Billy Wilder
| Billy Wilder | |
|---|---|
Wilder with Gloria Swanson during filming of Sunset Blvd.
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| Born |
Samuel Wilder June 22, 1906 Sucha, Austrian Poland
(present-day Sucha Beskidzka, Poland) |
| Died | March 27, 2002 (aged 95) Beverly Hills, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Pneumonia |
| Occupation |
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| Years active | 1929–1995 |
| Spouse(s) | Judith Coppicus (1936–46; divorced) Audrey Young (1949–2002; his death) |
| Children |
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Billy Wilder (born Samuel Wilder; /ˈwaɪldər/; German: [ˈvɪldɐ]; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was a Austrian-born Jewish American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist and journalist, whose career spanned more than fifty years and sixty films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age. With The Apartment, Wilder became the first person to win Academy Awards as producer, director and screenwriter for the same film.
Wilder became a screenwriter in the late 1920s while living in Berlin. After the rise of the Nazi Party, Wilder, who was Jewish, left for Paris, where he made his directorial debut. He moved to Hollywood in 1933, and in 1939 he had a hit when he co-wrote the screenplay for the romantic comedy Ninotchka, starring Greta Garbo. Wilder established his directorial reputation with an adaption of James M. Cain's Double Indemnity (1944), a film noir. Wilder co-wrote the screenplay with crime novelist Raymond Chandler. Wilder earned the Best Director and Best Screenplay Academy Awards for the adaptation of a Charles R. Jackson story The Lost Weekend (1945), about alcoholism. In 1950, Wilder co-wrote and directed the critically acclaimed Sunset Boulevard.
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