Billy Wilder died Wednesday

Check out IMDb for the story.

Does this finally prove that famous people die in threes? Dudley Moore, Milton Berle, and Billy Wilder. Damn this sucks.

Amazing.

 

There was a talk radio show this morning where I live taking a poll among their listeners about who would be # 3.

The Queen Mother of England (the one everyone likes, not her daughter the Queen) who's 101 years old, kicked ass. Everyone figured she'd be the next celebrity to go.

Guess not.


Anyone ever seen BILLY WILDER'S STALAG 17? It's a GREAT FILM.

 

I didn't even realize that Wilder was still around, not now, obviously. Same with Berele. Moore was a shock.

 

billy wilder died?

shoot, anyway, I really like Double Indemnity, Lost Weekend, Ace in Hole, stalag 17, seven year ich, to name a few.

 

They all waited until after the Oscars.

 

I dunno what they're feeding that Queen Mum...

 

Billy who?

 

Who the heck is Billy Wilder???

 

He was the director of several classic movies, Double Indemnity, Stalag 17, and Sunset Boulevard to name I few. Click the link I gave and read about him.

Amazing.

 

I dunno what they're feeding that Queen Mum...

According to my ex-finacé, who is British, the Queen Mum's favorite snack is beans on toast.

 

it saddens me to see that some people don't know who he is, when he made some of the best movies of all time.

 

I was wondering just last night if he was still alive.

Also watched Some Like It Hot last night. Great film, by a great writer and director.

Damn.

 

R.I.P. Mr. Wilder.

 

This is so sad... he's one of the greatest directors of all time... heck, he makes 99% of all directors working today seem like dumb hacks.

I happened to watch "One, Two, Three" with James Cagney at a local theater a few weeks ago... pure, unadulterated genius!!!!

May he rest in movie heaven....

 

another thing I was thinking is that, after he came to the united states, he had to learn the language, and look what he did with it! Wow!

 

Man a Mauling, good way to be remembered for but a harsh way to go out!

 

Billy Wilder is, IMO, the best director ever. He could work with any material, from film-noir, to comedy, to drama, to social issues. He was also a brilliant writer.

Some of his great films:

Double Indemnity
The Lost Weekend
Sunset Blvd.
Ace In the Hole
Stalag 17
Sabrina (the original Audrey Hepburn version)
The Seven Year Itch
The Spirit of St. Louis
Love in the Afternoon
Witness for the Prosecution
Some Like it Hot
The Apartment
One, Two, Three
Irma La Douce
The Fortune Cookie

The world has lost a extraodinary talent.

 

Understanding talent and how to draw it out of an actor is the mark of a great director.

Few people understood the talent of Marilyn Monroe... Billy Wilder was one of them.

---

Milton Berle (b. Mendel Berlinger, 1908) was the foundation of all 20th century comedians and comic performances. You can't understand timing, body language and irony until you've studied this man. Bugs Bunny, who also stands as an American icon, very clearly adopted not only a caricaturesque resemblance in the mid-1940s, but also the wit, sarcasm and shtick of Milton Berle.

I suppose that is the truest form of homage to Milton Berle... to have his personality immortalized in ink as one of history's most memorable characters who will live on forever.

We called him Mr. Television, and coincidentally enough, it is the advent of that very technology that has given us the ability to preserve, study and cherish his performances for all time.

 

Oh my gosh! Billy Wilder was truly the classic Hollywood director. My favorites:

Double Indemnity
Some Like It Hot
The Apartment
Sabrina
Witness for the Prosecution
Sunset Blvd

Truly a great talent is gone.

 

How creepy is Darthkarma's post now?! And he predicted it last thurday

 

Great director. Some Like it Hot was easily one of the funniest movies of all time.

 

Darn you Karma! You jinxed him and in the process robbed us of one of the premiere filmmakers in film history. A bit of a shame, but not at all tragic, he lived to a ripe old age and really lived it up, rubbing elbowes with Marilin Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, and Humphery Bogart just to name a few. Well, now someone needs to fill the void...











...and who better than PARANOIDANI-DROID!?

 

Some trivia for Some Like It Hot
--------------------------------
Director Billy Wilder originally wanted Frank Sinatra as Jerry/Daphne.

Director Billy Wilder's choice for the role of Sugar was Mitzi Gaynor, not Marilyn Monroe.

Monroe wanted the film to be shot in color (her contract stipulated that all her films were to be in color), but Wilder convinced her to let it be shot in black and white when costume tests revealed that the makeup that Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon wore gave their faces a green tinge.

***This is the one***
Monroe required 47 takes to get "It's me, Sugar" correct, instead saying either "Sugar, it's me" or "It's Sugar, me". After take 30, director Wilder had the line written on a blackboard. Another scene required Monroe to rummage through some drawers and say "Where's the bourbon?" After 40 takes of Monroe saying "Where's the whiskey?", `Where's the bottle", or "Where's the bonbon?", Wilder pasted the correct line in one of the drawers. After Monroe became confused about which drawer contained the line, Wilder had it pasted in every drawer. 59 takes were required for this scene.

A preview audience laughed so hard in the scene where Jack Lemmon announces his engagement that a lot of the dialogue was missed. It had to be re-shot with pauses (and the maraca gimmick) added.

Colombo (George Raft) sees one of Bonaparte's henchmen flipping a coin, and asks "Where did you pick up that cheap trick?" In Scarface (1932), Raft played a mafia henchman who is remembered for the fact that he kept flipping a coin.

After many takes of a kissing scene, Curtis complained that kissing Monroe was "like kissing Hitler." (Although he subsequently admitted it was a pleasure.)

Wilder described making this movie as "I knew we were in midflight, and there was a nut on the plane."