Lewis Milestone

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Moldovan postage stamp featuring Lewis Milestone (2003)

Lewis Milestone (born September 30, 1895 in Chișinău , Bessarabia - today Moldova - as Lev Milstein ; † September 25, 1980 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American film director , screenwriter and film producer . As a director, he has received two Oscar awards.

Life

Lev Milstein came from a wealthy Jewish family who settled in what was then the Russian Ukraine and Bessarabia (today: Moldova ). His cousin was the world-famous violin virtuoso Nathan Milstein . Lev Milstein studied mechanical engineering in Ghent before moving to the United States before the outbreak of World War I. There he initially worked in various odd jobs, but joined the US Army during the war , where he was involved in various functions - including camera operator and assistant director - in the production of educational films .

After the war, these activities soon gave him a job in the resurgent Hollywood film industry . The producer and film magnate Howard Hughes gave him small directorial work from 1918. At the latest by this time he had Americanized his Jewish name to Lewis Milestone. One motivation for this may have been anti-Semitism in the USA.

His first comedy Die Schlachtenbummler, starring William Boyd and Mary Astor , was produced by Hughes in 1927 and won him an Oscar at the first Academy Awards. With the Oscar for best director in the two categories of drama and comedy (a division that was lifted a year later) that year, Milestone is the only director to have ever received an Oscar in this category.

With the success of Die Schlachtenbummler , he was increasingly offered larger projects. For his adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's eponymous novel All Quiet on the Western Front with Louis Wolheim and Lew Ayres in the leading roles, he had an enormous budget of 1.25 million US dollars at the time. The film became a huge hit with both critics and audiences, and in 1930 won two Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director .

The following year, Milestone directed the hit comedy The Front Page with Pat O'Brien and Adolphe Menjou in the leading roles. Again he was nominated for the Oscar, but this time could not win it. In 1932 he was responsible for Rain , an adaptation of the play of the same name.

Milestone changed the genre several times in the following time , he shot musicals like Anything Goes , adventure film ( The General died at dawn ) and melodramas, but could not build on the great success of his earlier films. It wasn't until 1939, with the film adaptation of the novel Von Mäusen und Menschen by John Steinbeck , that Milestone had another commercial hit.

In the mid-1950s, he increasingly withdrew from the film business and instead worked on television series and films. He had a greater success in 1960 with the comedy Frankie and his cronies ( Ocean's Eleven ) with Frank Sinatra and his friends in the lead roles. He made his last feature film in 1962 with Mutiny on the Bounty . The leading roles were played by Marlon Brando , Trevor Howard and Richard Harris . Milestone took over the direction of Carol Reed after he fell out with Brando because of his special requests and starry airs. In contrast to Reed, Milestone did not mess with Brando, but simply let him go. The film became a financial disaster and endangered the existence of the MGM film studio .

In the following years he finally withdrew from the film business. He died in Los Angeles in 1980 after an operation.

Films as a director (selection)

Awards

  • 1929: Oscar as the best director of a comedy for battle strollers
  • 1930: Oscar as best director for Nothing New in the West
  • 1931: Oscar nomination for best director for The Front Page
  • 1931: Kinema Junpo Award for best foreign film Nothing new in the West
  • 1940: Oscar nomination for best director for Von Mäusen und Menschen
  • 1947: International Cannes Film Festival nominated best film The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
  • On February 8, 1960, he received a star on the Walk of Fame (elevation 7021 Hollywood Blvd.)
  • 1963: Directors Guild of America nominated for Best Director

Web links

Commons : Lewis Milestone  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary for Lewis Milestone in The New York Times
personal data
SURNAME Milestone, Lewis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Milstein, Lev (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film director, screenwriter and film producer
DATE OF BIRTH September 30, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Chișinău , Moldova
DATE OF DEATH September 25, 1980
Place of death Los Angeles , California