Billy 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…

Directed

1. Some Like It Hot (1959) — Director
2. Sunset Boulevard (1950) — Director
3. The Apartment (1960) — Director
4. Double Indemnity (1944) — Director
5. Witness for the Prosecution (1957) — Director
6. Sabrina (1954) — Director
7. The Seven Year Itch (1955) — Director
8. Ace in the Hole (1951) — Director
9. The Lost Weekend (1945) — Director
10. Stalag 17 (1953) — Director
11. Irma la Douce (1963) — Director
12. One, Two, Three (1961) — Director
13. The Front Page (1974) — Director
14. The Fortune Cookie (1966) — Director
15. Love in the Afternoon (1957) — Director
16. The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) — Director
17. Avanti! (1972) — Director
18. Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) — Director
19. A Foreign Affair (1948) — Director
20. Five Graves to Cairo (1943) — Director
21. Fedora (1978) — Director
22. The Major and the Minor (1942) — Director
23. The Spirit of St. Louis (1957) — Director
24. Buddy Buddy (1981) — Director
25. Bad Seed (1934) — Director
26. The Emperor Waltz (1948) — Director
27. Death Mills (1945) — Director

Also appeared in

1. The Oscars (1953) — Self
2. Audrey (2020) — Self - Filmmaker (voice) (archive footage)
3. Billy Wilder Speaks (2006) — Self - Filmmaker
4. Portrait of a '60% Perfect Man': Billy Wilder (1982) — Self
5. Billy Wilder: Nobody's Perfect (2016) — Self (archive footage)
6. The Kennedy Center Honors (1978) — Self
7. The Legend of Marilyn Monroe (1966)
8. Film '72 (1971) — Self
9. Audrey Hepburn: Remembered (1993) — Self
10. Billy, How Did You Do It? (1992) — Self
11. Never Be Boring: Billy Wilder (2017) — Self (archive footage)
12. The American Film Institute Salute to ... (1973) — Self
13. Cinépanorama (1956) — Self
14. The Legacy of 'Some Like It Hot' (2006) — Self (archive footage)
15. Hollywood's Second World War (2019) — Self (archive footage)
16. Jack Lemmon: America's Everyman (1996) — Self
17. Walter Matthau: Diamond in the Rough (1997) — Self
18. Nobody's Perfect: The Making of Some Like It Hot (2001) — Self (archive footage)
19. Spécial cinéma (1974) — Self
20. The Making of 'Some Like It Hot' (2006) — Self (archive footage)
21. Fred MacMurray: The Guy Next Door (1996) — Self
22. Billy Wilder: The Human Comedy (1998) — Self
23. The Exiles (1989) — Self
24. Un film et son époque (2003) — Self (archive footage)
25. German Film Award (1951) — Self
26. Les Rendez-vous du dimanche (1975) — Self
27. Klaus Kinski: I'm not an actor (2000) — Self (archive footage)
28. Directed by William Wyler (1986) — Self
29. Regie: Billy Wilder (1978) — Self
30. The Hollywood Greats: Charles Laughton (1978) — Self
31. Billy, How Did You Do It? (1992) — Self
32. Film Lesson (1991) — Self
33. Sternstunde Kunst (1998) — Self