Happy birthday Paul Greengrass! The Bourne and Captain Phillips director, famed for his quasi-documentary style, turns 60 today.

To celebrate the Oscar-nominated filmmaker’s big 6-0, we’ve put together a little list of 10 things you may not have known about him.

  • He was born in Cheam, on August 13 1955, the son of a teacher and a merchant seaman. He has said: "Saturday matinees in North Cheam where my grandmother lived, watching Tony Hancock movies with a Knickerbocker Glory running down your legs and you just don’t care because you’re laughing so much."
  • His family moved to Gravesend where he attended Westcourt Primary School and was then ‘kicked out’ of Gravesend Grammar School.

Your Local Guardian: Highlights of Bourne and Captain Phillips director Paul Greengrass in Gravesend

  • The cinema at Gravesend’s Woodville Halls is named after him, a fact which apparently confused his father. Speaking at an event in the town in 2014, he said: “When I told my dad, he said ‘That’s ridiculous. Why are they naming it after you? You got kicked out of school’.”

Your Local Guardian: United 93 uses a cast of unknowns but the script is based on recordings, transcripts and detailed interviews with bereaved families

  • Greengrass won a BAFTA for United 93 (2006), which was also nominated for an Oscar. It was written, filmed and released in under a year.

Your Local Guardian: Captain Phillips

  • His Tom Hanks-starring tale of modern-day piracy, Captain Phillips, was also Oscar nominated. Greengrass said: “I have never won. I’ve been the bridesmaid a few times. I remember one of the times when I lost I was in the category with Clint Eastwood, who also lost. As we stood up to walk away, he goosed me and said ‘It’s shit, isn’t it, losing.’”
  • While working as a journalist in the 1980s, he co-authored the notorious book Spycatcher – the candid autobiography of former MI5 assistant director Peter Wright. The Government tried to have it banned.

Your Local Guardian: Man of many roles: as Jason Bourne in The Bourne Ultimatum

  • Having directed The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), neither he nor the film’s star were involved in the Jeremy Renner-starring The Bourne Legacy.

They’re both back for an as-yet untitled 5th Bourne film, though, which is rumoured to include Alicia Vikander, Tommy Lee Jones, Viggo Mortensen and a returning Julia Stiles in its cast.

  • His highest rated film on Rotten Tomatoes is Captain Phillips (2013) at 93 per cent fresh. The lowest is The Theory of Flight (1998) at 50 per cent.

Your Local Guardian: SCH945H13 Ed Miliband.JPG

  • Greengrass helmed a four-minute campaign film for Labour leader Ed Miliband in this year’s general election. Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw gave it three stars.
  • He was awarded an honorary degree from Kingston University in 2012.