one/media/person/88121/gallery-0806fb9c21dc.jpg) Bill Condon — Everwest, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/Bill_Condon_at_the_2025_Sundance_Film_Festival_%28cropped%29.jpg/1280px-Bill_Condon_at_the_2025_Sundance_Film_Festival_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Bill Condon](https://film.one/media/person/88121/gallery-ade0fafd1e4f.jpg) Bill Condon — Image via TMDB
- ![Bill Condon at a Photo Call at the 78th Locarno Film Festival in 2025.](https://film.one/media/person/88121/gallery-48dd17ce7add.jpg) Bill Condon at a Photo Call at the 78th Locarno Film Festival in 2025. — Quejaytee, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/39/Bill_Condon_at_the_78th_Locarno_Film_Festival_in_2025_01.jpg/1280px-Bill_Condon_at_the_78th_Locarno_Film_Festival_in_2025_01.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

## Awards

### Academy Awards — 1 won, 1 nominated

- 2003: Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated), for *Chicago*
- 1999: Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (won), for *Gods and Monsters*

### Other awards — 1 won

- GLAAD Stephen F. Kolzak Award 2005: GLAAD Stephen F. Kolzak Award (won)

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/bill-condon