Billy Wilder

Directing

Born: 1906-06-22

Died: 2002-03-27

From: Sucha, Galicia, Austria-Hungary

Gender: Male

Popularity: 1.4

Also Known As

Samuel Wilder빌리 와일더Billie 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.

Photos8

Awards & Nominations25 won · 21 nominated

🏆 Won

Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

2000

🏆 Won

honorary citizen of Vienna

2000

🏆 Won

BAFTA Fellowship

1995

🏆 Won

Goethe Medal

1994

🏆 Won

Berliner Bär

1993

🏆 Won

European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award

1992

🏆 Won

Kennedy Center Honors

1990

🏆 Won

AFI Life Achievement Award

1986

Nominated

Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay

The Fortune Cookie

1967

🏆 Won

Academy Award for Best Picture

The Apartment

1961

🏆 Won

BAFTA Award for Best Film

The Apartment

1961

🏆 Won

Academy Award for Best Director

The Apartment

1961

🏆 Won

Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay

The Apartment

1961

Nominated

Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay

The Apartment

1961

Nominated

Academy Award for Best Director

The Apartment

1961

Nominated

Academy Award for Best Picture

The Apartment

1961

Nominated

Academy Award for Best Director

Some Like It Hot

1960

Nominated

Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay

Some Like It Hot

1960

Nominated

Academy Award for Best Director

Witness for the Prosecution

1958

🏆 Won

Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay

Sabrina

1955

Nominated

Academy Award for Best Director

Sabrina

1955

Nominated

Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay

Sabrina

1955

Nominated

Academy Award for Best Director

Stalag 17

1954

Nominated

Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay

Ace in the Hole

1952

🏆 Won

Golden Globe Award for Best Director

Sunset Boulevard

1951

🏆 Won

Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay

Sunset Boulevard

1951

Nominated

Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay

Sunset Boulevard

1951

Nominated

Academy Award for Best Director

Sunset Boulevard

1951

Nominated

Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay

A Foreign Affair

1949

🏆 Won

Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay

The Lost Weekend

1946

🏆 Won

Academy Award for Best Director

The Lost Weekend

1946

🏆 Won

Golden Globe Award for Best Director

The Lost Weekend

1946

🏆 Won

Palme d'Or

The Lost Weekend

1946

Nominated

Academy Award for Best Director

The Lost Weekend

1946

Nominated

Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay

The Lost Weekend

1946

Nominated

Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay

Double Indemnity

1945

Nominated

Academy Award for Best Director

Double Indemnity

1945

Nominated

Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay

Hold Back the Dawn

1942

Nominated

Academy Award for Best Story

Ball of Fire

1942

Nominated

Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay

Ninotchka

1940

🏆 Won

David di Donatello for Best Foreign Director

🏆 Won

Directors Guild of America Award

🏆 Won

National Medal of Arts

🏆 Won

star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

🏆 Won

National Board of Review Award for Best Film

🏆 Won

Great Golden Medal of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria

Acting27 titles

10.0

Series

Un film et son époque

2003-2015Documentary

9.5

Series

Billy Wilder

Also Known As

Biography

Photos8

Awards & Nominations25 won · 21 nominated

Acting27 titles

Un film et son époque

Spécial cinéma

The Exiles

Cinépanorama

The Legacy of 'Some Like It Hot'

Hollywood's Second World War

Billy Wilder: Nobody's Perfect

Audrey Hepburn: Remembered

Jack Lemmon: America's Everyman

The Kennedy Center Honors

Never Be Boring: Billy Wilder

Audrey

The Making of 'Some Like It Hot'

Fred MacMurray: The Guy Next Door

Nobody's Perfect: The Making of Some Like It Hot

The Oscars

Portrait of a '60% Perfect Man': Billy Wilder

Billy Wilder Speaks

The Legend of Marilyn Monroe

Walter Matthau: Diamond in the Rough

The American Film Institute Salute to ...

Billy, How Did You Do It?

Billy Wilder: The Human Comedy

Les Rendez-vous du dimanche

Directed by William Wyler

Billy, How Did You Do It?

Film Lesson

Directing27 titles

Sunset Boulevard

The Apartment

Witness for the Prosecution

Some Like It Hot

Double Indemnity

Ace in the Hole

Stalag 17

The Lost Weekend

One, Two, Three

Sabrina

Irma la Douce

The Front Page

The Fortune Cookie

A Foreign Affair

The Major and the Minor

The Seven Year Itch

Five Graves to Cairo

Love in the Afternoon

Kiss Me, Stupid

Avanti!

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

The Spirit of St. Louis

Fedora

Death Mills

Buddy Buddy

The Emperor Waltz

Bad Seed

Writing67 titles

What a Life

Champagne Waltz

Princess, At Your Orders!

Infidelities

Where Is This Lady?

Sunset Boulevard

What Women Dream

Witness for the Prosecution

The Apartment

Double Indemnity

Some Like It Hot

One Exciting Adventure

Once There Was a Waltz

First Offence

The Winner

Ace in the Hole

Stalag 17

The Lost Weekend