Billy Wilder – A Retrospective

Billy Wilder was born in Poland to Austrian Jewish parents in the first decade of the 20th century. He moved to Germany where he studied journalism and got involved in screenwriting. Fleeing from Germany with the rise of Hitler, he came to America and became a citizen in 1939 while beginning work in Hollywood as a screenwriter writing such movies as Ninotchka starring Greta Garbo.

He liked to work with a writing partner and developed a working relationship with Charles Brackett with whom ...