Billy Wilder - Screenwriter

Although primarily remembered for directing some of the greatest films ever made, Billy Wilder was also a much-awarded screenwriter. He started as a writer and went into directing to stop the damage done to his screenplays by other directors. Gifted with an especially cynical strain of dark humor, he was at his best when combining the horrific and the absurd. Here the LAPD fishes a murdered William Holden out of a swimming pool as his dead Voice Over narrates the opening scenes of "Sunset Blvd" with a weary cheerfulness.



At the premiere, Louis B. Mayer, the very powerful head of MGM, yelled across the packed lobby to Wilder that he thought "Sunset Blvd." was a "disgrace". Billy simply yelled back, "Hey, Mayer, fuck you!!"

There is a link to some of Wilder's screenplays in the sidebar.