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Billy Wilder

Billy Wilder ( , ; born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an Austrian and American film director and screenwriter. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most versatile filmmakers of classical Hollywood cinema. He received seven Academy Awards (among 21 nominations), a BAFTA Award, the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or, and two Golden Globe Awards.

Wilder was born in Sucha, Galicia, Austria-Hungary. In 1916, he moved to Vienna, where he worked as a journalist instead of attending university. Wilder's career as a screenwriter started in Berlin, where he relocated in his early adulthood. The rise of the Nazi Party and antisemitism in Germany saw him move to Paris. Wilder moved to Hollywood in 1934, and had a major hit when he, Charles Brackett, and Walter Reisch wrote the screenplay for the Academy Award-nominated film ''Ninotchka'' (1939). He established his directorial reputation and received his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director with ''Double Indemnity'' (1944), a film noir based on James M. Cain's novel of the same name, with a screenplay by him and Raymond Chandler. Wilder won the Best Director and Best Screenplay Academy Awards for ''The Lost Weekend'' (1945), which also won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

In the 1950s, Wilder directed and co-wrote a string of critically acclaimed films, including the Hollywood-set drama ''Sunset Boulevard'' (1950), for which he won his second screenplay Academy Award; ''Ace in the Hole'' (1951), ''Stalag 17'' (1953), and ''Sabrina'' (1954). He directed and co-wrote three films in 1957: ''The Spirit of St. Louis'', ''Love in the Afternoon'', and ''Witness for the Prosecution''. During this period, Wilder also directed Marilyn Monroe in two films, ''The Seven Year Itch'' (1955) and ''Some Like It Hot'' (1959). In 1960, he co-wrote, directed, and produced ''The Apartment'', a critically acclaimed film that won him Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. Other notable films that Wilder directed include ''One, Two, Three'' (1961), ''Irma la Douce'' (1963), ''Kiss Me, Stupid'' (1964), ''The Fortune Cookie'' (1966), and ''Avanti!'' (1972).

The undisputed master of American comedy in the 1950s and 1960s, Wilder established a moralistic and caustic style. He tackled controversial themes in his comedies and sought to challenge mainstream opinion as well as Anglo-Saxon puritanism. He exercised his talents not only in comedies, but also in film noir and historical films.

Wilder received various honors over his career, including the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1986, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1990, the National Medal of Arts in 1993, and the BAFTA Fellowship Award in 1995. He also received the Directors Guild of America's Lifetime Achievement Award, the Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement, and the Producers Guild of America's Lifetime Achievement Award. Seven of Wilder's films are preserved in the United States National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Provided by Wikipedia