20 Inspiring Biopic Movies About Creative Minds
There are many lessons to learn from famous creative minds in history. Here are 20 inspiring biopic movies to watch about creative minds.
History is full of creative minds. Sadly most of their creativity passes before our eyes without fully appreciating the life that inspired them. Although not always the most truthful account, biopics are still an amazing resource to dive into the creative lives of beautiful minds that continue to inspire.
Chaplin (1992)
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Geraldine Chaplin, Paul Rhys
An elderly Charlie Chaplin discusses his autobiography with his editor, recounting his amazing journey from his poverty-stricken childhood to worldwide success after the ingenious invention of the Little Tramp.
Creative Lessons
Movies are transformational.
- “To my way of thinking, motion pictures are potentially the most influential form of communication ever invented. And there’s no control over them. Your message reaches everyone, everywhere.”
Put yourself fully into your creative work.
- “If you want to understand me, watch my movies.”
Stand up for your values.
- German Diplomat: “Mr. Chaplin! I am a great admirer of yours.”
- Charlie Chaplin: “I’m sorry, I prefer not to shake hands with Nazis.”
- German Diplomat: “What have you got against us, Mr. Chaplin, hm?”
- Charlie Chaplin: “What have you got against everybody else?”
Finding Neverland (2004)
Starring: Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, Julie Christie
This is the story of Sir J.M. Barrie‘s friendship with a family and events that served as the basis for the author’s most iconic work, “Peter Pan.”
Creative Lessons
You can change the world with imagination.
You’re never too old to play and imagine.
- “Young boys should never be sent to bed… they always wake up a day older.”
Life is too abrupt to take seriously.
- “Who amongst you is ready to tie your hopes and dreams to the sea?”
Don’t let the outside world control your happiness.
- “You find a glimmer of happiness in this world. There’s always someone who wants to destroy it.”
Radioactive (2020)
This biopic movie is the incredible true story of Marie Sklodowska-Curie and her Nobel Prize-winning work that changed the world. After the death of her beloved husband, Marie Curie’s commitment to science remains strong as she tries to explain previously unknown radioactive elements. But it soon becomes terrifyingly evident that her work could lead to applications in medicine that could save thousands of lives — or applications in warfare that could destroy them by the billions.
Creative Lessons
There’s nothing to fear but fear itself.
- “Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more so that we may fear less.”
Make the most of challenges.
- “The things that make us weak are the things that make us strong.”
Don’t let others hold you back.
- “Don’t let other people’s opinions affect what you do.”
My Left Foot (1989)
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Brenda Fricker, Alison Whelan, Kirsten Sheridan
No one expected much from Christy Brown, a boy with cerebral palsy born into a working-class Irish family. With no shortage of grit and determination, Christy overcomes physical and mental limitations to become a painter, poet, and author using his only controllable limb – his left foot.
Creative Lessons
Well-being supports creativity.
- “A broken body’s nothing compared to a broken heart.”
Creatives must experience solitude if they are to create anything at all.
Trumbo (2015)
Starring: Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, Helen Mirren
In 1947, Dalton Trumbo was Hollywood’s top screenwriter until he and other artists were jailed and blacklisted for their political beliefs.
This biopic is a must for creative writers.
Creative Lessons
Find inspiration from reality.
- “What the imagination can’t conjure, reality delivers with a shrug.”
Guard your Creative Space. *but be nice about it.
- Dalton Trumbo: “When you hear me working, you don’t knock.”
- Niki Trumbo: “So the house is on fire, you don’t wanna know?’
- Dalton Trumbo: “I work in a bathtub, surrounded by water. So I’m fairly certain that even if the whole goddamn country was on fire, that I can still function as this family’s personal slave. And all I ask is not to be interrupted for every little slice of f***ing birthday cake. What? It’s ridiculous!”
When people say it’s not possible, work harder.
Stick up for your beliefs.
Rocketman (2019)
Starring: Taron Egerton, Jamie Bell, Richard Madden, Bryce Dallas Howard
Young Reginald Dwight changes his name to embark on a musical fantasy about the fantastical human story of Elton John and his collaboration with singer-songwriter Bernie Taupin to become one of the most iconic figures in pop history.
Creative Lessons
Creativity comes from within. You just have to let it out.
- “I read it, and I could hear the whole tune in my head. It was all there, I could see all the notes, and I just had to get it out. It’s like my fingers couldn’t work fast enough to keep up with my brain.”
Nothing lasts forever. Enjoy the wild ride.
- “There are moments in a rock star’s life that define who he is. Where there is darkness, there is now you, and it’s going to be a wild ride.”
Know your faults and love yourself.
- “You just need to remember who you are and be okay with it.”
- “You gotta kill the person you were born to be in order to become the person you want to be.”
Turn pain into creativity to grow and help others.
- “The pain, and the joy, and the sorrow — you turn it into songs that people love.”
Frida (2002)
Starring: Salma Hayek, Alfred Molina, Geoffrey Rush
Explore the bold and controversial life of artist Frida Kahlo, who channeled the pain of a crippling injury and her tempestuous marriage into her creative work.
Creative Lessons
Heal suffering through self-expression.
- “At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.”
Embrace and love what makes you different.
- “I am my own muse. I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to know better.”
Let go of control and go with the flow.
- “Nothing is absolute. Everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away.”
Walk The Line (2005)
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Ginnifer Goodwin
A chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash‘s life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis, where he recorded alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins.
Creative Lessons
Memento Mori – Remember Death
- “There’s no way around grief and loss: you can dodge all you want, but sooner or later you just have to go into it, through it, and, hopefully, come out the other side. The world you find there will never be the same as the world you left.“
Failure is a great thing.
- “You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.”
Know what you can and can’t do.
- “You’ve got to know your limitations. I don’t know what your limitations are. I found out what mine were when I was twelve. I found out that there weren’t too many limitations if I did it my way.”
Hidden Figures (2016)
Starring: Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, Kevin Costner
This is the story of a team of three brilliant female African-American mathematicians (Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson) who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program. Their work was behind one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, a stunning achievement that restored the nation’s confidence, turned around the Space Race, and galvanized the world.
Creative Lessons
Always be learning.
- “There’s Only One Thing To Do: Learn All You Can.”
Grit matters, dare to be first.
- “I plan on being an engineer at NASA, but I can’t do that without taking them classes at that all-white high school, and I can’t change the color of my skin. So I have no choice, but to be the first.”
There’s power in teamwork and collaboration.
- “We all get to the peak together, or we don’t get there at all.”
Know your worth.
- “If you act right, you are right. That’s for certain.”
Basquiat (1996)
Starring: Jeffrey Wright, Michael Wincott, Benicio Del Toro
Learn about the brief and creative life of Jean Michel Basquiat, a world-renowned New York street artist who struggled with fame, drugs, and his identity.
Creative Lessons
Art is valuable and important.
- “What is it about art anyway that we give it so much importance? Artists are respected by the poor because what they do is an honest way to get out of the slum using one’s sheer self as the medium. The money earned, proof, pure and simple, of the value of that individual, the artist.”
Believe in yourself even when no one else does.
Being misunderstood can be a good thing.
- “I’ll be forty in July, and I’m glad I never got recognition. It gives me time to develop.”
- “You know, your audience isn’t even born yet.”
Put your art where it can be seen.
Seek out your mentors.
Ray (2004)
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Regina King, Kerry Washington
The story of the life and career of the legendary rhythm and blues musician Ray Charles, from his humble beginnings in the South, where he went blind at age seven, to his meteoric rise to stardom during the 1950s and 1960s.
Creative Lessons
Know your strengths.
- Jeff Brown: All right. Hey, pardon me for asking, but how do you get around so good without a cane or a dog?
- Ray Charles: How do you get around so good without a cane or a dog?
- Jeff Brown: I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.
- Ray Charles: My ears gotta be my eyes, man.
Fame isn’t everything.
- “I never wanted to be famous. I only wanted to be great.”
Find your own voice.
- “You told me to find my own voice.”
Mr. Turner (2014)
Starring: Timothy Spall, Paul Jesson, Dorothy Atkinson
An exploration of the last quarter-century of the great, if eccentric, British painter J.M.W. Turner‘s creative and love life.
Creative Lessons
Live an eccentric life. It’s more fun and creative.
Explore the world to find inspiration and revitalization.
Immerse yourself in the world and the inspiration of the sun.
- “The sun is God! Ha ha ha!”
The Theory of Everything (2014)
Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Tom Prior
This biopic is a look at the relationship between the famous physicist Stephen Hawking and his fellow collegian and future wife, Jane Wilde. He and Jane defy terrible odds and break new ground in the fields of medicine and science, achieving more than either could hope to imagine.
Creative Lessons
You’re stronger than you and others can imagine. Never give up.
- “There should be no boundaries to human endeavor. We are all different. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. While there’s life, there is hope.”
Don’t let life’s challenges stop you from living and enjoying your life.
- “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”
Love what you do.
- Work gives you meaning and purpose, and life is empty without it.
Pollock (2000)
Starring: Ed Harris, Marcia Gay Harden, Robert Knott
A film that looks into the creative life and career of the American painter, Jackson Pollock, as he struggles with self-doubt, engaging in a lonely tug-of-war between needing to express himself and wanting to shut the world out.
Creative Lessons
You don’t always need to search for meaning to enjoy creativity.
- “If people would just look at the paintings, I don’t think they would have any trouble enjoying them. It’s like looking at a bed of flowers. You don’t tear your hair out over what it means.”
Unleash the unconscious creativity.
- Lee Krasner: “You’re not just randomly putting paint on the canvas. You’re painting something. You can’t abstract from nothing. You can only abstract from life, from nature.”
- Jackson Pollock: “I am nature.”
Let your creativity be independent of society and even yourself.
- “All cultures have had means and techniques of expressing their immediate aims. The thing that interests me is that today, painters do not have to go to a subject matter outside of themselves. They work from a different source. They work from within. It seems to me that the artist cannot express this age, the airplane, the atom bomb, the radio, in the old forms of the Renaissance or any other past culture.”
Straight Outta Compton (2015)
Starring: O’Shea Jackson, Jr.Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell
The rap group NWA emerges from the mean streets of Compton in Los Angeles, California, in the mid-1980s and revolutionizes Hip Hop culture with their music and tales about life in the hood.
Creative Lessons
You are capable of more than you can imagine. Don’t Give up.
- “Our art is a reflection of our reality.”
- “If you had a chance to change a situation, would you take it?”
People fear the unfamiliar.
- “Let me tell you what I see here: a lot of raw talent. Swagger. Bravado. People are scared of you guys. They think you’re dangerous, but the world needs to hear it.”
Friendship is more important than fame.
Capote (2005)
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Clifton Collins Jr., Catherine Keener, Allie Mickelson
In 1959, Truman Capote learns of the murder of a Kansas family and decides to write a book about the case. While researching for his novel In Cold Blood, Capote forms a relationship with one of the killers, Perry Smith, who is on death row.
Creative Lessons
Want less.
- “More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones.”
You need to fail to succeed.
- “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”
Vincent & Theo (1990)
Starring: Tim Roth, Paul Rhys, Adrian Brine
The familiar tragic story of Vincent van Gogh is broadened by focusing as well on his brother Theodore, who helped support Vincent. The biopic movie also provides a nice view of the locations van Gogh painted.
Creative Lessons
Listen to those who believe in you when you don’t believe in yourself.
Do your art for art’s sake.
See the beauty in everything.
Embrace solitude and the emotions that come with creative living.
Ed Wood (1994)
Starring: Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker
Learn the story of an ambitious but troubled movie director and his many attempts to find success in Hollywood. Despite his lack of talent, Edward D. Wood Jr. tries his best to fulfill his dreams and recruit his friends and other Hollywood outcasts and manages to create an oddly endearing series of extremely low-budget films.
Creative Lessons
Fight and stay committed to your creativity.
- Orson Welles: “Visions are worth fighting for. Why spend your life making someone else’s dreams?”
- “This is the one. This is the one I’ll be remembered for.”
- “One is always considered mad when one perfects something that others cannot grasp.”
Don’t judge others.
- “If I judged anybody, I wouldn’t have any friends.”
The Aviator (2004)
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale
A biopic depicting the early years of legendary Director and aviator Howard Hughes‘ career from the late 1920s to the mid-1940s.
Creative Lessons
Don’t let others tell you what’s impossible.
- “Do the impossible because almost everyone has told me my ideas are merely fantasies.”
- “Don’t tell me I can’t do it. Don’t tell me it can’t be done.”
Follow your passions and what you’re good at.
- “Passion will make you crazy, but is there any other way to live?”
Live life like an adventure.
- “Adventure is the essence of life.“
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
Starring: Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy
Follow the story of the legendary British rock band Queen and lead singer Freddie Mercury, leading up to their famous performance at Live Aid (1985). Learn how the band and creative minds defy stereotypes and conventions to become one of history’s most beloved entertainers.
Creative Lessons
You need to love yourself before you can fully love others.
- “I couldn’t sing off-key if I tried. I am exactly the person I was always meant to be. I’m not afraid of anything.”
Thoughts become actions.
- “Good thoughts, good words, good deeds. Just like you taught me, papa.”
Be exactly who you are and who you’re meant to be without fear.
- “We’re playing for the other misfits. They’re the outcasts, right at the back of the room. We’re pretty sure they don’t belong either. We belong to them.”
Formulas are a complete and utter waste of time.
- “I’m going to be what I was born to be: A performer that gives the people what they want: A touch of the heavens!”
Zach is an international writer, photographer, filmmaker, martial artist, and creator of Creative Enso, the Zen art of creative living. His goal is to empower and inspire creatives to live healthier, happier, and more creative lifestyles.
