Billy Wilder
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Billy Wilder (June 22, 1906–March 27, 2002) had a career as a screenwriter, film director and producer that spanned more than 50 years and more than 60 films.
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Life and work
He was born Samuel Wilder in Sucha, Austria-Hungary (now Poland).
He started work in late 1920s as screenwriter in Germany, then left for France, then United States after the rise of Adolf Hitler. His mother, grandmother, and stepfather died at Auschwitz.
Sharing an apartment with Peter Lorre, he broke into writing in Hollywood with classics like Ninotchka. He was a noted collector of modern art.
Billy Wilder died in 2002 in Los Angeles, California, and was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, Los Angeles, California.
Filmography
Billy Wilder wrote and/or directed classics in more than one genre:
- Film noir: Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, Sunset Boulevard
- Comedy: Some Like it Hot, The Apartment, The Fortune Cookie, One, Two, Three
- Drama: Stalag 17, The Spirit of St. Louis, Witness for the Prosecution, The Big Carnival
Oscars
- Best Picture - won 1961 for The Apartment
- Best Director - six nominations, won in 1946 for The Lost Weekend, and in 1961 for The Apartment
- Screenwriting - nine nominations, won 1946, 1951, and 1961. These included winning Best Picture, Director, and Original Screenplay for The Apartment (screenplay award shared with I.A.L. Diamond) -- only three other people have won three Oscars for the same film (Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, James L. Brooks for Terms of Endearment, and James Cameron for Titanic).
Quotes
- "My English is a mixture between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Archbishop Tutu."
- "A bad play folds and is forgotten, but in pictures we don't bury our dead. When you think it's out of your system, your daughter sees it on television and says, My father is an idiot."
- "I just made pictures I would've liked to see."
- "Eighty percent of a picture is writing, the other twenty percent is the execution, such as having the camera on the right spot and being able to afford to have good actors in all parts."
- "Jornalism ain't good" (Ace in the Hole)
- "Nobody is perfect." (Some Like it Hot)
- "Shut up and deal." (The Apartment)
External links
- WGA interview: http://www.wga.org/WrittenBy/1995/1195/wilder.htm
- Billy Wilder - The German-Hollywood Connection: http://www.germanhollywood.com/bwilder.html
- Film Noir and Billy Wilder: http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue10/features/wilder/
- American Master - Billy Wilder: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/wilder_b.htmlde:Billy Wilder
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