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Personal Info

Known For

Directing

Known Credits

145

Gender

Male

Birthday

1906-06-22

Day of Death

2002-03-27 (96 years old)

Place of Birth

Sucha, Galicia, Austria-Hungary

Also Known As

Samuel Wilder

빌리 와일더

Billy Wilder

Biography

Billy Wilder (June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an Austrian-born director, screenwriter and producer who is regarded as one of the most excellent 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

Acting

Billy Wilder: Nobody's Perfect

2016

Billy Wilder: Nobody's Perfect

as

Self (archive footage)

The Legacy of 'Some Like It Hot'

2006

The Legacy of 'Some Like It Hot'

as

Self (archive footage)

The Making of 'Some Like It Hot'

2006

The Making of 'Some Like It Hot'

as

Self (archive footage)

Hollywood's Second World War

2019

Hollywood's Second World War

as

Self (archive footage)

Night Will Fall

2014

Night Will Fall

as

Self (archive footage)

Audrey

2020

Audrey

as

Self - Filmmaker (voice) (archive footage)

Klaus Kinski: I'm not an actor

2000

Klaus Kinski: I'm not an actor

as

Self (archive footage)

Helmut by June

2007

Helmut by June

as

Self (archive footage)

Billy Wilder Speaks

2006

Billy Wilder Speaks

as

Self - Filmmaker

Cinema's Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood

2009

Cinema's Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood

as

Self (archive footage)

Never Be Boring: Billy Wilder

2017

Never Be Boring: Billy Wilder

as

Self (archive footage)

And the Oscar Goes To...

2014

And the Oscar Goes To...

as

Self (archive footage)

The Exiles

1989

The Exiles

as

Self

Shadows of Suspense

2006

Shadows of Suspense

as

Self (archive footage)

Un film et son époque

Un film et son époque

as

Self (archive footage)

Production

Crew

Directing