Trivia for Phil Collins

He has a daughter, Hailee Steinfeld, who was born in 1996 and is also an actress. She recently played one of the main roles in the Coen Brothers film True Grit (2010).

Phil Collins began his career in 1966 directing several short films in collaboration with several other young filmmakers, including Peter Gabriel. These filmmakers eventually started up the filmgroup, Genesis, and directed feature length films together. In 1981, Collins directed his first feature length film independently without working with Genesis, Face Value (1981).

He considers Hello, I Must Be Going (1982) the best film he directed independently and he considers A Trick of the Tail (1976) the best film he directed in his Genesis period.

He directed his first short-film at the age of 15.

Since the 90s, Phil Collins always said after finishing another film that that would be his last and he would go into retirement. In 2002 he said that Testify (2002) would be his last film but in 2007 he decided to return to film to direct his long awaited dream project Tarzan (2007). Also after this film he said that it would be his last, but eventually he again returned in 2010 with the film Going Back (2010). He hasn't directed a film since then.

In 2011, the AFI asked him about his top 10 favorite movies to which he made a list of films including "Repulsion (1965)," "My Darling Clementine (1946)," "Nashville (1975)," "Giù La Testa (1971)," "Body Double (1984)," "Last Year at Marienbad (1961)," "La Haine (1995)," "Full Metal Jacket (1987)," "Crash (1996)," "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)."

It is very ironic that most of his Genesis-films focus on multiple characters, while his independent films are really character studies about certain one character.

He has had a life-long fascination with the Tarzan films and television series which he loved as a child and during his career he always wanted to make a film adaptation about the classic story which he eventually did in 2006.

He is known to be an animal lover.