Robert Earl Wise was an American film director, producer, and editor.
49 Facts About Robert Wise
2.
Robert Wise won the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for his musical films West Side Story and The Sound of Music.
3.
Robert Wise was nominated for Best Film Editing for Citizen Kane and directed and produced The Sand Pebbles, which was nominated for Best Picture.
4.
Robert Wise was the president of the Directors Guild of America from 1971 to 1975 and the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1985 through 1988.
5.
Robert Wise received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1998.
6.
The family moved to Connersville, Fayette County, Indiana, where Robert Wise attended public schools.
7.
Robert Wise initially sought a career in journalism and following graduation from high school attended Franklin College, a small liberal arts college south of Indianapolis, Indiana, on a scholarship.
8.
In 1933, due to the family's poor financial situation during the Great Depression, Robert Wise was unable to return to college for his second year and moved to Hollywood to begin a lifelong career in the film industry.
9.
Robert Wise worked odd jobs at the studio before moving into editing.
10.
Robert Wise began his film career at RKO as a sound and music editor.
11.
Robert Wise's first screen credit was a ten-minute short subject called A Trip through Fijiland, which was made from RKO footage salvaged from an abandoned feature film.
12.
Robert Wise continued to work with Hamilton on other films, including Stage Door, Having Wonderful Time and The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle.
13.
At RKO, Robert Wise worked with Orson Welles on Citizen Kane and was nominated for the Academy Award for Film Editing.
14.
Robert Wise later used the technique in films that he directed.
15.
Robert Wise worked as editor on Welles' next film for RKO, The Magnificent Ambersons.
16.
For example, before directing Until They Sail, set in New Zealand during World War II, Robert Wise traveled to New Zealand to interview women whose lives were similar to those portrayed in the film.
17.
Robert Wise shot films on location, such as Mystery in Mexico, a minor B-movie thriller filmed in Mexico City.
18.
At RKO, Robert Wise got his first credited directing job in 1944 while working for Hollywood horror film producer Val Lewton.
19.
Robert Wise replaced the original director on the horror film The Curse of the Cat People, when it fell behind schedule.
20.
Robert Wise identified the film as a personal favorite and its rave reviews helped establish his career as a director.
21.
Between Curse and Snatcher, Robert Wise directed Mademoiselle Fifi, an adaptation of two Guy de Maupassant short stories that explored man's darker side with a political subtext.
22.
Robert Wise's last film for RKO The Set-Up was a realistic boxing movie in which Wise portrayed the sport as cruel and exploitative.
23.
In 1961, teamed with Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise won the Academy Award for Best Director for West Side Story, which Robert Wise produced.
24.
Robert Wise won Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for The Sound of Music for 1965.
25.
Robert Wise struggled to keep The Sound of Music from being an overly sweet, sentimental story by cutting lesser-known songs and adding new dialogue to improve transitions.
26.
The Sound of Music was an interim film for Robert Wise, produced to mollify the studio while he developed the difficult film The Sand Pebbles, starring Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, and Candice Bergen.
27.
The Sand Pebbles, Robert Wise's critically acclaimed film epic, was a parable of the Vietnam War, with an antiwar director and message.
28.
Robert Wise was Ilya and Alexander Salkind's first choice to direct the Superman spin-off Supergirl after Richard Lester departed the franchise, but he declined.
29.
Robert Wise was considered to direct the 1985 holiday film Santa Claus: The Movie and the 1988 horror film Child's Play introducing the slasher villain Chucky.
30.
In 1989, Robert Wise directed Rooftops, his last theatrical feature film.
31.
Robert Wise became a governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1966 and served for 19 years until becoming president from 1985 through 1988.
32.
Robert Wise had previously been president of the Directors Guild of America from 1971 to 1975.
33.
Robert Wise sat on the Board of Trustees of the American Film Institute and chaired its Center for Advanced Film Studies.
34.
Robert Wise was named chairman of the Directors Guild of America's special projects committee in 1980, organizing its fiftieth anniversary celebration in New York in 1986.
35.
Robert Wise encouraged young filmmakers and responded to inquiries from fans and film students.
36.
Robert Wise supervised Emilio Estevez's debut as a director in Wisdom and was its executive producer.
37.
Robert Wise made a cameo performance in John Landis' The Stupids.
38.
Robert Wise oversaw the DVD commentaries of The Sand Pebbles and Executive Suite.
39.
Robert Wise oversaw and provided DVD commentary for his Director's Edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which included re-edited scenes, new optical effects and a new sound mix.
40.
The couple had one son, Robert Wise, who became an assistant cameraman.
41.
Robert Wise had an expansive bungalow on the Universal Studios lot and owned a modern California beach house.
42.
Robert Wise continued to screen films for personal enjoyment and had "final cut" decisions on his films.
43.
Robert Wise suffered a heart attack and was rushed to UCLA Medical Center, where he died of heart failure on September 14,2005, four days after his 91st birthday.
44.
Robert Wise has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
45.
Citizen Kane, which Robert Wise had edited early in his career, was listed second.
46.
In 1968, Robert Wise was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from Franklin College and in 1981 co-chaired a $10 million fundraising campaign for the college.
47.
In 1992, Robert Wise was named the first recipient of the Indianapolis-based Heartland Film Festival's Crystal Heart Career Achievement Award.
48.
In 2002, the Indiana Historical Society named Robert Wise a Living Legend.
49.
Robert Wise is depicted in a mural of famous Randolph County, Indiana, natives in the county's courthouse.