Billy Wilder
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He was an American motion-picture director, writer, and producer, his best films were usually comedies. He was originally born with the name Samuel Wilder on June 22, 1906 in Vienna, Austria, he would later move to Berlin Germany where he worked as a journalist and as a screenwriter. He left Germany after Hitler's rise to power, he immigrated to the US becoming a US citizen in 1937. He found his first Job in Hollywood California where he was a screenwriter. In 1938 he and Charles Brackett teamed up together. The major titles they made screenplays for was Midnight, Ninotchka, Arise My Love, Hold Back the Dawn, and Ball of Fire. Even though they were liked screenplays Wilder was unsatisfied with the way they were being directed, so he got the studio to let him direct his own scripts. (Encarta.com)
His first American directed film, The Major and the Minor was released in 1942, it did very well and lead to Brackett and Wilder to having much success together in the 40's. During the 40's they came out with Five Graves to Cario, Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, A foreign Affair, and Sunset Boulevard...