55 Facts About William Wyler

William Wyler was a German-born film director and producer who won the Academy Award for Best Director three times, those being for Mrs Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives, and Ben-Hur, all of which won for Best Picture.

William Wyler immigrated to United States in 1921, working first for Universal Studios in New York before moving to Los Angeles.

William Wyler helped propel a number of actors to stardom, including finding and directing Audrey Hepburn in her debut starring role, Roman Holiday, and directing Barbra Streisand in her debut film, Funny Girl, both winning Academy Awards.

William Wyler was born to a Jewish family in Mulhouse, Alsace.

William Wyler's Swiss-born father, Leopold, started as a traveling salesman but later became a thriving haberdasher in Mulhouse.

William Wyler's mother, Melanie, was German-born, and a cousin of Carl Laemmle, founder of Universal Pictures.

William Wyler was supposed to inherit the family haberdashery business in Mulhouse, France.

William Wyler was so poor that he often spent his time wandering around the Pigalle district.

In 1921, William Wyler, while traveling as a Swiss citizen, met Laemmle who hired him to work at Universal Studios in New York.

Around 1923, William Wyler arrived in Los Angeles and began work on the Universal Studios lot in the swing gang, cleaning the stages and moving the sets.

William Wyler's break came when he was hired as a second assistant editor.

William Wyler started as a third assistant director and by 1925 he became the youngest director on the Universal lot directing the westerns that Universal was famed for turning out.

William Wyler was so focused on his work that he would dream about "different ways to get on a horse".

William Wyler's first all-talking film, and Universal's first sound production to be filmed entirely on location, was Hell's Heroes, filmed in the Mojave Desert in 1929.

William Wyler became well known for his insistence on multiple retakes, resulting in often award-winning and critically acclaimed performances from his actors.

Toland and William Wyler virtually created the "deep focus" style of filmmaking wherein multiple layers of action or characters could be seen in one scene, most famous being the bar scene in The Best Years of Our Lives.

Bette Davis received three Oscar nominations for her screen work under William Wyler, and won her second Oscar for her performance in William Wyler's 1938 film Jezebel.

William Wyler told Merv Griffin in 1972 that Wyler trained her with that film to be a "far, far better actress" than she had been.

Five years later, in 1944, while visiting London, William Wyler met with Olivier and his actress wife, Vivien Leigh.

William Wyler invited him to see her performance in The Doctor's Dilemma, and Olivier asked him to direct him in his planned film, Henry V But Wyler said he was "not a Shakespearian" and turned down the offer.

William Wyler read dialogue suggestions that Huston had given to his father Walter and hired John to work on the dialogue for the script.

William Wyler was equally capable of playing Beethoven on his violin, speeding around town on his motorcycle, or schussing down steep virgin snow trails.

In 1941, William Wyler directed Mrs Miniver, based on the 1940 novel; it was the story of a middle-class English family adjusting to the war in Europe and the bombing blitz in London.

William Wyler filmed The Memphis Belle at great personal risk, flying over enemy territory on actual bombing missions in 1943; on one flight, William Wyler lost consciousness from lack of oxygen.

Director Steven Spielberg describes William Wyler's filming of Memphis Belle in the 2017 Netflix series, Five Came Back.

William Wyler returned from the War a lieutenant colonel and a disabled veteran.

In 1949 William Wyler directed The Heiress, which earned Olivia de Havilland her second Oscar and garnered additional Oscars for Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, and Best Music.

William Wyler then called Wyler to convince him to have Paramount buy the film rights.

William Wyler flew to New York to see the play and moved by the story, convinced the studio to buy it.

In 1951, William Wyler produced and directed Kirk Douglas and Eleanor Parker in Detective Story, portraying a day in the lives of the various people in a detective squad.

William Wyler was reluctant to cast Jennifer Jones, and the filming was plagued by a variety of troubles.

Jones had not revealed that she was pregnant; William Wyler was mourning the death of his year-old son; Olivier had a painful leg ailment, and he developed a dislike for Jones.

William Wyler had assisted in the production of the 1925 version.

William Wyler won his third Academy Award for Best Director and Charlton Heston his first and only Academy Award as its star.

Kirk Douglas had lobbied William Wyler, who directed him in Detective Story in 1951, for the title role, but only after William Wyler had already decided on Heston.

William Wyler offered him instead the role of Messala, which Douglas rejected.

William Wyler naturally wanted to be involved in the film's production, often asking Wyler questions, but they got along well.

William Wyler met with Streisand during her musical run and became excited at the prospect of guiding another new star into an award-winning performance.

William Wyler sensed and admired that Streisand had the same kind of dedication to being an actress as did Bette Davis, early in her career.

William Wyler was very professional, very good, a hard worker, too hard at times.

William Wyler was hired to direct Patton, but quit before the beginning of production in 1969.

William Wyler had worked with cinematographer Gregg Toland for six of his films, mostly in the 1930s.

Fourteen actors won Oscars under William Wyler's direction, including Bette Davis in Jezebel and her nomination for The Letter.

William Wyler's films garnered more awards for participating artists and actors than any other director in the history of Hollywood.

William Wyler received 12 Oscar nominations for Best Director, while dozens of his collaborators and actors won Oscars or were nominated.

In 1965, Wyler won the Irving G Thalberg Memorial Award for career achievement.

William Wyler was briefly married to actress Margaret Sullavan and married actress Margaret "Talli" Tallichet on October 23,1938.

William Wyler is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in Glendale, California.

William Wyler is the most nominated director in Academy Awards history with twelve nominations.

William Wyler won the Academy Award for Best Director on three occasions, for his direction of Mrs Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives, and Ben-Hur.

William Wyler is tied with Frank Capra and behind John Ford, who won four Oscars in this category.

William Wyler is the only director in Academy history to direct three Best Picture-winning films, and shares with Steven Spielberg the record for directing the greatest number of Best Picture nominees.

William Wyler has the distinction of having directed more actors to Oscar-nominated performances than any other director in history: thirty-six.

William Wyler received the fourth AFI Life Achievement Award in 1976.

In 1961, William Wyler was chosen as one of 50 outstanding Americans of meritorious performance in the fields of endeavor, to be honored as a Guest of Honor to the first annual Banquet of the Golden Plate in Monterey, California.