Gus was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and he graduated at Rhode Island School of Design.

In 1992 he received the American Civil Liberties Union(ACLU) of Oregon's Freedom of Expression Award, which recognizes courage or creative vision in upholding free expression, particularly in the arts, for his films that have, "let us see inside the lives of individuals we don't often get a glimpse at".

In addition to being a successful film director Gus Van Sant is also a published author, a musician (2 solo albums Gus Van Sant and 18 Songs About Golf were released on the PopTones label in late 1997, plus his musical/spoken word collaboration with William S. Burroughs The Elvis Of Letters was released in 1985), and a photographer (a large book of his photographs titled 108 Portraits was published in 1992 and is now something of a collectors item.)

He dedicated both his 1993 film Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993) and his 1997 novel "Pink" to the late actor River Phoenix. Van Sant had planned to make a film about artist Andy Warhol with River Phoenix starring as the young Warhol, but plans were scrapped after Phoenix's death.