S9.com / Biographies /
Samuel Wilder(Wilder, Billy)
Born: 1906 AD
Died: 2002 AD, at 95 years of age.
Nationality: Austrian
Categories: Director, Journalist, Producers, Writers
Died: 2002 AD, at 95 years of age.
Nationality: Austrian
Categories: Director, Journalist, Producers, Writers
1906 - Samuel Wilder in Sucha, Austria on the 22nd of June. He was an Austrian-born, Jewish-American journalist, screenwriter, film director, and producer whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age. Many of his films achieved both critical and public acclaim.
1929 - He was working as a screenwriter, often collaborating with director Robert Siodmak. He swiftly became one of the German film industry's most prolific and sought-after writers, but Adolf Hitler's rise to power effectively brought his career to a halt as Wilder, a Jew, was forced to flee for his life.
1934 - His first stop was France, where he made his debut behind the camera, co-directing Mauvaise Graine with Alexander Esway. He soon landed in the United States, settling in Hollywood to begin his work anew.
- After moving in with Peter Lorre, He set about learning English, eventually gaining entry into the American film industry with a adaptation of the Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein musical Music in the Air, directed by Joe May and starring Gloria Swanson.
1935 - 1938 - He worked on a number of other films including, The Lottery Lover and Champagne Waltz prior to forging a writing partnership with Charles Brackett on That Certain Age.
1939 - 1941 - The Wilder/Brackett team quickly emerged as one of Hollywood's most successful pairings, with credits including Mitchell Leisen's Midnight, the Ernst Lubitsch classic Ninotchka, and Howard Hawks' stellar effort Ball of Fire, winning widespread acclaim for their distinctively sophisticated touch.
1942 - Ultimately, his success as a writer also allowed him the opportunity to direct, and he bowed with the Ginger Rogers vehicle The Major and the Minor.
1943 - The wartime thriller Five Graves to Cairo followed, and the next year He helmed his first classic, the masterful film noir Double Indemnity.
1945 - Even more powerful was its follow-up, The Lost Weekend, a remarkably gritty and realistic portrayal of alcoholism which won four Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay (for Wilder and Brackett), and Best Actor (Ray Milland).
1948 - Wartime duties kept Wilder out of the filmmaking arena for several years, and he did not direct another film before The Emperor Waltz.
1950 - Sunset Boulevard, on the other hand, was hailed as a classic immediately upon release, and the tale of a faded movie star (Swanson) the final screenplay from the Wilder/Brackett team went on to win the Academy Award for Best Screenplay.
1951 - The bitter The Big Carnival followed, with the wartime dramatic comedy Stalag 17 winning star William Holden a Best Actor Oscar two years later.
1954 - Upon completing the romantic comedy Sabrina.
1955 - He directed The Seven Year Itch, the first of his films to star Marilyn Monroe.
1957 - Love in the Afternoon, the first of many projects with new writing partner I.A.L. Diamond, the Charles Lindbergh biography The Spirit of St. Louis, and Witness for the Prosecution.
1959 - He closed out a decade of sustained excellence with the classic sex farce Some Like It Hot.
1960 - The Apartment, was the second of Wilder's movies to garner a Best Picture Oscar, and was followed a year later by One, Two, Three, which featured the final starring role of Jimmy Cagney.
1972 - 1978 - Avanti!, his pace continued to dwindle during the, with only two more features, The Front Page and Fedora, issued during the remainder of the decade.
1981 - With the release Buddy Buddy, he announced his retirement from filmmaking.
1986 - He was honored with the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award, and two years later the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences bestowed upon him its Irving G. Thalberg Award.
2002 - Died at the age of 95 on the 27th of March, after battling health problems, including cancer, in Los Angeles, California, and was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, Los Angeles, California.
1929 - He was working as a screenwriter, often collaborating with director Robert Siodmak. He swiftly became one of the German film industry's most prolific and sought-after writers, but Adolf Hitler's rise to power effectively brought his career to a halt as Wilder, a Jew, was forced to flee for his life.
1934 - His first stop was France, where he made his debut behind the camera, co-directing Mauvaise Graine with Alexander Esway. He soon landed in the United States, settling in Hollywood to begin his work anew.
- After moving in with Peter Lorre, He set about learning English, eventually gaining entry into the American film industry with a adaptation of the Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein musical Music in the Air, directed by Joe May and starring Gloria Swanson.
1935 - 1938 - He worked on a number of other films including, The Lottery Lover and Champagne Waltz prior to forging a writing partnership with Charles Brackett on That Certain Age.
1939 - 1941 - The Wilder/Brackett team quickly emerged as one of Hollywood's most successful pairings, with credits including Mitchell Leisen's Midnight, the Ernst Lubitsch classic Ninotchka, and Howard Hawks' stellar effort Ball of Fire, winning widespread acclaim for their distinctively sophisticated touch.
1942 - Ultimately, his success as a writer also allowed him the opportunity to direct, and he bowed with the Ginger Rogers vehicle The Major and the Minor.
1943 - The wartime thriller Five Graves to Cairo followed, and the next year He helmed his first classic, the masterful film noir Double Indemnity.
1945 - Even more powerful was its follow-up, The Lost Weekend, a remarkably gritty and realistic portrayal of alcoholism which won four Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay (for Wilder and Brackett), and Best Actor (Ray Milland).
1948 - Wartime duties kept Wilder out of the filmmaking arena for several years, and he did not direct another film before The Emperor Waltz.
1950 - Sunset Boulevard, on the other hand, was hailed as a classic immediately upon release, and the tale of a faded movie star (Swanson) the final screenplay from the Wilder/Brackett team went on to win the Academy Award for Best Screenplay.
1951 - The bitter The Big Carnival followed, with the wartime dramatic comedy Stalag 17 winning star William Holden a Best Actor Oscar two years later.
1954 - Upon completing the romantic comedy Sabrina.
1955 - He directed The Seven Year Itch, the first of his films to star Marilyn Monroe.
1957 - Love in the Afternoon, the first of many projects with new writing partner I.A.L. Diamond, the Charles Lindbergh biography The Spirit of St. Louis, and Witness for the Prosecution.
1959 - He closed out a decade of sustained excellence with the classic sex farce Some Like It Hot.
1960 - The Apartment, was the second of Wilder's movies to garner a Best Picture Oscar, and was followed a year later by One, Two, Three, which featured the final starring role of Jimmy Cagney.
1972 - 1978 - Avanti!, his pace continued to dwindle during the, with only two more features, The Front Page and Fedora, issued during the remainder of the decade.
1981 - With the release Buddy Buddy, he announced his retirement from filmmaking.
1986 - He was honored with the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award, and two years later the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences bestowed upon him its Irving G. Thalberg Award.
2002 - Died at the age of 95 on the 27th of March, after battling health problems, including cancer, in Los Angeles, California, and was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, Los Angeles, California.
| | Page last updated: 10:18am, 29th Mar '07 |
Related Books
  |
Conversations with Wilder by Cameron Crowe (Paperback - Sep 17, 2001) Conversations with Wilder, an invaluable, photo-intensive volume, is a kind of remake of Truffaut's must-read interview bookHitchcock, with Cameron Crowe in the inquisitive Truffaut role and wily...  Usually ships in 24 hours |
 |
  |
Sunset Boulevard by Billy Wilder (Paperback - Jun 24, 1999) Sunset Boulevard(1950) is one of the most famous films in the history of Hollywood, and perhaps no film better represents Hollywood's vision of itself. Billy Wilder collaborated on the screenplay...  Usually ships in 24 hours |
|
  |
Stalag 17 by Billy Wilder (Paperback - Jun 24, 1999) Stalag 17(1953), the riveting drama of a German prisoner-of-war camp, was adapted from the Broadway play directed by José Ferrer in 1951. Billy Wilder developed the play and made the film version... Usually ships in 24 hours |
|
  |
On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder by Ed Sikov (Paperback - Nov 17, 1999) From the early years of anti-Semitism and frustration in Austria to the glory of Hollywood and six Academy Awards, Billy Wilders life is as fascinating as his movies. Now, drawing on new interviews,... |
|
  |
Billy Wilder In Hollywood by Maurice Zolotow (Hardcover - May 17, 1977)  |
|
  |
Billy Wilder: Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series) by Billy Wilder (Paperback - May 17, 2002) Usually ships in 24 hours |
|
Related DVDs
  |
The Major and the Minor (Universal Cinema Classics) (DVD) Academy Award® winners* Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland sparkle in this debut comedy from Academy Award®-winning** writer-director Billy Wilder. A frustrated city girl (Rogers) decides to disguise... Usually ships in 24 hours |
|
  |
Sunset Boulevard (Special Collector's Edition) (DVD) Billy Wilder's noir-comic classic about death and decay in Hollywood remains as pungent as ever in its power to provoke shock, laughter, and gasps of astonishment. Joe Gillis (William Holden), a... Usually ships in 24 hours |
|
  |
Some Like It Hot (DVD) Maybe "nobody's perfect," as one character in this masterpiece suggests. But some movies are perfect, andSome Like It Hotis one of them. In Chicago, during the Prohibition era, two skirt-chasing... Usually ships in 7 to 12 days |
|
