Wilder, Billy (1906-2002), Austrian-born American film director, writer, and producer, whose films range from social satire to realistic drama. He was born Samuel Wilder in Vienna. After moving to Berlin, he worked first as a journalist, then as a screenwriter. During this time he worked on a number of influential films, including Emil und die Detektive (1931; Emil and the Detective). After a stint in France, Wilder emigrated to the United States in 1934 and became an American citizen in 1940. In his early Hollywood years he wrote many successful screenplays, later moving on to directing as well, often in collaboration with the producer-writer Charles Brackett. His films The Lost Weekend (1945), a study of alcoholism, and The Apartment (1960), a comedy of modern morality, won Academy Awards (Oscars) for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. Among Wilder’s other notable films are Double Indemnity (1944), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Stalag 17 (1953), Some Like It Hot (1959), The Fortune Cookie (1966), and The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), some of which he also produced. Later films such as Avanti! (1972), Fedora (1978), and Buddy Buddy (1981) were also concerned with modern values.

A number of Wilder’s screenplays have been adapted for the stage, perhaps most famously in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical of Sunset Boulevard, which opened in 1993.