Billy Wilder
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Billy Wilder (
June 22,
1906 -
March 27,
2002) had a career as a
screenwriter,
film director and
producer that spanned more than 50 years and more than 60
films.
Born
Samuel Wilder in Sucha,
Austria-Hungary (now
Poland).
He started work in late
1920s as screenwriter in
Germany, then left for
France, then
United States after the rise of
Adolf Hitler. His mother, grandmother, and stepfather died at
Auschwitz.
Sharing an apartment with
Peter Lorre, he broke into writing in
Hollywood with classics like
Ninotchka. He was a noted collector of modern art.
Billy Wilder died in 2002 in
Los Angeles, California, and was interred in the
Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in
Westwood, Los Angeles, California.
Billy Wilder wrote or directed (or both) classics in more than one genre:
Oscars
Quotes
- "My English is a mixture between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Archbishop Tutu."\n* On post-World War II France: "It's a country where you can't tear the toilet paper but the currency crumbles in your hands."\n* "A bad play folds and is forgotten, but in pictures we don't bury our dead. When you think it's out of your system, your daughter sees it on television and says, My father is an idiot."\n* "Nobody is perfect."\n* "I just made pictures I would've liked to see."
External links
\n* WGA interview: http://www.wga.org/WrittenBy/1995/1195/wilder.htm\n* Billy Wilder - The German-Hollywood Connection: http://www.germanhollywood.com/bwilder.html \n* Film Noir and Billy Wilder: http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue10/features/wilder/\n* American Master - Billy Wilder: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/wilder_b.html
Wilder, Billy\nWilder, Billy