William Wyler was an American film director, producer and screenwriter.
Notable works included Ben-Hur, The Best Years of Our Lives, and Mrs. Miniver, all of which
won Wyler Academy Awards for Best Director, as well as Best Picture in their respective
years.
Wyler won his first Oscar nomination for directing Dodsworth in 1936, starring Walter Huston,
Ruth Chatterton and Mary Astor, "sparking a 20-year run of almost unbroken greatness."
Film historian Ian Freer calls Wyler a "bona fide perfectionist", whose penchant for retakes
and an attempt to hone every last nuance, "became the stuff of legend."
His ability to direct a string of classic literary adaptations into huge box-office
and critical successes made him one of "Hollywood's most bankable moviemakers" during the 1930s
and 1940s and into the 60's.
Other popular Wyler films include Funny Girl, How to Steal a Million, The Children's Hour,
The Big Country, Roman Holiday, The Heiress, The Letter, The Westerner, Wuthering Heights,
Jezebel, Dodsworth, and Hell's Heroes.
Early life Wyler was born Willy Wyler to a Jewish family
in Mulhouse, Alsace.
His Swiss father, Leopold, started as a traveling salesman which he later turned into a thriving
haberdashery business in Mulhouse.
His mother, Melanie, was German, and a cousin of Carl Laemmle, founder of Universal Pictures.
During Wyler's childhood, he attended a number of schools and developed a reputation as "something
of a hellraiser", being expelled more than once for misbehavior.
His mother often took him and his older brother Robert to concerts, opera, and the theatre,
as well as the early cinema.
Sometimes at home his family and their friends would stage amateur theatricals for personal
enjoyment.
Wyler was supposed to take over the family business.
After World War I he spent a dismal year working in Paris at 100,000 Chemises selling shirts
and ties.
He was so poor that he often spent his time wandering around the Pigalle district.
After realizing that Willy was not interested in the haberdashery business, his mother contacted
her distant cousin about opportunities for him.
Laemmle was in the habit of coming to Europe each year, searching for promising young men
who would work in America.
In 1921, Wyler, while traveling as a Swiss citizen, met Laemmle who hired him to work
at Universal Studios in New York.
As Wyler said: "America seemed as far away as the moon."
Booked onto a ship to New York with Laemmle upon his return voyage, he met a young Czech
man, Paul Kohner, aboard the same ship.
Their enjoyment of the first class trip was short-lived as they found they had to pay
back the cost of the passage out of their $25 weekly income as messengers to Universal
Pictures.
After working in New York for several years, and even serving in the New York National
Guard for a year, Wyler decided he wanted to go to Hollywood and be a director.
Film career Around 1923, Wyler arrived in Los Angeles
and began work on the Universal Studios lot in the swing gang, cleaning the stages and
moving the sets.
His break came when he was hired as a second assistant editor.
His work ethic was uneven with Irving Thalberg nicknaming him "Worthless Willy".
After some ups and downs, he focused on becoming a director.
He started as a third assistant director and by 1925 he became the youngest director on
the Universal lot directing the Westerns that Universal was famed for turning out.
In 1928, he became a naturalized United States citizen.
He directed his first non-Western, the lost Anybody Here Seen Kelly?, in 1928.
This was followed by his first part-talkie films, The Shakedown and The Love Trap.
He proved himself an able craftsman, and in the early 1930s began directing such films
as Hell's Heroes, Tom Brown of Culver, and The Good Fairy.
He became well known for his insistence on multiple retakes, resulting in often award-winning
and critically acclaimed performances from his actors.
After leaving Universal he began a long collaboration with Samuel Goldwyn for whom he directed such
classics as Dodsworth, These Three, Dead End, Wuthering Heights, The Westerner, The Little
Foxes and The Best Years of Our Lives.
Laurence Olivier, whom Wyler directed in Wuthering Heights for his first-ever Oscar nomination,
credited Wyler with teaching him how to act for the screen, despite clashing with Wyler
on multiple occasions.
Olivier would go on to hold the record for the most nominations in the Best Actor category.
In 1950 Wyler and Olivier made a second film together, "Carrie".
Although it was one of Wyler's best films, containing a superb performance by Olivier,
it was not a commercial success.
Bette Davis received three Oscar nominations for her screen work under Wyler, and won her
second Oscar for her performance in Wyler's 1938 film Jezebel.
Charlton Heston won his only nomination and Best Actor Oscar for his work in Wyler's 1959
Ben-Hur.
Barbra Streisand won 1968's Best Actress Oscar as entertainer Fanny Brice in Streisand's
debut film, Funny Girl.
Audrey Hepburn won an Oscar in her debut performance in Roman Holiday.
13 actors won Oscars under Wyler's direction.
In 1941, Wyler directed Mrs. Miniver, ), a story of a middle class English family adjusting
to the war in Europe.
Mrs. Miniver won Wyler his first Academy Award for Best Director, as well as another five
Oscars.
A perfectionist, Wyler earned the nickname "90-take Wyler".
On the set of Jezebel Wyler forced Henry Fonda through 40 takes of one particular scene,
his only guidance being "Again!"
after each take.
When Fonda asked for more direction, Wyler responded, "It stinks".
Similarly, when Charlton Heston quizzed the director about the supposed shortcomings of
his performance in Ben-Hur, Wyler dismissed his concerns with "Be better".
World War II Between 1942 and 1945, Wyler, who became a
United States citizen in 1928, served as a major in the United States Army Air Forces
and directed three documentaries: The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress, the story
of a Boeing B-17 and its U.S. Army Air Force crew, Thunderbolt!, with Lester Koenig and
John Sturges, the story of a P-47 fighter-bomber squadron in the Mediterranean, and The Fighting
Lady," a portrait of life on a World War II aircraft carrier that won Best Documentary
Oscar in 1945.
Wyler filmed The Memphis Belle at great personal risk, flying over enemy territory on actual
bombing missions in 1943; on one flight, Wyler passed out from lack of oxygen.
Wyler's associate, cinematographer Harold J. Tannenbaum, was shot down and perished
during the filming.
The exposure to the sound of the aircraft's engines resulted in Wyler losing his hearing
in one ear.
Wyler also directed a film which captured the mood of the nation as it turned to peace
after the war, The Best Years of Our Lives.
This story of the homecoming of three veterans from World War II dramatized the problems
of returning veterans in their adjustment back to civilian life.
Arguably his most personal film, Best Years drew on Wyler's own experience returning home
to his family after three years on the front.
The Best Years of Our Lives won the Academy Award for Best Director and Academy Award
for Best Picture, as well as seven other Academy Awards.
Postwar career During the immediate postwar period, Wyler
directed a handful of critically acclaimed and influential films.
In 1949, he directed The Heiress, which earned Olivia de Havilland her second Oscar and garnered
additional Oscars for Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, and Best Music.
Roman Holiday introduced Audrey Hepburn to American audiences and led to Oscars for Best
Actress, Costume Design, and Best Writing.
Friendly Persuasion was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
In 1959, Wyler directed Ben-Hur, which won 11 Oscars.
Wyler won his third Academy Award for Best Director for Ben-Hur.
Wyler's films garnered more awards for participating artists and actors than any other director
in the history of Hollywood.
He received 12 Oscar nominations for Best Director in total, while dozens of his collaborators
and actors won Oscars or were nominated.
In 1965, Wyler won the Irving Thalberg Award for career achievement.
Eleven years later, he received the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award.
In addition to his Best Picture and Best Director Oscar wins, 13 of Wyler's films earned Best
Picture nominations.
Other late Wyler films include The Children's Hour, The Collector, Funny Girl, and his final
film, The Liberation of L.B.
Jones.
On July 24, 1981, Wyler gave an interview with his daughter, Catherine, for Directed
by William Wyler, a PBS documentary about his life and career.
Three days later, he died from a heart attack.
He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Glendale, California.
Marriages Wyler was briefly married to Margaret Sullavan
and married Margaret "Talli" Tallichet on October 23, 1938.
The couple remained together until his death; they had five children: Catherine, Judith,
William Jr., Melanie and David.
Awards Wyler is the most nominated director in Academy
Awards history with 12 nominations.
In addition to that, Wyler has the distinction of having won the Academy Award for Best Direction
on three occasions, for his direction of Ben Hur, The Best Years of Our Lives, and Mrs.
Miniver.
He is tied with Frank Capra and behind John Ford, who won four Oscars in this category.
Wyler also has the distinction of having directed more actors to Oscar-nominated performances
than any other director in history: thirty-six.
Out of these nominees, fourteen went on to win Oscars.[1]
William Wyler received the fourth AFI LIfe Achievement Award in 1976.
Filmography This is a list of films directed by William
Wyler.
* Universal's Mustang Series.
Wyler made 21 two-reeler films for this series, all with a duration of 24 minutes.
** Universal's Blue Streak Series.
Wyler made 6 five-reeler films for this series, all with a duration of an hour.
References Notes
Bibliography
External links William Wyler at the Internet Movie Database
William Wyler bibliography via UC Berkeley Media Resources Center
Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database
"The Little Foxes" and Wyler's screen collaborations with playwright Lillian Hellman
Margaret Tallichet and William Wyler remembered at Alabama festival
The Fighting Lady