- Starting as associate producer of Hill Street Blues (1981), he graduated to directing his first episode in Season 2. He almost got fired after one day. Boss Steven Bochco went ballistic when he realized that Anspaugh had only shot what he thought was a perfect single master, neglecting to capture enough coverage.
- Anspaugh contributed the idea of getting an unusual overhead shot in Personal Foul (1982) by mounting the camera above the rim during a basketball scene. This helped earn him a Directors Guild directing award for that episode.
- Directed his five-and-a-half-year-old daughter Vanessa Anspaugh in the role of Jessica Auschlander, granddaughter of Dr. Daniel Auschlander, in Fade to White (1984).
- Directed one Oscar nominated performance: Dennis Hopper in Hoosiers (1986).
- His first Hollywood jobs were as a production assistant and a location manager for MTM Productions.
- Attended the Woodstock Music & Art Fair (August 1969).
- Jack Nicholson wrote a letter of recommendation for Anspaugh's application to the University of Southern California film school.
- Met writer/producer Angelo Pizzo, his collaborator on Hoosiers (1986), Rudy (1993), and The Game of Their Lives (2005), at Indiana University, where both men were members of the Sigma Nu fraternity.
- His favorite movies include The Ten Commandments (1956), Ben-Hur (1959), El Cid (1961), and Grand Prix (1966).
- Admires directors who started out as actors, including John Huston, Elia Kazan, John Cassavetes, and Woody Allen.
- Anspaugh and his first wife won $23,000 on the game show Spin-Off (1975).
- He and his ex-wife, Roma Downey, have a daughter named Reilly Anspaugh (born in 1996).
- David Anspaugh was a mentor at the 2nd Annual HatcH Audiovisual Festival in Bozeman, MT. HatcH is a film and arts festival that focuses on mentoring and inspiring student, independent, and up-and-coming filmmakers and artists.
- Graduated from Indiana University in 1970. Did graduate work at the University of Southern California film school.
- Was the original choice to direct A League of Their Own (1992).
- Has a daughter, Vanessa Anspaugh (Vanessa Christine b. 1979), with his first wife, Tamara Kramer.
- He has directed one film that has been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Hoosiers (1986).
- Has a younger sister, Jane.
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