9780786885039

Your Satisfaction is Guaranteed:

• 30 Day Return Policy
• Bookseller Guarantee
• Privacy & Security Policy

From the early years of anit-Semitism and frustration in Austria to the glory of Hollywood and six Academy Awards, Billy Wilder's life is as fascinating as his movies. Now, drawing on new interviews, current research, and previously inaccessible archives, biographer Ed Sikov offers an endlessly entertaining portrait of one of this century's most influential directors and screenwriters.
Many of Wilder's legendary films are based on his own life struggles, whether it be his early years as a journalist (ACE IN THE HOLE), the rocky road to success (SUNSET BOULEVARD), or his experience in Berlin immediately after WWII (A FOREIGN AFFAIR). This accessible biography illuminates not only Wilder's work but his own intriguing story and the evolution of a character as compelling and complex as any he ever created for the screen.

"All in all, Sikov has painted as good a portrait of Billy Wilder, the man, the artist, the showman, the self-promoter, the profitably prescient art collector and the successful businessman, as we are likely to get from the outside. Indeed, Sikov's is less a still portrait than a blurry, moving picture of an eternally restless human being, racing from country to country, pacing up and down during screenwriting conferences, dashing about from one set to another and from one story idea to another."

Andrew Sarris, New York Times Book Review, 11/27/1998

"This prodigiously researched chronicle charts its subjects rise from Berlin gigolo to Hollywood director, one gifted--and contrarian--enough to cast Ginger Rogers as a 12-year-old nymphet."

New York Times Book Review, 1/10/99

On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder: Search Results