Biographies: William Wyler - Director

Biographies

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American film director, born in Mülhausen in the province of Alsace on July 1, 1902, to a Swiss father and a German mother. He studied at the École Normale Supérieure Lausanne in Switzerland, then moved to Paris to study at its Higher Conservatory of Music. In 1920, he immigrated to America, and stayed for a period of time in New York, after which he moved to Hollywood. He directed his first movie The Crook Buster (1925), a Western movie. In the following three years, he directed more than 20 short films belonging to the same artistic genre. He directed his first feature film, Anybody Here Seen Kelly? (1928), a comedy movie. Then he directed several melodramatic films, most notably: Hell's Heroes and The Storm in 1930. At the end of the thirties, he became one of the most prominent directors of the United States of America, and almost all of his films at this stage belonged to psychological cinema. During World War II, he directed Mrs. Miniver in 1942 (Oscar winner). He talks about the participation of simple people in the defense of their homeland. He died of a heart attack in Los Angeles, on July 27, 1981.