Born
22 June 1906 (119)
Place of Birth
Sucha, Galicia, Austria-Hungary
Also known as
Samuel Wilder, Billie Wilder
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...
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.
Audrey
2020
Hollywood's Second World War
2019
Never Be Boring: Billy Wilder
2017
Billy Wilder: Nobody's Perfect
2016
The Legacy of 'Some Like It Hot'
2006
The Making of 'Some Like It Hot'
2006
Billy Wilder Speaks
2006
Nobody's Perfect: The Making of Some Like It Hot
2001
Klaus Kinski: I'm not an actor
2000
Billy Wilder: The Human Comedy
1998
Walter Matthau: Diamond in the Rough
1997
Fred MacMurray: The Guy Next Door
1996
Jack Lemmon: America's Everyman
1996
Audrey Hepburn: Remembered
1993
Billy, How Did You Do It?
1992
The Exiles
1989
Directed by William Wyler
1986
Portrait of a '60% Perfect Man': Billy Wilder
1982
Buddy Buddy
1981
Fedora
1978
The Front Page
1974
Avanti!
1972
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
1970
The Legend of Marilyn Monroe
1966
The Fortune Cookie
1966
Kiss Me, Stupid
1964
Irma la Douce
1963
One, Two, Three
1961
The Apartment
1960
Some Like It Hot
1959
Witness for the Prosecution
1957
Love in the Afternoon
1957
The Spirit of St. Louis
1957
The Seven Year Itch
1955
Sabrina
1954
Stalag 17
1953
Ace in the Hole
1951
Marilyn at the Movies
1951
🎬 Director
Sunset Boulevard
1950
A Foreign Affair
1948