Billy Wilder

Born:

June 22, 1906

Born as:

Samuel Wilder

Died:

March 27, 2002

I have ten commandments. The first nine are, thou shalt not bore.
The tenth is, thou shalt have right of final cut

Biography:

Billy Wilder was born in Sucha, Poland. From 1929 he worked as a screenwriter for silent films in Berlin until the Nazis came to power and the Jewish Wilder left for America.

Wilder knew little or no English when he arrived in Hollywood but was helped by film star Peter Lorre, with whom he once shared an apartment.

A turning point in his career came in 1938 when he began a long and succesful collaboration with screenwriter Charles Brackett which was expanded into a producer-director one in 1942. The duo turned such classics as Double Indemnity (1944), Five Graves to Cairo (1943) , The Lost Weekend (1945) and Sunset Boulevard (1950), after which the partnership dissolved.

During the 1950s Wilder continued a string of hit films including Sabrina (1954), The Seven Year Itch (1955) and Some like it hot (1959). Through the 1960s and 1970s, Wilder worked on several more films, although none was as successful as his previous ones.

Though his last film was made in 1981, Billy Wilder was still turning up to work at his Hollywood office well into his 80s.

Academy awards:

1988 Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award
1967 Nominated Best Writing for: The Fortune Cookie (1966)
1961 Won Oscar Best Director for: The Apartment (1960)
1961 Won Oscar Best Picture for: The Apartment (1960)
1961 Won Oscar Best Writing for: Apartment, The (1960)
1960 Nominated Best Director for: Some Like It Hot (1959)
1960 Best Writing for: Some Like It Hot (1959)
1958 Nominated Best Director for: Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
1955 Nominated Best Director for: Sabrina (1954)
1955 Nominated Best Writing for: Sabrina (1954)
1954 Nominated Best Director for: Stalag 17 (1953)
1952 Nominated Best Writing for: Ace in the Hole (1951)
1951 Won Oscar Best Writing for: Sunset Blvd. (1950)
1951 Nominated Best Director for: Sunset Blvd. (1950)
1949 Nominated Best Writing for: A Foreign Affair (1948)
1946 Won Oscar Best Director for: The Lost Weekend (1945)
1946 Won Oscar Best Writer for: The Lost Weekend (1945)
1945 Nominated Best Director for: Double Indemnity (1944)
1945 Nominated Best Writing for: Double Indemnity (1944)
1942 Nominated Best Writing for: Ball of Fire (1941)
1942 Best Writing for: Hold Back the Dawn (1941)
1940 Nominated Best Writing for: Ninotchka (1939)

Selected Movies:

Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Double Indemnity (1944)
The Apartment (1960)
Stalag 17 (1953)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

Bibliography » Books:

Bibliography » Web:

News

This week 56 years ago Sabrina premiered (September 09, 1954)

This week 66 years ago Double Indemnity premiered (September 06, 1944)

More news!

Trivia

Wilder about filming The seven year itch: “I had guys fighting as to who was going to put the ventilator on, below the grille.”
--Source: Conversations with Wilder, Page 101

Wilder wanted to be a director when director Mitch Leisen changed the script for Hold back the dawn (1941) Wilder had written.
--Source: Conversations with Wilder, Page 8

Billy Wilder wanted to direct a Hitchcock movie, so he did Witness for the prosecution (1958).
--Source: Conversations with Wilder, Page 20

Billy always collaborated with somebody, usually over a long period, because he felt that his English was not good enough. “But whenever you see me collaborating with somebody once, only once, that means I didn’t like him.”
--Source: Conversations with Wilder, Page 42

Wilder was a perfectionist. When he sends a character to a good show, the show must be really good. In the script of The apartment Jack Lemmon had to go to The sound of music. But first Wilder went to see the show for himself. He hated it and Lemmon went to The music man.
--Source: Billy Wilder: Interviews, Page 53

Billy about his longtime producer Samuel Goldwyn: “Just because Sam Goldwyn is a shit, doesn’t mean that being a shit makes you Sam Goldwyn”
--Source: Movies Were Always Magical, Page 44

Sunset Blvd. came in 7th in a list of the best scripts ever written. The members of the Writers Guild of America voted the Sunset Blvd. script into the top 10 of the guild’s 101 greatest screenplays. Three writers (Woody Allen, Francis Coppola and Billy Wilder) had four films on the list.

The apartment is Billy Wilder’s favorite film of his own. Irma la Douce was his greatest financial success, but Billy didn’t like it very much: “It didn’t come out the way I wanted”.
--Source: Billy Wilder: Interviews, Page 188

Sunset Blvd. The movie that Joe and Norma watch in the private screening room is Queen Kelly (1929) directed by Erich von Stroheim, who plays the butler. Von Stroheim came up with the idea, and so Paramount purchased for $ 1,000 122 feet (37 meters) of footage.
--Source: On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder, Page 295

Wilder wrote the story for The apartment because he was inspired by Davis Lean’s Brief encounter. “What about the guy who owned the flat where the lovers met?”
--Source: Billy Wilder: Interviews, Page 190

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Billy Wilder

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Billy Wilder

Born:

Born as:

Died:

Biography:

Academy awards:

Selected Movies:

Bibliography » Books:

Bibliography » Web:

News

Trivia