61 Facts About Otto Preminger

Otto Preminger directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre, and was one of the most influential directors in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s.

Otto Preminger was nominated for three Academy Awards, twice for Best Director and once for Best Picture, among many other accolades.

Otto Preminger first gained attention for film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel, while in the 1950s and 1960s, he directed high-profile adaptations of popular novels and stage works.

Otto Preminger had several acting roles, most famously as a Nazi POW camp commandant in Stalag 17.

Otto Preminger was born in 1905 in Wischnitz, Bukovina, Austria-Hungary, into a Jewish family.

Otto Preminger's parents were Josefa and Markus Preminger.

Otto Preminger's father secured a position as public prosecutor in Graz, capital of Styria.

The next year, he moved his family to Vienna, where Otto Preminger later claimed to have been born.

In 1928, Otto Preminger earned a law degree from the University of Vienna.

Otto Preminger instilled in both his sons a sense of fair play as well as respect for those with opposing viewpoints.

In 1923, when Otto Preminger was 17, his soon-to-be mentor, Max Reinhardt, the renowned Viennese-born director, announced plans to establish a theatrical company in Vienna.

Otto Preminger began writing to Reinhardt weekly, requesting an audition.

Unbeknownst to him, a letter was waiting with a date for an audition which Otto Preminger had already missed by two days.

Otto Preminger juggled a commitment to university and to his new position as a Reinhardt apprentice.

Otto Preminger did not have the same passion for the medium as he had for theater.

Otto Preminger worked efficiently, completing the film well within the budget and well before the scheduled shooting deadline.

Otto Preminger, composed at first, explained, claiming he shot the scene exactly as written.

The confrontation escalated and ended with Otto Preminger exiting the office and slamming the door.

Days later, the lock to Otto Preminger's office was changed, and his name was removed from the door.

Otto Preminger returned to New York, and began to re-focus on the stage.

Otto Preminger was offered a teaching position at the Yale School of Drama and began commuting twice a week to Connecticut to lecture on directing and acting.

Otto Preminger took full measure of the temporary studio czar, and accepted.

Otto Preminger completed production on schedule, although with a slightly increased budget, by November 1942.

Otto Preminger hoped to find possible properties he could develop before Zanuck's return, one of which was Vera Caspary's suspense novel Laura.

Otto Preminger was not granted permission to direct Laura, only to serve as producer.

Mamoulian began ignoring Otto Preminger and started to rewrite the script.

Otto Preminger explained to Zanuck that audiences would immediately identify Cregar as a villain, especially after Cregar's role as Jack the Ripper in The Lodger.

Otto Preminger wanted stage actor Clifton Webb to play Waldo and persuaded his boss to give Webb a screen test.

Webb was cast and Mamoulian was fired for creative differences, which included Otto Preminger wanting Dana Andrews to be a more classy detective instead of a gumshoe detective.

Otto Preminger expected acclaim for Laura would promote him to work on better pictures, but his professional fate was in the hands of Zanuck, who had Otto Preminger take over for the ailing Ernst Lubitsch on A Royal Scandal, a remake of Lubitsch's own silent Forbidden Paradise, starring Pola Negri as Catherine the Great.

Otto Preminger cast Tallulah Bankhead, whom he had known since 1938 when he was directing on Broadway.

The reviews and box office draw were tepid when the film was released in July 1946, but by the end of that year Otto Preminger had one of the most sumptuous contracts on the lot, earning $7,500 a week.

Otto Preminger had another bestseller aimed at a female audience in mind, Daisy Kenyon.

Zanuck pledged that if Otto Preminger did Forever Amber first, he could make Daisy Kenyon afterwards.

Forever Amber had already been shooting for nearly six weeks when Otto Preminger replaced director John Stahl.

Only after turning to his revised script did Otto Preminger learn Zanuck had recast star Peggy Cummins with Linda Darnell.

Otto Preminger called the film "the most expensive picture I ever made and it was the worst".

Otto Preminger maintained a busy schedule, working with writers on scripts for two planned projects, Daisy Kenyon and The Dark Wood; the latter was not produced.

Otto Preminger's next film was a period piece based on Lady Windermere's Fan.

Otto Preminger made but one concession and the picture was released with MPAA approval, marking the beginning of the end of the Production Code.

Otto Preminger acted in a few movies including the World War II Luft-Stalag Commandant, Oberst von Scherbach of the German POW camp Stalag 17, directed by Billy Wilder.

Otto Preminger adapted two operas for the screen during the decade.

Otto Preminger made a guest appearance as "Mr Freeze" on the Batman television series, succeeding George Sanders and preceding Eli Wallach in the role of the supervillain.

Otto Preminger frequently favoured long takes, often filmed dialogue in two-shots, rather than intercutting, and preferred minimal cuts.

John Ford was known for similar techniques, filming as few takes as possible, and "cutting in the camera", and it is likely that Otto Preminger preferred these methods for the same reasons as Ford, who had learned from hard experience that shooting as little footage as possible reduced costs, while minimising the ability of studio executives to recut their films against their wishes.

Otto Preminger evidently had relatively few conflicts with the major stars with whom he worked, although there were notable exceptions.

Otto Preminger remembered Preminger as being rude and unpleasant, especially when he disregarded the typical thespian etiquette of subtly cooperating when being helped to his feet, in a scene by West and Burt Ward.

Otto Preminger came to loathe him, and the combination of the long hours of filming, heavy dieting and Preminger's constant harangues caused Darnell to collapse twice on set, and she was ordered to take ten days off by a doctor.

Otto Preminger lived like a bachelor, as was the case when he met the burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee and began an open relationship with her during the mid-1940s.

Otto Preminger acted mainly in very small roles in B pictures.

Lee rejected the idea of Otto Preminger's helping to support the child and instead elicited a vow of silence from Otto Preminger: he was not to reveal Erik's paternity to anyone, including Erik himself.

Marion returned to Otto Preminger and resumed appearances as his wife, and nothing more.

From 1951 to 1960, Otto Preminger was married to model Mary Gardner.

However, while filming Carmen Jones, Otto Preminger began an affair with the film's star, Dorothy Dandridge, which lasted four years.

Otto Preminger advised her to turn it down, as he believed it unworthy of her.

In 1970, Otto Preminger was a subject of ridicule in Tom Wolfe's essay Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny's, where he was portrayed verbally dueling with Black Panther Field Marshal Donald Cox.

Otto Preminger died in his home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in 1986, aged 80, from lung cancer.

Some of Otto Preminger's associates, including his son Erik, have claimed that he suffered from Alzheimer's disease in his final years, though Hope Bryce denied that Otto Preminger was ever diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease when interviewed by Foster Hirsch.

Otto Preminger was survived by his wife, Hope, and three children: his son, Erik, and twins Mark William and Victoria Elizabeth.

Otto Preminger was twice nominated for Best Director: for Laura and for The Cardinal.

Otto Preminger won the Bronze Berlin Bear award for the film Carmen Jones at the 5th Berlin International Film Festival.