Wyler, William

(born July 1, 1902, Mulhouse, France—died July 27, 1981, Beverly Hills, Calif., U.S.) American director of motion pictures that combine a high technical polish with a clear narrative style and sensitive handling of human relationships. Most of his films were based on novels or plays.

The son of a Swiss-born merchant in Alsace, Wyler attended the École Supérieure de Commerce in Lausanne, Switz., and the Paris Conservatory. In New York City he worked in the foreign publicity office of Universal Pictures in 1920–21. He then moved to Hollywood, working as an office boy, property boy, script clerk, assistant casting director, assistant director, and, finally, director of more than 50 westerns between 1925 and 1927.

Counsellor-at-Law (1933) established his reputation as a serious director and initiated a series of box-office successes that included These Three (1936), Dodsworth (1936), Dead End (1937), Jezebel (1938), Wuthering Heights (1939), The Westerner (1940), The Letter (1940), and The Little Foxes (1941).

Wyler developed a characteristic style based on varying the pictorial composition within each frame to create visual variety. Mrs. Miniver (1942) won him an Academy Award, as did two later films of equal popularity—The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) and Ben Hur (1959). During World War II he directed outstanding documentary films such as The Memphis Belle (1944) and Thunderbolt (1945). In the years following the war, his most highly acclaimed pictures included Roman Holiday (1953), The Big Country (1958), The Collector (1965), and Funny Girl (1968).

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