Billy Wilder

Billy Wilder

writer, director, producer

Billy Wilder was born on Jun 22, 1906 in Poland]. Billy Wilder's big-screen debut came with The Man in Search of His Murderer directed by Robert Siodmak in 1931. Billy Wilder is known for Love, Marilyn directed by Liz Garbus, F. Murray Abraham stars as Self - Reader and Elizabeth Banks as Self - Reader. Billy Wilder has got 55 awards and 61 nominations so far. The most recent award Billy Wilder achieved is Jules Verne Awards. The upcoming new movie Billy Wilder plays is Love, Marilyn which will be released on May 16, 2013.

Originally planning to become a lawyer, Billy Wilder abandoned that career in favor of working as a reporter for a Viennese newspaper, using this experience to move to Berlin, where he worked for the city's largest tabloid. He broke into films as a screenwriter in 1929 and wrote scripts for many German films until Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. Wilder immediately realized his Jewish ancestry would cause problems, so he emigrated to Paris, then the US. Although he spoke no English when he arrived in Hollywood, Wilder was a fast learner and thanks to contacts such as Peter Lorre (with whom he shared an apartment), he was able to break into American films. His partnership with Charles Brackett started in 1938 and the team was responsible for writing some of Hollywood's classic comedies, including Ninotchka (1939) and Boule de feu (1941). The partnership expanded into a producer-director one in 1942, with Brackett producing and the two turned out such classics as Les cinq secrets du désert (1943), Le poison (1945) (Oscars for Best Picture, Director and Screenplay) and Boulevard du Crépuscule (1950) (Oscars for Best Screenplay), after which the partnership dissolved. (Wilder had already made one film, Assurance sur la mort (1944) without Brackett, as the latter had refused to work on a film he felt dealt with such disreputable characters.) Wilder's subsequent self-produced films would become more caustic and cynical, notably Le gouffre aux chimères (1951), though he also produced such sublime comedies as Certains l'aiment chaud (1959) and La garçonnière (1960) (which won him Best Picture and Director Oscars). He retired in 1981.

  • Birthday

    Jun 22, 1906
  • Place of Birth

    Sucha, Galicia, Austria-Hungary [now Sucha Beskidzka, Malopolskie, Poland]

Known For

Awards

55 wins & 61 nominations

Jules Verne Awards
2009
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Winner - Jules Verne Légendaire Award
Online Film & Television Association
2002
Creative
Winner - OFTA Film Hall of Fame
1999
Creative
Winner - OFTA Film Hall of Fame
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Movies & TV Shows

All
Movies