Born Samuel Wilder on June 22, 1906 in
Vienna. As a boy he spent much of his time watching
Hollywood movies mainly of the
westerns,
comedies, and
adventure genres. Being a
Jew in the
Austro-Hungarian empire though had it's effects on him. At school he would be teased and be mocked of. Billy Wilder died on
March 27, 2002 in his home.
Billy Wilder studied for a career in
law, but soon decided to pursue a career in
journalism.Wilder left Vienna for Berlin in 1927 at the age of 21 because he had landed a job as a
reporter for a major
Berlin newspaper. Later Wilder broke into films in
Germany as a
screenwriter.
In 1933, when
Hitler came to power, Wilder left for
Paris as a refugee from
Nazi Germany, then to
Hollywood a year later in 1934 with eleven dollars in his pocket. His family was also killed in a
concentration camp.
Billy Wilder has directed stars such as
Audrey Hepburn,
William Holden,
Marilyn Monroe,
Gloria Swanson,
Ginger Rogers,
Marlene Dietrich,
Barbara Stanwyck,
Shirley MacLaine,
Gary Cooper,
Jimmy Stewart,
Ray Milland,
Jack Lemmon,
James Cagney, and many other famous silver-screen personalities.
"People copy, people steal. Most of the pictures they make nowadays are loaded down with special effects. I couldn't do that. I quit smoking because I couldn't reload my Zippo." - Billy Wilder, quoted in The New York Times
Here is a list of the following movies that he has directed, courtesy of the
Internet Movie Database:
Buddy Buddy (1981)
Fedora (1978)
Front Page, The (1974)
Avanti! (1972)
Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, The (1970)
Fortune Cookie, The (1966)
... aka Meet Whiplash Willie (1966) (UK)
Kiss Me, Stupid (1964)
Irma la Douce (1963)
One, Two, Three (1961)
Apartment, The (1960)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Love in the Afternoon (1957)
Spirit of St. Louis, The (1957)
Seven Year Itch, The (1955)
Sabrina (1954)
... aka Sabrina Fair (1954) (UK)
Stalag 17 (1953)
Big Carnival, The (1951)
... aka Ace in the Hole (1951) (USA)
Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Foreign Affair, A (1948)
Emperor Waltz, The (1948)
Lost Weekend, The (1945)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Five Graves to Cairo (1943)
Major and the Minor, The (1942)
Mauvaise graine (1934)
... aka Bad Blood (1934)
... aka Bad Seed (1934)