Billy Wilder filmography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Billy Wilder (1906–2002) was an American filmmaker. Wilder initially pursued a career in journalism after being inspired by an American newsreel.[1] He worked for the Austrian magazine Die Bühne and the newspaper Die Stunde in Vienna, and later for the German newspapers Berliner Nachtausgabe, and Berliner Börsen-Courier in Berlin.[2] His first screenplay was for the German silent thriller The Daredevil Reporter (1929).[3] Wilder fled to Paris in 1933 after the rise of the Nazi Party, where he co-directed and co-wrote the screenplay of French drama Mauvaise Graine (1934).[4] In the same year, Wilder left France on board the RMS Aquitania to work in Hollywood despite having little knowledge of English.[5][6]

A photograph of Gloria Swanson and Billy Wilder in 1950
Wilder in 1950 with actress Gloria Swanson

In 1938, he began collaborating with Charles Brackett on screenplays with Ernst Lubitsch's romantic comedy Bluebeard's Eighth Wife.[7] It was the first of 14 consecutive commercially successful films that the pair co-wrote including the comedy Ninotchka (1939), and the romantic drama Hold Back the Dawn (1941), which both received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Screenplay.[6][8][9] Wilder made his Hollywood directorial debut with comedy The Major and the Minor (1942), which starred Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland. Two years later, he directed and co-wrote the screenplay for the film noir Double Indemnity (1944), which is considered a classic of its genre.[6] He followed this with The Lost Weekend (1945), a drama about a writer struggling with alcoholism, for which Wilder won his first Academy Award for Best Director and shared the Best Original Screenplay award with Brackett. The film also won Best Picture.[10][11]

Wilder directed and co-wrote the screenplay for Sunset Boulevard (1950), a film noir about a reclusive silent film actress starring Gloria Swanson and William Holden.[12] It garnered 11 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, and all four acting categories. He won his second Best Screenplay Oscar with Brackett for the film as well as the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written Drama.[13][14] During the 1950s, Wilder also received Best Director nominations at the Oscars for Stalag 17 (1953), Sabrina (1954), Witness for the Prosecution (1957), and Some Like It Hot (1959).[15] The lattermost film starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon is considered one of the best comedies of all time.[16][17] In 1960, he directed and co-wrote The Apartment, a romantic comedy about an insurance clerk who allows his coworkers to use his apartment to conduct extra-marital affairs, which starred Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine.[18] The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture and the BAFTA Award for Best Film. Wilder shared the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay with I. A. L. Diamond.[19][20]

In recognition of his career, Wilder received the AFI's Life Achievement Award, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Fellowship Award, the Directors Guild of America's Lifetime Achievement Award, the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, the Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement, and the Producers Guild of America's Lifetime Achievement Award.[21] Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot, and The Apartment are included in the AFI's greatest American films of all time.[22] As of 2019, 10 of his films are in the National Film Registry.[23]

Filmography

More information Year, Title ...
Year Title Credited as Notes Ref(s)
Director Writer Producer
1929 The Daredevil Reporter No Yes No [24]
1930 People on Sunday No Yes No [25]
1930 A Student's Song of Heidelberg No Yes No [26]
1931 The Man in Search of His Murderer No Yes No [27]
Her Grace Commands No Yes No Simultaneously filmed as Princesse, à vos ordres!
and remade as Adorable		 [28]
The Wrong Husband No Yes No [29]
Emil and the Detectives No Yes No [30]
1932 Happy Ever After No Yes No Simultaneously filmed as A Blonde Dream
and Un rêve blond		 [31]
The Victor No Yes No [32]
Once There Was a Waltz No Yes No Remade as Where Is This Lady? [29]
Scampolo No Yes No Simultaneously filmed as Un peu d'amour [31]
The Blue of Heaven No Yes No
1933 What Women Dream No Yes No Remade as One Exciting Adventure
1934 Mauvaise Graine Yes Yes No Co-directed with Alexander Esway [33]
Music in the Air No Yes No [34]
1935 Lottery Lover No Yes No [33]
Under Pressure No Yes No
1938 Bluebeard's Eighth Wife No Yes No [35]
1939 Midnight No Yes No
What a Life No Yes No
Ninotchka No Yes No
1940 Arise, My Love No Yes No
1941 Hold Back the Dawn No Yes No
Ball of Fire No Yes No Remade as A Song Is Born
1942 The Major and the Minor Yes Yes No [36]
1943 Five Graves to Cairo Yes Yes No [37]
1944 Double Indemnity Yes Yes No [38]
1945 The Lost Weekend Yes Yes No
Death Mills Yes No No Also editing supervisor [39][40]
1948 The Emperor Waltz Yes Yes No [41]
A Foreign Affair Yes Yes No [42]
1950 Sunset Boulevard Yes Yes No [43]
1951 Ace in the Hole Yes Yes Yes [38]
1953 Stalag 17 Yes Yes Yes [35]
1954 Sabrina Yes Yes Yes
1955 The Seven Year Itch Yes Yes Yes
1957 The Spirit of St. Louis Yes Yes No
Love in the Afternoon Yes Yes Yes
Witness for the Prosecution Yes Yes No [38]
1959 Some Like It Hot Yes Yes Yes [44]
1960 The Apartment Yes Yes Yes [45]
1961 One, Two, Three Yes Yes Yes [46]
1963 Irma la Douce Yes Yes Yes [47]
1964 Kiss Me, Stupid Yes Yes Yes [48]
1966 The Fortune Cookie Yes Yes Yes [49]
1970 The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes Yes Yes Yes [35]
1972 Avanti! Yes Yes Yes [50]
1974 The Front Page Yes Yes No [51]
1978 Fedora Yes Yes Yes [52][53]
1981 Buddy Buddy Yes Yes No [54]
Close

Story writer

References

Bibliography

External links

Related Articles

Wikiwand AI