Billy Wilder Overview

Originally a reporter in Vienna, Billy Wilder moved to Berlin where in 1929 he broke into filmmaking as a screenwriter. He was a prolific and successful writer, but when Hitler came into power in Germany in 1933, Wilder, who was a Jew, felt it wise to leave. He went to France, where he wrote and directed a film before emigrating to the United States through Mexico. He found out later that during WWII, his mother and stepfather died at the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz under Hitler's regime.... See All