Biography
Billy Wilder, born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906, was an Austrian-born director, screenwriter and producer who is regarded as one of the most successful filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age. Today he is best known for his comedies, although he also directed dramas and film noirs. Wilder is one of only five people who have won Academy Awards as producer, director, and writer for the same film (The Apartment). Wilder's career began in Germany, where he worked as a writer for comedy films from 1930...
Known For
Complete Filmography

Audrey
2020
as Self - Filmmaker (voice) (archive footage)
An unprecedented and intimate look at the life, work and enduring legacy of British actress Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993).

Hollywood's Second World War
2019
as Self (archive footage)
For the USA, World War 2 was an all-out war - to mobilize the masses, the US government launched a huge propaganda campaign and cinema, the medium of ...

La Garçonnière
2018
Original Story

Never Be Boring: Billy Wilder
2017
as Self (archive footage)
A funny walk through the life story of Billy Wilder (1906-2002), a cinematic genius; a portrait of a filmmaker who never was a boring man, a superb mi...

Billy Wilder: Nobody's Perfect
2016
as Self (archive footage)
Biography on the famous writer-director, Billy Wilder.

Night Will Fall
2014
as Self (archive footage)
When Allied forces liberated the Nazi concentration camps in 1944-45, their terrible discoveries were recorded by army and newsreel cameramen, reveali...

And the Oscar Goes To...
2014
as Self (archive footage)
The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy ...

Cinema's Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood
2009
as Self (archive footage)
Eight hundred German filmmakers (cast and crew) fled the Nazis in the 1930s. The film uses voice-overs, archival footage, and film clips to examine Be...

Helmut by June
2007
as Self (archive footage)
An intimate portrait of iconic photographer Helmut Newton shot by his wife and fellow photographer June Newton.

Shadows of Suspense
2006
as Self (archive footage)
A documentary featuring film historians, directors and authors discussing the making of Billy Wilder's "Double Indemnity."

The Legacy of 'Some Like It Hot'
2006
as Self (archive footage)
A look back at the impact Billy Wilder's comedy classic "Some Like It Hot" has left since it's release in 1959.

The Making of 'Some Like It Hot'
2006
as Self (archive footage)
A look back at the making of Billy Wilder's 1959 comedy classic "Some Like It Hot."

The Legacy of 'Some Like It Hot'
2006
Thanks
A look back at the impact Billy Wilder's comedy classic "Some Like It Hot" has left since it's release in 1959.

The Making of 'Some Like It Hot'
2006
Thanks
A look back at the making of Billy Wilder's 1959 comedy classic "Some Like It Hot."

Billy Wilder Speaks
2006
as Self - Filmmaker
In 1988, German filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff sat down with legendary director Billy Wilder (1906-2002) at his office in Beverly Hills, California, and...

Heart of the Festival
2002
A short film containing some of the highlights of the Cannes Film Festival's storied history.

Nobody's Perfect - The Making of Some Like It Hot
2001
as Self (archive footage)
Documentary discussing the casting and making of "Some Like It Hot", the film voted as the Best Comedy ever made by the American Film Institute.
Klaus Kinski: I'm not an actor
2000
as Self (archive footage)
Klaus Kinski is one of the few German actors who has achieved international fame. He made headlines. And disappeared behind them. Kinski lived his par...

Billy Wilder: The Human Comedy
1998
as Self
A profile of writer-director Billy Wilder

Walter Matthau: Diamond in the Rough
1997
as Self
A profile of the life of actor Walter Matthau.

Fred MacMurray: The Guy Next Door
1996
as Self
Amiable and unassuming, Fred MacMurray went from small-town boy to one of Hollywood and television's most enduring stars.

Jack Lemmon: America's Everyman
1996
as Self
Jack Lemmon made over 60 films and received numerous awards, including eight Academy Award Nominations and two Oscars. Later in life, his achievement ...

Sabrina
1995
Original Film Writer
Sabrina Fairchild, a chauffeur's daughter, grew up at the Long Island estate of the wealthy Larrabee family enchanted with their sparkling world of pr...

Audrey Hepburn: Remembered
1993
as Self
Audrey Hepburn was one of the movies' best-loved stars, blessed with beauty, talent, an elegant sophistication and an enduring aura of youthful innoce...

Billy, How Did You Do It?
1992
as Self
An interview between Volker Schlöndorff and Billy Wilder.

The Exiles
1989
as Self
A chronicle of the rescue of oppressed intellectuals and artists from Europe before the outbreak of World War II. It studies the cultural and intellec...

Directed by William Wyler
1986
as Self
Documentary about the famed Hollywood director.

Witness for the Prosecution
1982
Screenplay
Sir Wilfred Robarts, a famed barrister is released from the hospital, where he stayed for two months following his heart attack. Returning to the prac...

Portrait of a '60% Perfect Man': Billy Wilder
1982
as Self
French film critic Michel Ciment interviews Billy Wilder about his life and filmmaking.

Buddy Buddy
1981
Director, Writer
During a high profile Mafia testimony case, a contract killer checks-in a hotel room near the courthouse while his next door depressed neighbor wants ...

Fedora
1978
Director, Producer, Writer
An ambitious Hollywood hustler becomes involved with a reclusive female star, whom he tries to lure out of retirement.

The Front Page
1974
Screenplay, Director
A journalist suffering from burn-out wants to finally say goodbye to his office – but his boss doesn’t like the idea one bit.

Double Indemnity
1973
Screenplay
A scheming wife lures an insurance investigator into helping murder her husband and then declare it an accident. The investigator's boss, not knowing ...

Avanti!
1972
Director, Producer, Screenplay
A successful businessman goes to Italy to arrange for the return of his tycoon-father's body only to discover dad died with his mistress of long stand...

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
1970
Producer, Writer, Director
Holmes and Dr. Watson take on the case of a beautiful woman whose husband has vanished. The investigation proves strange indeed, involving six missing...

The Fortune Cookie
1966
Screenplay, Producer, Director
A cameraman is knocked over during a football game. His brother-in-law, as the king of the ambulance-chasing lawyers, starts a suit while he's still k...

Kiss Me, Stupid
1964
Director, Producer, Screenplay
While traveling home from Vegas, an amorous lounge singer named Dino gets conned by a local mechanic/songwriter into staying in town for the night. Th...

Irma la Douce
1963
Producer, Director, Screenplay
When a naive policeman falls in love with a prostitute, he doesn’t want her seeing other men and creates an alter ego who’s to be her only customer.

One, Two, Three
1961
Director, Screenplay, Producer
C.R. MacNamara is a managing director for Coca Cola in West Berlin during the Cold War, just before the Wall is put up. When Scarlett, the rebellious ...

The Apartment
1960
Producer, Director, Screenplay
Bud Baxter is a minor clerk in a huge New York insurance company, until he discovers a quick way to climb the corporate ladder. He lends out his apart...

Some Like It Hot
1959
Director, Producer, Screenplay
Two musicians witness a mob hit and struggle to find a way out of the city before they are found by the gangsters. Their only opportunity is to join a...

Witness for the Prosecution
1957
Screenplay, Director
An ailing barrister agrees to defend a man in a sensational murder trial where the unconvincing testimony of the defendant's wife becomes a subject of...

Love in the Afternoon
1957
Screenplay, Director, Producer
Lovestruck conservatory student Ariane pretends to be just as much a cosmopolitan lover as the worldly mature Frank Flannagan hoping that l’amour will...

The Spirit of St. Louis
1957
Director, Screenplay, Producer
Charles Lindbergh struggles to finance and design an airplane that will make his 1927 New York to Paris flight the first solo trans-Atlantic crossing.

The Seven Year Itch
1955
Screenplay, Director, Producer
With his family away for their annual summer holiday, a publishing executive decides to live a bachelor's life. The beautiful but ditzy blonde from th...

Emil and the Detectives
1954
Screenplay
Emil goes to Berlin to see his grandmother with a large amount of money and is offered sweets by a strange man that make him sleep. He wakes up at his...

Sabrina
1954
Screenplay, Director, Producer
Linus and David Larrabee are the two sons of a very wealthy family. Linus is all work – busily running the family corporate empire, he has no time for...

Stalag 17
1953
Producer, Writer, Director
It's a dreary Christmas 1944 for the American POWs in Stalag 17 and the men in Barracks 4, all sergeants, have to deal with a grave problem—there seem...

Ace in the Hole
1951
Writer, Producer, Director
An arrogant reporter exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to revitalize his career.

Sunset Boulevard
1950
Screenplay, Director
A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.

A Song Is Born
1948
Story
The story of seven scholars in search of an expert to teach them about swing music. They seem to have found the perfect candidate in winsome nightclub...

A Foreign Affair
1948
Screenplay, Director
In occupied Berlin, a US Army Captain is torn between an ex-Nazi cafe singer and the US Congresswoman investigating her.

The Emperor Waltz
1948
Director, Writer
At the turn of the 20th century, travelling salesman Virgil Smith journeys to Vienna in the hope he can sell a gramophone to Emperor Franz Joseph, who...

The Bishop's Wife
1947
Additional Writing
An Episcopal Bishop, Henry Brougham, has been working for months on the plans for an elaborate new cathedral which he hopes will be paid for primarily...

The Lost Weekend
1945
Screenplay, Director
Don Birnam, a long-time alcoholic, has been sober for ten days and appears to be over the worst... but his craving has just become more insidious. Eva...

Death Mills
1945
Editor, Director
Originally made with a German soundtrack for screening in occupied Germany and Austria, this film was the first documentary to show what the Allies fo...

Double Indemnity
1944
Director, Screenplay
A seductive housewife draws an insurance salesman into a plot of adultery and crime to collect on her husband's life insurance.

Five Graves to Cairo
1943
Director, Screenplay
The British Army, retreating ahead of victorious Rommel, leaves a lone survivor on the Egyptian border who finds refuge at a remote desert hotel. He a...

The Major and the Minor
1942
Director, Writer
Returning to her hometown from New York, Susan Applegate learns that she hasn't enough for the train fare and disguises herself as a twelve-year-old t...

Ball of Fire
1941
Original Story, Screenplay
A group of academics have spent years shut up in a house working on the definitive encyclopedia. When one of them discovers that his entry on slang is...

Hold Back the Dawn
1941
Writer
Romanian-French gigolo Georges Iscovescu wishes to enter the USA. Stopped in Mexico by the quota system, he decides to marry an American, then desert ...

Arise, My Love
1940
Screenplay
A dashing pilot and a vivacious reporter have romantic and dramatic adventures in Europe as World War II begins.

Rhythm on the River
1940
Story
Popular songwriter Oliver Courtney has been getting by for years using one ghost writer for his music and another for his lyrics. When both writers me...

Ninotchka
1939
Screenplay
A stern Russian woman sent to Paris on official business finds herself attracted to a man who represents everything she is supposed to detest.

What a Life
1939
Screenplay
Jackie Cooper stars in this first film in the wholesome "Henry Aldrich" series of teen comedies.

Midnight
1939
Screenplay
An unemployed American showgirl poses as Hungarian royalty to infiltrate Parisian high society.

That Certain Age
1938
Writer
Dashing reporter Vincent Bullit has just returned from covering the Spanish Civil War. His boss, newspaper magnate Fullerton, has more plans to send h...

Bluebeard's Eighth Wife
1938
Screenplay
American multi-millionaire Michael Brandon marries his eighth wife, Nicole, the daughter of a broke French Marquis. But she doesn't want to be only a ...

Champagne Waltz
1937
Story
In Vienna, a new jazz club featuring American trumpeter Buzzy Bellew threatens the existence of its neighbor, the Waltz Palace, run by Franz Strauss a...

First Offence
1936
Original Story
After his father sells his car, an immature playboy steals it back, and gets involved with a gang of professional car thieves. British remake of "Mauv...

Emil and the Detectives
1935
Screenplay
Erich Kästner’s beloved novel has been adapted for film or television six times since its publication in 1929; this 1935 British version was the first...

The Lottery Lover
1935
Screenplay
A crew of young military-school cadets are enjoying their first weekend in Paris. Frank Harrington, a girl-shy cadet, wins the lottery which "They" ha...

Music in the Air
1934
Screenplay
A songwriter's young daughter (June Lang) begins to dream of stardom when she's offered the lead role in a new operetta.

One Exciting Adventure
1934
Story
One Exciting Adventure is a 1934 American comedy film directed by Ernst L. Frank. It is a remake of the 1933 German film What Women Dream.

Bad Seed
1934
Director, Writer
A young man-about-Paris, cut off from his father's money, falls in with a picaresque gang of car thieves.

Adorable
1933
Writer
Rebellious Princess Marie "Mitzi" Christine must try to marry the man she loves, instead of the stuffy old prince her parents want her to marry.

What Women Dream
1933
Screenplay
In this pre-WWII German mystery-comedy, a lovely kleptomaniac with a taste for fine jewelry is unable to resist temptation. Strangely, every time she ...

Madame Wants No Children
1933
Screenplay

The Blue from the Sky
1932
Screenplay
Out of unlikely circumstances an underground ticket vending girl and a mail pilot fall in love.

Where Is This Lady?
1932
Story
A British musical film directed by Victor Hanbury and Ladislao Vajda

Scampolo, ein Kind der Straße
1932
Writer
The street urchin Scampolo (which means, "A Nothing"), who sleeps at night in a telephone booth and earns a little money running errands for a laundr...

A Blonde Dream
1932
Writer
Rival window cleaners Willy I and Willy 2 befriend Jou-Jou, an aspiring dancer, who has been tricked out of money by a con-man posing as an American m...
Happy Ever After
1932
Writer
Two window cleaners help a girl who is trying to get to Hollywood.

Once There Was a Waltz
1932
Writer
Banker Rudi Moebius and his counselor arrive in Wien for an arranged marriage which should solve their financial problems. Only they don't know, but L...

The Winner
1932
Writer

Emil and the Detectives
1931
Screenplay
When a suspicious man bribes Emil with chocolate in return for a bundle of cash, the young lad thinks of a plan to catch him.

Princess, At Your Orders!
1931
Writer
Simultaneously made French version of "Ihre Hoheit Befiehlt": An officer, posing as a deli clerk, and a princess, posing as a manicurist, meet at a ba...

The Wrong Husband
1931
Writer

Infidelities
1931
Story
When both husband and wife find romance outside their marriage, it's a shock to everyone. Robert and Annemarie break up to elope with their respective...

Her Grace Commands
1931
Writer
An emancipated Princess, who has just returned home to her court in the Balkans from England, goes in disguise to a servants’ bal and falls in love wi...

The Man in Search of His Murderer
1931
Screenplay
A man in bad sorts hires a burglar to later kill him, then changes his mind when his fortunes turn and must find the contracted murderer before it is ...
The fight with the dragon or: The tragedy of the lodger
1930
Writer
A meek clerk can no longer abide the nastiness of his boarding house proprietress and takes drastic action.

People on Sunday
1930
Screenplay
A semi-documentary experimental 1930 German silent film created by amateurs with a small budget. With authentic scenes of the metropolis city of Berli...

Der Teufelsreporter
1929
Writer
Thirteen wealthy American daughters visiting Europe are secretly abducted in Berlin by a dubious guide and governess. Stenographer Eddie, who missed t...