Stanley Kubrick was born in New York and was considered intelligent despite poor grades at school. Hoping that a change of scenery would produce better academic performance Kubrick's father Jack (a physician) sent him in 1940 to Pasadena California to stay with his uncle Martin Perveler. Returning to the Bronx in 1941 for his last year of grammar school there seemed to be little change in his attitude or his results. Hoping to find something to interest his son Jack introduced Stanley to chess with the desired result. Kubrick took to the game passionately and quickly became a skilled player. Chess would become an important device for Kubrick in later years often as tool for for dealing with recalcitrant actors but also as an artistic motif in his films.