Billy Wilder

Date of birth: 06/22/1906 | Date of death: 03/27/2002

Occupation or position: 
Filmmaker

Billy Wilder  was born Samuel Wilder to a Jewish family in Sucha Beskidzka, Austria-Hungary.  He was an Austrian-born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age. Wilder is one of only five people to have won Academy Awards as producer, director and screenwriter for the same film (The Apartment), and was the first person to accomplish this.