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Billy Wilder

Billy Wilder (June 22, 1906 - March 27, 2002) had a career as a screenwriter, film director and producer that spanned more than 50 years and more than 60 films.

Born Samuel Wilder in Sucha[?], Austria-Hungary (now Poland).

He started work in late 1920s as screenwriter in Germany, then left for France, then United States after the rise of Adolf Hitler. His mother, grandmother, and stepfather died at Auschwitz.

Sharing an apartment with Peter Lorre, he broke into writing in Hollywood with classics like Ninochka[?]. He was a noted collector of modern art.

Billy Wilder died in 2002 in Los Angeles, California, and was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California.

Billy Wilder wrote or directed (or both) classics in more than one genre:

Oscars

Quotes

  • "My English is a mixture between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Archbishop Tutu."
  • On post-World War II France: "It's a country where you can't tear the toilet paper but the currency crumbles in your hands."
  • "A bad play folds and is forgotten, but in pictures we don't bury our dead. When you think it's out of your system, your daughter sees it on television and says, My father is an idiot."
  • "Nobody is perfect."
  • "I just made pictures I would've liked to see."

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