Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder, born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906, 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.
Crew
Some Like It Hot
Director, Producer, Screenplay
The Apartment
Producer, Director, Screenplay
People on Sunday
Screenplay
The Front Page
Director, Screenplay
Double Indemnity
Director, Screenplay
One, Two, Three
Director, Screenplay, Producer
Sunset Boulevard
Director, Screenplay
Stalag 17
Producer, Writer, Director
The Fortune Cookie
Director, Screenplay, Producer
Irma la Douce
Director, Screenplay, Producer
Emil and the Detectives
Screenplay
Emil and the Detectives
Screenplay
Emil and the Detectives
Screenplay
The Seven Year Itch
Director, Producer, Screenplay
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
Director, Writer, Producer
Witness for the Prosecution
Screenplay
Sabrina
Director, Screenplay, Producer
What Women Dream
Screenplay
Bluebeard's 8th Wife
Screenplay
Ace in the Hole
Director, Writer, Producer
Avanti!
Director, Screenplay, Producer
The Lost Weekend
Screenplay, Director
Buddy Buddy
Director, Writer
Ball of Fire
Screenplay, Original Story
Witness for the Prosecution
Director, Screenplay
Five Graves to Cairo
Director, Screenplay
The Emperor Waltz
Director, Writer
A Foreign Affair
Director, Screenplay
The Major and the Minor
Director, Writer
Love in the Afternoon
Director, Screenplay, Producer
The Spirit of St. Louis
Director, Screenplay, Producer
Kiss Me, Stupid
Director, Producer, Screenplay
Fedora
Director, Writer, Producer
Double Indemnity
Screenplay
The Man in Search of His Murderer
Screenplay
The Legacy of 'Some Like It Hot'
Thanks
The Making of 'Some Like It Hot'
Thanks
One Exciting Adventure
Story
Scampolo, ein Kind der Straße
Writer
The Blue from the Sky
Screenplay
The fight with the dragon or: The tragedy of the lodger
Writer
The Lottery Lover
Screenplay
Princess, At Your Orders!
Writer
Sabrina
Original Film Writer
The Bishop's Wife
Additional Writing
Once There Was a Waltz
Writer
First Offence
Original Story
Music in the Air
Screenplay
A Song Is Born
Story, Original Film Writer
Der Teufelsreporter
Writer
Madame Wants No Children
Screenplay
Death Mills
Editor, Director
La Garçonnière
Original Story
Masquerade in Mexico
Original Film Writer
Sugar
Original Film Writer
Sunset Boulevard
Original Film Writer
