William Wyler

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William Wyler (born Willi Wyler (Germany) (Vi?l?

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](July 1, 1902- 1981), an American film director, producer, and screenwriter.

Notable performances include Ben-Hur (1959), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and Mrs. Miniver (1942), all of whom received Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture in their respective years, making him the only director of three Best Picture winners as of 2019.

Wyler received his first Oscar nomination for directing Dodsworth in 1936, starring Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, and Mary Astor. Wyler's penchant for retakes and an attempt to hone every last nuance "became the stuff of legend," says columnist Ian Freer. His ability to turn a string of classic literary adaptations into major box-office and critical success made him one of "Hollywood's most cash-back moviemakers" from the 1930s and 1940s to the 1960s.

He converted dynamic theatrical spaces into cinematic ones by his talent for staging, editing, and film transport, as well as directing Barbra Streisand in her debut film, Funny Girl (1968).

Both of these performances received Academy Awards.

Olivia de Havilland was directed by him to her second Oscar nomination in The Heiress (1949) and Laurence Olivier in Wuthering Heights (1939).

Olivier credited Wyler with showing him how to act on film.

Bette Davis, who received three Oscar nominations under her belt and won her second Oscar in Jezebel (1938), said Wyler made her a "far, far better actress" than she had ever been. Other famous Wyler films include: Hell's Heroes (1929), Dodsworth (1936), The Westerner (1940), The Big Country (1960), and How to Save a Million (1966).

Early life

Wyler was born in Mulhouse, Alsace, to a Jewish family (then part of the German Empire). 3 Leopold, a Swiss-born father, started as a traveling salesman but later became a thriving haberdasher in Mulhouse. 37 Melanie (née Auerbach), a German-born woman and a cousin of Carl Laemmle, the maker of Universal Pictures, died in Los Angeles, March 13, 1955. During Wyler's childhood, he attended a variety of colleges and established a reputation as "something of a hellraiser" in addition to being banned more than once for misdeeds. 1222 His mother took him and his older brother Robert to concerts, opera, and the theatre, as well as early cinema. At home, his family and their friends would often stage amateur dramatics for personal enjoyment.

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In Mulhouse, France, Wyler was supposed to inherit the family's haberdashery firm. He spent a miserable year in Paris selling shirts and ties after World War I. He was so poor that he spent his days wandering around Pigalle's neighborhood. After realizing that Willy was uninterested in the haberdashery industry, Melanie's mother, Melanie, contacted her distant cousin, Carl Laemmle, who owned Universal Studios, to discuss her prospects for him.

Laemmle was in the habit of returning to Europe each year to look for promising young men who would work in America. Wyler, who was traveling as a Swiss citizen (his father's citizenship rightfully granted Swiss citizenship to his sons), met Laemmle, who recruited him to work at Universal Studios in New York in 1921. "America seemed as far away as the moon," Wyler said. Wyler, who was onboard a ship to New York with Laemmle for his return voyage, met with Paul Kohner, the Czech writer who was later known as the country's most popular independent agent, aboard the same ship. They enjoyed the first class trip but found they had to pay the airfare out of their $25 per week income as messengers to Universal Pictures. Wyler, who was stationed in New York for several years and later served in the New York Army National Guard for a year, migrated to Hollywood to become a director.

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Personal life and death

Margaret Sullavan (from November 25, 1934-1936) and married actress Margaret "Talli" Tallichet on October 23, 1938. Catherine, Judith, William Jr., Melanie, and David continued to be together until his death; they had five children: Catherine, Judith, William Jr., Melanie, and David. Catherine said in an interview that her mother played a role in his career, often as his "gatekeeper" and his reader of scripts sent to him.

Wyler conducted an interview with his daughter, Catherine, in Directed by William Wyler, a PBS documentary about his life and work on July 24, 1981. He died as a result of a heart attack three days later. He is laid to rest at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.

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Career

Wyler arrived in Los Angeles around 1923 and began to work on the Universal Studios lot in the swing band, wiping the stages and moving the sets. His break came as he was recruited as a second assistant editor. However, his work ethic was uneven, and he would often sneak away and play billiards in a pool hall across the street from the studio or schedule card games during working hours. Wyler, after several ups and downs (including being fired), concentrated on becoming a director and put all his energy into it. He began as a third assistant director and by 1925, he became the youngest director on the Universal lot in charge of directing the westerns that Universal was renowned for turning out. Wyler was so fixated on his work that he might have wished for "different ways (for an actor) to get to a horse." He would inevitably join the posse in the 'bad man's' chase in several of the one-reelers.

In 1928, he directed his first non-Western, the missing Anyone Here Seen Kelly? The Shakedown and The Love Trap were his first part-talkie films. He proved himself to be an excellent craftsman. He became a naturalized United States citizen in 1928. 73 This was his first all-talking film and Universal's first sound film to be shot entirely on location, Hell's Heroes, which was shot in 1929 in the Mojave Desert.

Wyler produced a number of films at Universal in the 1930s, ranging from high-profile dramas like The Storm with Bebe Daniels, A House Divided with Walter Huston, and Counsellor at Law with John Barrymore to comedies like Her First Mate with Zasu Pitts and The Good Fairy with Margaret Sullavan. He became well-known for his insistence on multiple reprises, resulting in his actors' frequent award-winning and critically acclaimed performances. After leaving Universal, he began a long association with Walter Huston (1936) with Miriam Hopkins and Merle Oberon (1940), Death Of Our Lives (1941) with Myrna Loy and Bernard March, a 1936 film starring Michael Bennett and Walter Burke (1940) with Laurie Anderson and Walter Brennan, These Three (1937) with Matthew McCarthy and Merle Oberon. Wyler's first collaboration with cinematographer Gregg Toland began during this period. Toland and Wyler practically invented the "deep focus" style of filmmaking, wherein many layers of action or characters could be seen in one scene, the most notable being the bar scene from The Best Years of Our Lives. Toland continued to concentrate on the deep focus he acquired with Wyler when he fired Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.

Bette Davis received three Oscar nominations for her screen work under Wyler, as well as her second Oscar nomination for her role in Wyler's 1938 film Jezebel. Wyler aided her in 1972 to be a "far, far better actress" than she had been in Merv Griffin. She remembered a scene in the script that was only a paragraph in length, but Willy created a scene of intrigue and drama "without a single word of dialogue." "This was filmmaking on the top plane," she said. "I never knew it was going to be a scene of such suspense"? "162 During her acceptance address in 1977, she thanked him.

Laurence Olivier, who directed Wuthering Heights (1939) for his first Oscar nomination, credited Wyler with showing him how to act on film, despite clashing with Wyler on several occasions. Olivier will continue to receive the most nominations in the Best Actor category at nine, tied with Spencer Tracy. "William Wyler has helmed it with aplomb," New York Times critic Frank S. Nugent wrote. It is, without doubt, one of the year's most popular pictures. Olivier's performance was described as "fantastic" by Variety, "he not only brings conviction to his role but also transforms with humour's mystical quality."

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Wyler met Olivier and his actor wife, Vivien Leigh, five years ago while touring London in 1944. Olivier asked him to direct Henry V. in his upcoming film, but he declined to see him perform in The Doctor's Dilemma, and Olivier asked him to direct him in his planned film, Henry V.

Wyler and Olivier made Carrie, their second film together in 1950, but it was not a commercial success. However, some commentators claim that it does not contain Olivier's finest film performance, but that the film was well underappreciated: 128 In critic Michael Billington's review:

During his career, screenwriter John Huston was a close friend of Wyler. Huston, who was twenty-eight and penniless, slept in parks in London, has returned to Hollywood to see if he might find work. In 1931, Wyler, four years old, had met Huston when he was directing his father, Walter Huston, in A House Divided, and the pair got along well. According to Wyler, Huston had suggested to his father Walter and recruited John to work on the script's dialogue. Huston later inspired him to become a director and was his "early mentor." "xiiii": Wyler, Huston, Anatole Litvak, and Frank Capra were among America's first civilians enlisted at the same time as World War II in 1941. In an interview, Huston recalled his friendship with Wyler later in his career:

Mrs. Miniver, based on the 1940 novel, was directed by Wyler in 1941; it was the tale of a middle-class English family adjusting to the war in Europe and the bombing blitz in London. Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon appeared in the film. Pidgeon had reservations about joining the role until colleague actor Paul Lukas told him, "You'll have the most enjoyable time you ever had, and that's the way it turned out." "If I hadn't succeeded in getting out of doing Mrs. Miniver," Pidgeon recalls, he received his first Oscar nomination for his role, while Greer Garson received her first and only Academy Award for her role.

Since it was designed to make the United States less isolated, the film was controversial. Americans may be more able to support Britain during their war effort by reenacting the true life of British citizens in a fictional tale. The film was a hit on its propaganda elements, depicting the United Kingdom in its bleakest days of the war. Wyler said that the film "only scratched the surface of war" 145 years after being involved in the conflict himself. It was incomplete.

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However, before the war began in December 1941, all films that could be considered anti-Nazi by the Hays Office were banned.

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Joseph Kennedy, the United States ambassador to the United Kingdom, told the studios that pro-British and anti-German films would not be made because Britain's defeat was imminent. Eddie Mannix, a MGM executive, disagreed, saying that "someone should salute England." And if we lose $100,000, that'll be fine. Mrs. 344 became the top box office winner of 1942 after winning six Academy Awards. It was Wyler's first Academy Award for Best Director.

The film's creators, Winston Churchill, and President Roosevelt all loved the film, according to historian Emily Yellin, and Roosevelt wanted printouts to theaters around the country. The minister's address from the film, magazines, was reprinted in the magazine, and it was sold to leaflets and dropped over German-occupied countries by the Voice of America radio network, which was broadcast over German-occupied countries. "Mrs. Miniver is propaganda worth 100 battleships," Churchill sent MGM CEO Louis B. Mayer a telegram claiming that "Mrs. Miniver is propaganda worth 100 battleships." In his New York Times review, Bosley Crowther said that Mrs. Miniver was the best film about the war so far "and a most fitting tribute to the British."

Wyler volunteered to serve as a major in the United States Army Air Forces and authored two books, including The Memphis Belle: A Life of a Flying Fortress (1944), about a Boeing B-17 and its American Army Air Force crews; and Thunderbolt. (1947) in the Mediterranean, he recalled a P-47 fighter-bomber squadron. In 1943, Wyler filmed The Memphis Belle at a high risk of flying over enemy territories on real bombing missions; on one flight, Wyler lost consciousness due to a lack of oxygen. During the shooting, Wyler's associate, cinematographer Harold J. Tannenbaum, a First Lieutenant, was shot down and died. In the 2017 Netflix series Five Came Back, producer Steven Spielberg focuses on Wyler's filming of Memphis Belle. Wyler was hired to produce the documentary "The Negro Soldier on African-Americans in the United States Armed Forces before being posted to the Air Force.

Working on Thunderbolt!

Wyler was greeted with such loud noise that he had to leave. He awakened, discovering he was deaf in one ear. A partial hearing with the support of a hearing aid appeared years later. Wyler, a lieutenant colonel and a disabled veteran, recovered from the war.

Wyler, who was returning from war and uncertain if he would return, moved to a field where the country's mood was captured as it returned to peace after the war, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). This account of three veterans of World War II dramatized veterans' return to civilian life. Best Years, Wyler's most personal film, drew on his own story after three years at the front. The Best Years of Our Lives received the Academy Award for Best Director (Wyler's second) and Academy Award for Best Picture (Wyler's second) as well as seven other Academy Awards.

In 1949, Wyler produced The Heiress, which earned Olivia de Havilland her second Oscar and additional accolades for Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, and Best Music. According to one reviewer, the film is considered a highlight in her career, "which may cause envy even among the most versatile and wealthy actress."

De Havilland had seen the play in New York and felt she could carry the lead roles with ease. Wyler then called upon her to advise Paramount that he purchase the film rights. He travelled to New York to see the play and, impressed by the tale, convinced the studio to buy it. Montgomery Clift and Ralph Richardson co-star alongside de Havilland.

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Wyler produced and directed Kirk Douglas and Eleanor Parker in Detective Story in 1951, depicting a day in the lives of the various participants in a detective team. In the film, Lee Grant and Joseph Wiseman made their screen debuts, including one for Grant. "Brisk, absorbing film by producer-director William Wyler with the support of a fine, responsive cast," critic Bosley Crowther lauded the film.

Jennifer Jones appeared in the title role and Laurence Olivier as Hurstwood when Carrie was first published in 1952. Eddie Albert was the protagonist of Charles Drouet. Two Academy Award nominations have been given to Carrie: Costume Design (Edith Head), and Best Art Direction (Hal Pereira, Roland Anderson, Emile Kuri). Jennifer Jones was reluctant to be cast, and filming was then plagued by a variety of difficulties. Jones did not reveal that she was pregnant; Wyler was mourning the death of his year-old son; Olivier suffered with a swollen leg ulcer and developed a phobia for Jones. Hollywood was reeling under McCarthyism's effects, and the studio was afraid to release a film that could be deemed immoral. In the end, the film was edited to make it more positive in tone.

Wyler produced a handful of critically acclaimed and influential films during the immediate postwar period. Audrey Hepburn was introduced in 1953 as a leading actress in the United States, winning the Academy Award for Best Actress. "In that league, only Garbo, the other Hepburn, and perhaps Bergman were among the great actors," Wyler said of Hepburn years later. It's a rare quality, but it's a boy, do you know when you've found it? The film was a huge success, winning Best Costume Design (Edith Head) and Best Writing (Dalton Trumbo). Hepburn will make three films with Wyler, who, according to her son, was one of the most influential directors in her career.

At the Cannes Film Festival, Friendly Persuasion (1956) was given the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) award. Wyler directed Ben-Hur in 1959, a feat unequaled until Titanic in 1997. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003. He had also been involved in the design of the 1925 version.

Wyler and its lead, Charlton Heston, knew what the film meant for MGM, which had significant investments in its outcome, with the film's budget increasing from $7 million to $15 million, despite the fact that MGM was still in dire financial difficulties. They were aware that if it failed at the box office, MGM would go bankrupt.

The film, as with many epics, was impossible to make. When Heston was asked which scene he liked most, he replied, "I didn't like any of it." It was strenuous work." Parts of the reason was the financial strain placed on making the film a success. It was the most expensive film ever made at that time, with a cast of fifteen thousand extras, a leading actor, and a 70mm film with stereophonic tracks. For example, the nine-minute chariot race took six months to film.

Ben-Hur became a huge box office success. Wyler received his third Academy Award for Best Director and Charlton Heston's first and only Academy Award as a professional. In his autobiography, Heston confessed that at first he had reservations about his role. "Don't you know that actors appear in Wyler without even reading the damn script," his agent warned him otherwise. "You have to do this picture," I'm telling you.

Kirk Douglas had lobbied Wyler, who starred him in Detective Story in 1951, for the title role, but only after Wyler had already decided on Heston. He gave him instead the role of Messala, which Douglas turned down. Douglas went on to appear in Spartacus (1960) before he went on to act in Spartacus (1960).

Ben-Hur cost $15 million to produce, but by the end of 1961, the company's net income increased to $47 million, or $90 million worldwide. In the months after it opened, Audiences packed movie theaters. Wyler's achievement was lauded by critic Pauline Kael:

He became a director for twentieth Century Fox in 1961 and also starred James Garner in The Children's Hour, alongside Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine. Garner had defeated Warner Bros. in a lawsuit, allowing him to leave the television show Maverick, but Wyler had broken the graylist by casting him; the following year, Garner appeared in four big motion pictures for the first time.

Barbra Streisand was he directed in 1968 in her debut film, Funny Girl, costarring Omar Sharif, which was a huge financial success. 385 It was nominated for eight Academy Awards, and as Audrey Hepburn in her first acting role, Streisand was named Best Actress, becoming the 13th actor to win an Academy Award under his direction.

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With seven hundred performances, Streisand had already appeared in the Broadway musical Funny Girl. And although Wyler was familiar with the role, she was also required to prepare her stage presence for the film. She naturally wanted to be involved in the film's production, occasionally asking Wyler questions, but the two of them got along well. "When she discovered that some of us knew what we were doing," kidded Wyler.

What attracted him to direct Streisand was the same as what attracted him to Audrey Hepburn, who was also new to film audiences. During her musical career, he became excited about the possibility of leading another new star into an award-winning role. Steffisie Davis demonstrated and admired the same dedication to being a performer as did Bette Davis early in her career. "It just had to be managed and toned down for the movie camera."

Wyler said afterwards:

Wyler was hired to direct Patton (1970), but he resigned before production started in 1969. The Liberation of L.B. was Wyler's last film. Jones was born in 1970 and was released in 1970.

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