Forbes Names Steven Spielberg As Most Influential Celebrity Of The Year

Steven Spielberg, who has won practically every filmmaking award in existence throughout his career, adds another honor to the list this week. Spielberg has been named as the most influential celebrity of 2014 in Forbes' annual list.

The list was compiled for Forbes by E-Poll Market Research out of a database of 6,600 celebrities. The results factored in 46 different attributes, based on E-Poll’s data of Americans. Factors like celebrities’ likeability and level of public awareness were used as tie breakers.

So what exactly earned Spielberg the top spot this year? In 2013, he directed Lincoln, a political drama, which despite its dry source material, earned $275 million at the box office and two Academy Awards (out of its twelve nominations.) Forbes’ survey gives Spielberg 47 for influence, meaning that 47% of Americans rate the director as influential. This is even higher than *gasp* Oprah Winfrey, who was the most influential celebrity last year with just 46%.

“A celebrity’s ‘Influential’ score represents how that person is perceived as influencing the public, their peers, or both,” says Gerry Philpott, president of E-Poll Market Research. “If anyone doubts that Steven Spielberg has greatly influenced the public, think about how many will think for a second before going into the water this summer.”

With a 45% rating, Oprah Winfrey took second place this year, followed closely by George Lucas with 43%. Some other celebrities to make the top ten were Bono, Barbara Walters and Stan Lee.