Known For
Directing
Born
Jun 22, 1906
Died
Mar 27, 2002
Place of Birth
Sucha, Galicia, Austria-Hungary
Credits
104 titles
Billy Wilder
Biography
Billy Wilder, born Samuel Wilder; (22 June 1906 - 27 March 2002) was an Austrian-born director, screenwriter and producer who is regarded as one of the most successful filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age. Today he is best known for his comedies, although he also directed dramas and film noirs. Wilder is one of only five people who have won Academy Awards as producer, director, and writer for the same film (The Apartment). Wilder's career began in Germany, where he worked as a writer for comedy films from 1930. After the Nazis seized power in 1933, he emigrated to the United States, where he continued to write screenplays, including Ernst Lubitsch's Ninotchka (1939) and Howard Hawks' Ball of Fire (1941). From the early 1940s, Wilder was allowed to film his own screenplays and thus made a name for himself as a director. Initially, his greatest successes included predominantly dramatic film noirs such as Double Indemnity (1944), The Lost Weekend (1945), Sunset Boulevard (1950) and Ace in the Hole (1951). It was only then that he increasingly turned to comedy, including Stalag 17 (1953), Sabrina (1954) and The Seven Year Itch (1955), although he made a small detour to courtroom drama with Witness for the Prosecution (1957). With Some Like It Hot (1959) and The Apartment (1960) he made his most famous and probably most successful comedy films, the latter even receiving five Oscars. In One, Two, Three (1961), Wilder dealt with the conditions of the time in his former adopted country, Germany, and made the successful romantic comedy Irma la Douce (1963). In the two decades that followed, Wilder made seven more films, which were less well received by critics and audiences, although the German-French drama Fedora (1978) is viewed somewhat more favorably today by predominantly pretentious film experts. Some time later, Wilder was under discussion as director for Schindler's List, which he had wanted as the end of his long career, but ultimately had to turn it down due to his advanced age.
Known For
Filmography
Audrey
Self - Filmmaker (voice) (archive footage)
Hollywood's Second World War
Self (archive footage)
La Garçonnière
Original Story
Never Be Boring: Billy Wilder
Self (archive footage)
Billy Wilder: Nobody's Perfect
Self (archive footage)
The Making of 'Some Like It Hot'
Self (archive footage)
The Legacy of 'Some Like It Hot'
Self (archive footage)
Billy Wilder Speaks
Self - Filmmaker
Un film et son époque
Self (archive footage)
Nobody's Perfect: The Making of Some Like It Hot
Self (archive footage)
Klaus Kinski: I'm not an actor
Self (archive footage)
Sternstunde Kunst
Self
Billy Wilder: The Human Comedy
Self
Walter Matthau: Diamond in the Rough
Self
Fred MacMurray: The Guy Next Door
Self
Jack Lemmon: America's Everyman
Self
Sabrina
Original Film Writer
Audrey Hepburn: Remembered
Self
Billy, How Did You Do It?
Self
Billy, How Did You Do It?
Self
Film Lesson
Self
The Exiles
Self
Directed by William Wyler
Self
Witness for the Prosecution
Screenplay
Portrait of a '60% Perfect Man': Billy Wilder
Self
Sugar
Original Film Writer
Buddy Buddy
Director
The Kennedy Center Honors
Self
The Hollywood Greats: Charles Laughton
Self
Fedora
Director
Regie: Billy Wilder
Self
Les Rendez-vous du dimanche
Self
The Front Page
Screenplay
Spécial cinéma
Self
Double Indemnity
Screenplay
The American Film Institute Salute to ...
Self
Avanti!
Director
Film '72
Self
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
Producer
The Legend of Marilyn Monroe
The Fortune Cookie
Producer
Kiss Me, Stupid
Director
Irma la Douce
Producer
One, Two, Three
Director
The Apartment
Producer
Some Like It Hot
Director
Witness for the Prosecution
Screenplay
Love in the Afternoon
Screenplay
The Spirit of St. Louis
Director
Cinépanorama
Self