W. Lee Wilder

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W. Lee Wilder , born as Wilhelm Wilder , also Willie Wilder , (born August 22, 1904 in Sucha , Austria-Hungary , † February 14, 1982 in Los Angeles , United States ) was an Austrian -born, American entrepreneur , film director and Film producer .

Life

Wilhelm Wilder moved with his parents and his two years younger brother Samuel, who was to make a world career as a film director in Hollywood as Billy Wilder , in 1916 from the Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia to the capital Vienna. Wilhelm Wilder emigrated to the USA in the next decade and settled in New York City . There he called himself Willie (William) Wilder from then on and was quite successful as a businessman with the manufacture of handbags for the next two decades with his own company, the Long Island- based "Wm. Wilder Co., Inc. Original Handbags".

In the meantime, Brother Billy had made a name for himself in Hollywood as a director of film dramas, and so shortly before the end of the war in 1945, Willie Wilder decided to try his luck in Hollywood as well. Billy's film noir classic Woman Without a Conscience encouraged the "unknown savage" to also try making dark crime films. In order not to be confused with Billy, he called himself W. Lee Wilder instead of Willie and staged eight films of this genre between 1946 and 1959. His first film work, The Great Flamarion with Erich von Stroheim in the leading role, can also be counted among them, but was only produced by Wilder. He has also directed a number of extremely cheaply made horror and science fiction films.

Always in the shadow of his much more famous brother, W. Lee Wilder retired from the film business in 1968 after staging two obscure and hardly shown C-stripes ( Caxambu !, The Omegans ).

His son Myles Wilder (1933-2010) was a busy screenwriter and wrote the manuscripts for most of his father's theatrical productions from 1953 to 1959. Willie's granddaughter Kimberly "Kim" Wilder-Lee oversees press work for several television studios and was also responsible for the PR for the hit series The Simpsons and The X Files - The FBI's Scary Cases .

Filmography

As a producer:

  • 1945: The Great Flamarion
  • 1946: Strange Impersonation
  • 1946: The Glass Alibi
  • 1947: Yankee Fakir
  • 1947: The Pretender
  • 1948: The Vicious Circle
  • 1949: Melodious Sketches (short film)
  • 1949: Melodies Reborn (short film)
  • 1950: Once a Thief
  • 1950: The Tradition (short film)
  • 1951: Three Steps North
  • 1953: Phantom From Space
  • 1954: The Snow Creature
  • 1955: The Big Bluff
  • 1955: vulture (Manfish)
  • 1956: Fright
  • 1958: Spy in the Sky!
  • 1967: Caxambu!
  • 1968: The Omegans

As a director:

  • 1946: The Glass Alibi
  • 1947: Yankee Fakir
  • 1947: The Pretender
  • 1948: The Vicious Circle
  • 1949: Melodious Sketches (short film)
  • 1949: Melodies Reborn (short film)
  • 1950: Once a Thief
  • 1950: The Tradition (short film)
  • 1951: Three Steps North
  • 1953: Phantom From Space
  • 1954: The Snow Creature
  • 1955: The Big Bluff
  • 1955: vulture (Manfish)
  • 1956: Fright
  • 1957: The Man Without a Body
  • 1958: Spy in the Sky!
  • 1959: Ten women disappeared in Paris (Bluebeards Ten Honeymoons)
  • 1967: Caxambu!
  • 1968: The Omegans

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Unknown Wilder by Kim Wilder-Lee
personal data
SURNAME Wilder, W. Lee
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wilder, Wilhelm (maiden name); Wilder, Willie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-born, American entrepreneur, film director and film producer
DATE OF BIRTH August 22, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Sucha , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH February 14, 1982
Place of death Los Angeles , United States