HMVNipper
Mar 28, 2002, 01:59 PM
Wonder if this is the proverbial Number Three...movie buffs will be saddened by this...
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Film Director Billy Wilder Dies
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Filmmaker Billy Wilder, the Austrian-born cynic whose gifts for writing and directing led to such classics as ``Sunset Boulevard,'' ``Some Like it Hot'' and ``Double Indemnity,'' has died. He was 95.
Wilder died Wednesday night at his home, said George Schlatter, a producer and longtime friend. Schlatter said Wilder's health had been failing in recent months.
Schlatter said he believed his friend of 40 years had been suffering from a bout with pneumonia.
As co-writer, director and producer of the 1960 film ``The Apartment,'' Wilder collected three Oscars, the only person to do so for one film. Among his other classics: ``Sunset Boulevard,'' ``Double Indemnity,'' ``Stalag 17,'' ``The Lost Weekend,'' ``The Seven Year Itch,'' ``Some Like It Hot'' and ``Witness for the Prosecution.''
The Austrian-born Wilder was also noted as one of Hollywood's best wits. He once remarked of postwar France: ``It's a country where you can't tear the toilet paper but the currency crumbles in your hands.'' William Holden said Wilder had ``a mind full of razor blades.''
His films were notable for their clever dialogue and an overlay of cynicism and betrayal. His actors won Oscars for their hard-bitten portrayals: Ray Milland as the unremitting alcoholic in ``The Lost Weekend,'' Holden as the suspected prison-camp traitor in ``Stalag 17,'' Walter Matthau as an insurance cheater in ``The Fortune Cookie.''
``Making movies is a little like walking into a dark room,'' he once mused. ``Some people stumble across furniture, others break their legs, but some of us see better in the dark than others. The ultimate trick is to convince, persuade. Every single person out there is an idiot, but collectively they're a genius.''
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Rooftop Sessions - The Finest In Beatles-Related Fiction. www.rooftopsessions.com (http://www.rooftopsessions.com) March 2002 Issue Now Up!
"O superb! O Manhattan, my own, my peerless! O strongest you in the hour of danger, in crisis! O truer than steel!" -- Walt Whitman
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Film Director Billy Wilder Dies
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Filmmaker Billy Wilder, the Austrian-born cynic whose gifts for writing and directing led to such classics as ``Sunset Boulevard,'' ``Some Like it Hot'' and ``Double Indemnity,'' has died. He was 95.
Wilder died Wednesday night at his home, said George Schlatter, a producer and longtime friend. Schlatter said Wilder's health had been failing in recent months.
Schlatter said he believed his friend of 40 years had been suffering from a bout with pneumonia.
As co-writer, director and producer of the 1960 film ``The Apartment,'' Wilder collected three Oscars, the only person to do so for one film. Among his other classics: ``Sunset Boulevard,'' ``Double Indemnity,'' ``Stalag 17,'' ``The Lost Weekend,'' ``The Seven Year Itch,'' ``Some Like It Hot'' and ``Witness for the Prosecution.''
The Austrian-born Wilder was also noted as one of Hollywood's best wits. He once remarked of postwar France: ``It's a country where you can't tear the toilet paper but the currency crumbles in your hands.'' William Holden said Wilder had ``a mind full of razor blades.''
His films were notable for their clever dialogue and an overlay of cynicism and betrayal. His actors won Oscars for their hard-bitten portrayals: Ray Milland as the unremitting alcoholic in ``The Lost Weekend,'' Holden as the suspected prison-camp traitor in ``Stalag 17,'' Walter Matthau as an insurance cheater in ``The Fortune Cookie.''
``Making movies is a little like walking into a dark room,'' he once mused. ``Some people stumble across furniture, others break their legs, but some of us see better in the dark than others. The ultimate trick is to convince, persuade. Every single person out there is an idiot, but collectively they're a genius.''
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Rooftop Sessions - The Finest In Beatles-Related Fiction. www.rooftopsessions.com (http://www.rooftopsessions.com) March 2002 Issue Now Up!
"O superb! O Manhattan, my own, my peerless! O strongest you in the hour of danger, in crisis! O truer than steel!" -- Walt Whitman