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Billy Wilder

Highest Rated: 100% Ball of Fire (1941)

Lowest Rated: 45% Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938)

Birthday: Jun 22, 1906

Birthplace: Sucha, Galicia, Austria

First and foremost a writer, Billy Wilder became, by his own admission, a director in an effort to protect his scripts from directors who he felt misinterpreted his work.Wilder operated with assurance across all genres, compiling an impressive body of work featuring dialogue over character - its wit and astringent bite setting his oeuvre refreshingly apart from mainstream Hollywood fare. With the help of co-writer Raymond Chandler, he directed a masterpiece of film noir, "Double Indemnity" (1944), which he followed with "The Lost Weekend" (1945), a social drama that delivered an uncompromising look at alcoholism. After the great war drama "Stalag 17" (1953), Wilder created a variation on the comedy of manners and seduction in films such as "Sabrina" (1954) and "Love in the Afternoon" (1957), mixed black comedy and farce for "Some Like It Hot" (1959) - his most entertaining movie - and alienated Hollywood with the cruel and haunting "Sunset Boulevard" (1950). Wilder had long collaborations with writers Charles Brackett and I.A.L. Diamond, and directed his greatest achievement, "The Apartment" (1960), in partnership with the latter. Wilder lived on as one of classic Hollywood's most accomplished directors.

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Highest rated movies

100% 89% Ball of Fire
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100% 83% The Major and the Minor
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100% 77% A Foreign Affair
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100% 95% Witness for the Prosecution
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100% 77% People on Sunday
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100% 79% Five Graves to Cairo
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100% 78% Hold Back the Dawn
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98% 94% Sunset Boulevard Watchlist
97% 89% The Lost Weekend
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97% 95% Double Indemnity
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Filmography

Movies

Credit
61% 64% Sabrina Writer $51.6M 1995
63% 43% Buddy Buddy Director,
Screenwriter
- 1981
71% 63% Fedora Director,
Screenwriter,
Producer
- 1978
No Score Yet No Score Yet Jack Lemmon - A Twist of Lemmon Self - 1976
57% 74% The Front Page Director,
Screenwriter
- 1974
No Score Yet No Score Yet Double Indemnity Screenwriter - 1973
78% 76% Avanti! Director,
Screenwriter,
Producer
- 1972
86% 73% The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes Director,
Writer,
Producer
- 1970
96% 80% The Fortune Cookie Director,
Producer
- 1966
73% 67% Kiss Me, Stupid Director,
Writer,
Producer
- 1964
76% 78% Irma La Douce Director,
Screenwriter,
Producer
- 1963
88% 88% One, Two, Three Director,
Screenwriter,
Producer
- 1961
93% 94% The Apartment Director,
Screenwriter,
Producer
- 1960
95% 94% Some Like It Hot Director,
Writer,
Producer
- 1959
100% 95% Witness for the Prosecution Director,
Writer
- 1957
81% 78% Love in the Afternoon Director,
Producer,
Screenwriter
- 1957
83% 75% The Spirit of St. Louis Director,
Screenwriter
- 1957
84% 76% The Seven Year Itch Director,
Producer,
Screenwriter
- 1955
89% 89% Sabrina Director,
Writer,
Producer
- 1954
91% 93% Stalag 17 Director,
Writer,
Producer
- 1953
90% 92% Ace in the Hole Director,
Writer,
Producer
- 1951
98% 94% Sunset Boulevard Director,
Writer
- 1950
100% 77% A Foreign Affair Director,
Screenwriter
- 1948
73% 41% The Emperor Waltz Director,
Screenwriter
- 1948
97% 89% The Lost Weekend Director,
Screenwriter
- 1945
97% 95% Double Indemnity Director,
Writer
- 1944
100% 79% Five Graves to Cairo Director,
Screenwriter
- 1943
100% 83% The Major and the Minor Director - 1942
100% 78% Hold Back the Dawn Screenwriter - 1941
100% 89% Ball of Fire Screenwriter,
Writer
- 1941
95% 89% Ninotchka Screenwriter - 1939
No Score Yet No Score Yet What a Life Screenwriter - 1939
45% 63% Bluebeard's Eighth Wife Writer - 1938
No Score Yet 45% Bad Seed Director,
Screenwriter
- 1934
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Blue From the Sky Screenwriter - 1932
No Score Yet 83% Emil and the Detectives Screenwriter - 1931
No Score Yet No Score Yet Looking for His Murderer Screenwriter - 1931
No Score Yet No Score Yet Her Grace Commands Screenwriter - 1931
100% 77% People on Sunday Writer - 1930