60 Fun Facts About William Wyler

William Wyler holds the record for the most nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director. How many?

He won three times, and 13 of his films were nominated for Best Picture.

Which three films won Wyler his directing Oscars?

All three also won Best Picture, making him the only director with three Best Picture winners.

In which city was Wyler born?

It was then in the German Empire's Alsace-Lorraine and is now in France.

Wyler's mother was a cousin of which studio founder, who gave him his start?

Laemmle came to Europe each year looking for promising young men and hired Wyler in 1921.

Which studio did Wyler work for in his early Hollywood years, becoming its youngest director by 1925?

He started in the swing gang, cleaning stages and moving sets, before rising through the ranks.

Wyler's first all-talking film, shot on location in the Mojave Desert in 1929, was which western?

It was one of many adaptations of Peter B. Kyne's story The Three Godfathers.

Which future agent, a young Czech, did Wyler befriend on the ship to New York in 1921?

Both had to repay the cost of their first-class passage out of $25-a-week jobs as studio messengers.

Wyler's first Best Director nomination came for which 1936 film starring Walter Huston?

It began a long collaboration with producer Samuel Goldwyn.

Wyler's first Best Director nominee was adapted from a novel by which American author?

Sidney Howard based the screenplay on his own 1934 stage adaptation.

Which cinematographer, famous for Citizen Kane, worked with Wyler on Wuthering Heights, The Little Foxes and The Best Years of Our Lives?

Their deep-focus style kept foreground and background sharp in the same shot.

What is the name of the visual technique Wyler pioneered with Toland, keeping an entire room sharp from front to back?

It allowed dramatic changes in lighting and movement to play out inside one long, uncut take.

Bette Davis won her second Oscar for which 1938 Wyler film?

She said Wyler trained her on it to be a far, far better actress.

On the set of his 1938 Bette Davis picture, Wyler put which actor through 40 takes of a scene with only the word "Again!" as direction?

When the actor asked for more direction, Wyler said: It stinks. The habit earned him the nickname 40-take Wyler.

Which actor received his first Oscar nomination for Wyler's Wuthering Heights and credited him with teaching him to act for the screen?

He later asked Wyler to direct his Henry V; Wyler declined, saying he was not a Shakespearian.

Who played Cathy opposite Olivier in Wuthering Heights?

David Niven co-starred, and Samuel Goldwyn produced.

Which director, later famous for The Maltese Falcon, called Wyler his best friend in the industry and early mentor?

Wyler met him while directing his father Walter Huston in A House Divided in 1931.

Mrs. Miniver, Wyler's first Best Director winner, starred Walter Pidgeon and which actress, who won Best Actress?

It was her first and only Academy Award.

Who sent MGM a telegram calling Mrs. Miniver "propaganda worth 100 battleships"?

Roosevelt wanted prints rushed to theatres, and the minister's speech was dropped as leaflets over occupied Europe.

Which US ambassador to Britain urged studios to stop making pro-British films because he believed British defeat was imminent?

MGM's Eddie Mannix disagreed, saying someone should salute England even if it lost $100,000.

Wyler's 1944 wartime documentary followed the crew of which type of aircraft?

He filmed it on real bombing missions in 1943, once passing out from lack of oxygen.

What lasting injury did Wyler suffer while making the documentary Thunderbolt!?

He returned from the war a lieutenant colonel and a disabled veteran.

The Best Years of Our Lives follows how many veterans returning home after World War II?

Wyler drew on his own homecoming after three years at the front.

Non-actor Harold Russell, who played Homer in The Best Years of Our Lives, had lost what in the war?

He won Best Supporting Actor and an Honorary Award for the same role, the only time that has happened.

Who won Best Actor for The Best Years of Our Lives?

Each of Wyler's three Best Picture winners produced an acting Oscar in a lead category.

The Heiress, which won Olivia de Havilland her second Oscar, was based on which Henry James novel?

De Havilland saw the play in New York and persuaded Wyler to get Paramount to buy the rights.

Which actress won Best Actress for her first starring role in Wyler's Roman Holiday?

Wyler said the only comparable actresses were Garbo, Katharine Hepburn and maybe Bergman.

Roman Holiday's blacklisted screenwriter did not receive credit until decades later. Who was he?

Ian McLellan Hunter fronted for him; full credit was restored in 2011.

Which Wyler film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1956?

It tells of a Quaker family in Indiana whose pacifism is tested by the Civil War.

How many Oscars did Ben-Hur win, a record unequalled until Titanic in 1997?

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King later matched the total too.

Roughly how long did the nine-minute chariot race in Ben-Hur take to film?

The film used fifteen thousand extras and was the most expensive ever made at the time.

Which two second-unit directors staged the Ben-Hur chariot race?

Canutt was brought in to protect the horses after the 1925 version reportedly killed at least a hundred.

Which actor lobbied for the title role in Ben-Hur, was offered Messala instead, refused, and made Spartacus?

Wyler had directed him in Detective Story in 1951.

Ben-Hur's budget rose to what figure, at a time when MGM feared bankruptcy if it flopped?

It earned $90 million worldwide, and Wyler had also assisted on the 1925 silent version.

Which composer wrote the Ben-Hur score, at the time the longest ever composed for a film?

It remained highly influential on film music for more than 15 years.

Which actor, briefly graylisted after suing Warner Bros. to leave the series Maverick, did Wyler cast in The Children's Hour?

The next year Garner played leading roles in four major films.

The Children's Hour was based on a 1934 play by which writer, whom Wyler had also filmed in The Little Foxes?

Wyler had already filmed a bowdlerised version of the play in 1936 as These Three.

Which English actors starred as kidnapper and captive in Wyler's 1965 film The Collector?

Wyler felt the pair had the right chemistry of sexual tension and awkwardness.

Whose film debut did Wyler direct in Funny Girl (1968)?

She won Best Actress in a famous tie with Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter.

Funny Girl is loosely based on the life of which comedienne?

Her stormy relationship with gambler Nicky Arnstein drives the plot.

Which 1970 film was Wyler hired to direct but quit before production began?

His last completed film came out the same year.

What was the title of Wyler's final film, released in 1970?

He had spent five decades directing across almost every genre.

How many actors won Oscars under Wyler's direction, a record?

He also directed a record thirty-six Oscar-nominated performances.

Wyler holds the record for consecutive Best Director nominations. Over which years did his streak of four run?

He is tied with Frank Capra on three wins, behind John Ford's four.

Which director equalled Wyler's record of thirteen Best Picture nominees in 2023?

Spielberg's thirteenth came with The Fabelmans at the 2023 ceremony. Wyler is also the only director whose films won Best Picture three times.

In which year did Wyler receive the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award?

The AFI Life Achievement Award, its fourth ever, followed in 1976.

Wyler was briefly married in the mid-1930s to which actress, later the star of his comedy The Good Fairy?

In 1938 he married Margaret Talli Tallichet, and they had five children.

Which acting group made their first screen appearance in Wyler's 1937 crime drama set in the New York slums, adapted from a Sidney Kingsley play?

The film starred Sylvia Sidney, Joel McCrea and Humphrey Bogart in the New York slums.

Wyler's 1952 film Carrie, with Jennifer Jones, was based on a novel by whom?

Critic Michael Billington thought its male lead deserved an Oscar for his unforgettable performance in it.

Which Humphrey Bogart film noir did Wyler direct in 1955?

It came between Roman Holiday and Friendly Persuasion in Wyler's 1950s run.

Wyler's 1966 heist comedy How to Steal a Million paired his Roman Holiday star with which actor?

It was Hepburn's third and last film with Wyler.

Wyler's The Big Country (1958) starred Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston alongside which folk singer, who won a supporting Oscar?

Chuck Connors was also in the supporting cast.

Counsellor at Law (1933), with John Barrymore, was based on a Broadway play by which dramatist?

Wyler made it during his run of varied early-1930s films at Universal.

What languages did Wyler speak fluently?

He was also a Freemason and, according to a director friend, played Beethoven on the violin.

Before Hollywood, Wyler spent a dismal year in Paris selling shirts and ties for which firm?

He was so poor he wandered the Pigalle district, until his mother wrote to her cousin Carl Laemmle about a job.

What rank did Wyler hold when he returned from World War II service?

He had volunteered as a major in 1942 and came home a disabled veteran after losing hearing in one ear.

Which 2017 Netflix series features Steven Spielberg describing Wyler's filming of Memphis Belle?

Wyler flew real bombing missions over enemy territory in 1943 and once blacked out from lack of oxygen.

Before his Air Force posting, Wyler was hired to direct which documentary on African-American troops?

His cinematographer on Memphis Belle, First Lieutenant Harold J. Tannenbaum, was shot down and killed during filming.

Which actress got Wyler to have Paramount buy the play that became The Heiress?

She had seen it in New York and felt she could play the lead perfectly; Wyler flew out, was moved, and convinced the studio.

How many children did Wyler have with his second wife, Margaret 'Talli' Tallichet?

Their daughter Catherine said Talli acted as his 'gatekeeper' and read the scripts sent to him.

Where is William Wyler buried?

He died of a heart attack in July 1981, three days after giving an interview to his daughter for a PBS documentary.