• Billy Wilder was a Polish-born film director and screenwriter.

• 1. Born: June 22, 1906
  2. Died: March 27, 2002 at age 95
  3. Birthplace: Sucha Beskidzka, Poland
  4. Awards: Won the Academy Award in 1946, 1951, 1961, 1988
  5. Earned 12 Oscar nominations for screenwriting

• Career

  Billy Wilder had a long career in Hollywood, beginning in the mid-1930s. Wilder worked in diverse genres, and is equally acclaimed for his comedies and for pioneering the vocabulary of film noir. In 2002 Wilder died of pneumonia, and was subsequently buried in Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood.

• Notable Works

  • 1933: Adorable
  • 1934: Music in the Air
  • 1935: The Lottery Lover
  • 1937: Champagne Waltz
  • 1939: What a Life
  • 1940: Rhythm on the River
  • 1941: Ball of Fire
  • 1942: The Major and the Minor
  • 1943: Five Graves to Cairo
  • 1944: Double Indemnity
  • 1947: The Bishop's Wife
  • 1948: The Emperor Waltz
  • 1950: Sunset Boulevard
  • 1951: Ace in the Hole
  • 1953: Stalag 17
  • 1954: Sabrina
  • 1955: The Seven Year Itch
  • 1957: Love in the Afternoon
  • 1959: Some Like It Hot
  • 1960: Ocean's Eleven
  • 1961: One, Two, Three
  • 1963: Irma la Douce
  • 1964: Kiss Me, Stupid
  • 1966: The Fortune Cookie
  • 1967: The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
  • 1972: Avanti!
  • 1974: The Front Page
  • 1978: Fedora
  • 1981: Buddy Buddy

• Quote

  • "Treat your audience intelligently. What movies can do, at their best, is let us in -- they show us things, they don't tell us." - Billy Wilder

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