Biography of Steve Jobs
Executive summary
Steve Jobs (Steven Paul Jobs) was born Feb. 24, 1955 in San Francisco, adopted and raised in the Bay Area, cofounded Apple with Steve Wozniak in 1976, left in 1985, bought Pixar in 1986, returned to Apple in the late 1990s and led products such as the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone and iPad; he resigned as CEO in August 2011 and died Oct. 5, 2011 [1] [2] [3]. Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography and numerous reference outlets provide the standard narrative but disagree with critics about Jobs’s personal decisions, notably his early cancer treatment choices and management style [4] [5].
1. Early life and the making of a technologist
Steven Paul Jobs was born to college students in 1955, given up for adoption and raised by Paul and Clara Jobs in what became Silicon Valley; he showed an early interest in electronics, dropped out of Reed College and briefly worked at Atari before cofounding Apple with Steve Wozniak in 1976 [3] [1] [6]. Contemporary brief bios and children’s summaries stress the neat arc from garage projects to the Homebrew Computer Club and Apple’s first products [6] [1].
2. Apple, exile and a film-studio detour
Under Jobs’s direction Apple produced the Macintosh and staged the iconic 1984 launch; a power struggle with CEO John Sculley led to Jobs’s departure in 1985 [2] [5]. He bought Pixar in 1986, turning it into a film powerhouse culminating with Toy Story; Pixar later became a major asset in Jobs’s fortune and influence [7].
3. Comeback and a string of category-defining products
Jobs returned to Apple after the company acquired NeXT in the late 1990s and helped engineer a commercial turnaround with the iMac, then broader platform-defining products — the iPod , iPhone and iPad — reshaping music, phones, tablets and user-interface expectations [2] [8]. Biographical summaries and encyclopedia entries credit his aesthetic and marketing instincts — and his so-called “reality distortion field” — for pushing teams toward polished products [2] [5].
4. Leadership style: visionary and polarizing
Accounts present two competing portraits: one of a brilliant, demanding product visionary who insisted on design and simplicity, and another of a mercurial, sometimes ruthless manager whose persuasion tactics could be abrasive; phrases like “reality distortion field” capture both admiration and criticism found in major profiles [2] [5]. Walter Isaacson’s interviews underpin much of the mainstream narrative and remain the touchstone for both praise and censure [4] [9].
5. Health, medical decisions and controversy
Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, underwent a liver transplant in 2009, took multiple medical leaves and resigned as CEO in August 2011 before dying Oct. 5, 2011 [2] [1]. Some commentators and physicians have faulted his early reliance on alternative therapies and delay of conventional surgery; those critiques appear in journalistic and biographical accounts but represent an area of dispute between defenders who emphasize patient autonomy and critics who argue those choices cost him time and possibly life [5].
6. Sources, memorials and the authorized biography
Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography — the product of dozens of interviews with Jobs — is the most-cited comprehensive account and is singled out by fan and scholarly repositories; mainstream encyclopedias such as Britannica and reference sites summarize the same timeline and key facts [4] [2] [9]. Popular sites (Forbes, Biography.com) reiterate the outline but sometimes vary on emphasis, for example on family details or claims about wealth and influence [10] [3].
7. What reputable sources agree on — and what they don’t
Reliable entries consistently report his birthdate and place, adoption, Reed College dropout, founding Apple with Wozniak in 1976, departure and return to Apple, Pixar purchase, key product milestones, and his death in 2011 [3] [2] [1]. Available sources do not mention some speculative claims that circulate online — for instance specific unverified anecdotes about Jobs’s private finances beyond what mainstream profiles record — and any such claim should be checked against primary biographies like Isaacson’s [4] [9].
Limitations and reading guide: this brief synthesis draws only on the supplied search results (biographies, Britannica, Isaacson references and major profiles) and so foregrounds the conventional, widely reported narrative; deeper archival research or contemporary interviews can reveal more nuance and conflicting testimonies not present in these sources [4] [2].